Thursday, November 21, 2013

Adventures in Shopping at Trader Joe's: Sarasota, Florida


When I lived in the Northeast, I had the good fortune that my favorite specialty food store, Trader Joe's, had two locations within five miles of my home. When I moved to Florida, however, I was disappointed to learn that the closest Trader Joe's store was 50 miles away in Sarasota. Ugh!

With Thanksgiving fast approaching, I decided to pack a cooler and set off by car for Sarasota with a long shopping list. Here it was, a Wednesday afternoon, and when I arrived at Trader Joe's, I was shocked there wasn't a parking spot to be found in the lot. You'd think they were giving the food away! I circled and circled, until lo and behold, ta-da...a space finally opened up for me.

It was good to be back, pushing a cart up and down the narrow aisles of TJ's. I stocked up some of my favorites (including bacon-wrapped scallops), learned they were sold out of pumpkin butter (drats!), tasted food samples (dee-lish!) and also purchased a lot of specialty items geared for the holiday season.

My favorite find from this trip was Trader Joe's Pumpkin Cranberry Scone mix. I whipped up a trial batch for a gathering this past weekend. Folks there admitted that they were not "crazy about" pumpkin, but they gobbled these up. They were a cinch to make: add an egg, melted butter and milk to the mix and drop by heaping spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet. Yes, that easy. After baking at 375 for about 15 minutes, viola! They were the hit of the day, and I am definitely making another batch of these for Thanksgiving.

Visiting the Trader Joe's in Sarasota was certainly worth the trip. And I'm pleased to report that two new Trader Joe's locations are in the works for South Tampa and St. Petersburg, Florida for 2014! So much closer...Hooray!!


Happy Thanksgiving!