And it's all your fault!!!

It has been a gorgeous day here in north Georgia! After weeks of below normal temps and above normal frozen precipitation, having a bright, sunshiney day with temps in the upper 50's and lower 60's was heaven!

So, this afternoon hubby and I decided to go have Mexican for dinner. And I have to admit, since moving out here in the 'boonies' about 6 1/2 years ago, the main disappointment we have had is the sad lack of really good Mexican food. There are places, but none of them as good as our old favorite, El Torero! So, since it was so pretty, we decided to drive the 30 or so miles to the nearest location of El Torero for dinner. Now the food hadn't changed a bit, it was as delicious as ever; the prices, however, had changed - for the worse! About 1/3 more than we used to pay just a few years ago. But it was still worth it to have some really, really good Mexican food.

Anyway, after we left the restaurant I happened to look toward the other end of the shopping center and see a sign I had never seen before. I immediately went to bouncing up and down and made hubby kind of nervous. Wanna know what it was???

It . . .

 
was . . .
 

 
a Trader Joes!!!
 
Now, before I started blogging, I had never heard of Trader Joe's! And to be honest, I just assumed there were none in our area, but apparently I was wrong, and there are about 1/2 dozen Atlanta area locations.
 
 

 
Well, of course we had to go in and check it out. we grabbed one of their dinky little red buggies (our first indication it wasn't our normal supermarket) and made our way inside.


It was nice! A little 'disorderly', but that could have been because it was 6:30 pm on a Saturday night and full of people!  There is a huge emphasis on natural and organic products - no surprise there, and there was quite a variety of things from which to choose.  So, hubby and I made our way down one aisle and up another, picking up a few things to bring home with us.  What did we get?  Well, here goes!

There was this . . .

Doesn't it look scrumptious?  Trust me, it smells even better!  I've already decided I'll have some toasted with butter and orange marmalade for breakfast tomorrow!  And it was $1.99 - not bad for a loaf of bread as large as this one is!

And this, because we needed OJ.  It had nothing to do with the fact it was Trader Joe's, I promise!  We drink a lot of OJ in this house, and this will hold us over until I can go do the 'big' shopping early next week.
 

 
These were called 'cocktail' grapefruits, and that intrigued hubby, so we got one for each of us.  We like grapefruit, and they are good for you, so there!
 

 
 
And there was this!  I needed a big bottle of EVOO - I use a fair amount of it, and this was a good price, so I got it.  The grape tomatoes and fresh mozzarella are for THIS which I intend to make one day next week, with alterations.  Instead of eggplant I think I may use zucchini, onions and red peppers, all roasted a bit first.  Sounds delicious!  Hubby wants ham, so maybe his half will have ham and mine won't.  I'm not really a 'ham on my pizza' kind of gal!
 
Now, don't go all goofy on me here, but there was also this . . .
 

 
It's a pretty brown paper bag with a wine bottle on the front.
 

 
And a real bottle of wine inside!  Now, we aren't wine 'gourmands' at ALL!  We like what we like and that's what we get.  And to be honest, we may drink wine 6-8 times a year, so it's obviously not big on our list of things to 'study'.  But this bottle looked interesting and was a decent price, so we got it.  It is now sitting in our fridge chillin' until we decide it's time to try it out.  And it's not just 'a' wine, it's . . .
 

 
 . . . a sparklng wine, so how bad can it be - really?
 
 

 
 
 
Overall I loved Trader Joe's, but it's just too far away from our home to visit on a regular basis, and to be honest I prefered our Harry's/Whole Food by a mile. (Originally 'Harry's Farmers Market' eventually bought out by Whole Foods)  But it was fun, and I just LOVE the 99 cent tote bag that we bought to bring our purchase home in - I'll be using that for 'other' things, I am sure!
 
So, do you have a Trader Joes?  And what is your #1 favorite product from there???  Tell us, please!  Becky