The lure of groceries and the cookbook book club.

You know how you go to the grocery store needing just that one thing and then you find yourself packing two overstuffed bags of food in your car and wonder how you got to that point?   Today I went to  Trader Joe's for flour...  

I also stopped by Fiction Addiction to pick up Basic to Brilliant Y'all: 150 Refined Southern Recipes and Ways to Dress them Up for Company by Virginia Willis.  It's the quarterly cookbook selection for the new monthly Cookbook Book Club I joined.   Every month we are assigned a category (appetizer, main course, dessert, etc) from the book, and we sign up to bring one of the dishes for everyone to share. A structured potluck, if you will. I am extraordinarily excited. Go here for more info.

While I was there, Melissa told me Dot Frank (Author of Folly Beach, Sullivan's Island, Bulls Island....) has a new book coming out mid-June.  Yea me!  I wrote an article about her last summer for Greenville Journal (click here to see it) and was able to interview her and sit by her at a luncheon... starstruck me.  I adore reading her books on our Isle of Palms trips during the summer and usually wait to actually buy her books from the Barnes and Noble on Mt. Pleasant... it's sort of a tradition now.  She's written a ton of books! 

I bought Doughnuts for Amy by John Malik at the bookstore too.  I was hungry and there were donuts on the cover and the rest was a blur.  I need another book like I need a bad cold, but the author is a chef and owned 33 Liberty in Greenville, so there. He has a cool blog! I'm gonna read this book and then see if I can get some face time to share with you folks.

Here are my Trader Joe's finds.  

Is anyone else out there a crazy cup person?  I have five cups in my kitchen at the moment that have touched my lips this morning alone: coffee, coffee to go, Diet Dr. pepper, water, another coffee and then an iced coffee.  What the heck?! I've only been up, operational and actually physically in my house for four hours today! Must work on this problem. 

The iced coffee is incredible. Trader Joes had these new instant coffee packets, pre-sweetened with creamer and a bit of mocha in there.    Mix with 4oz of hot water (super sweet but incredibly tasty alone..then adapted)...mix in 1/2 cup of milk and fill with ice.  Oh my. Seriously gooooood iced coffee drink and will now be a staple in my house during summer.

I've heard raves about the Speculoos Cookie Butter.  Raving wasn't good enough. It's has the texture of peanut butter (but isn't made of peanuts), but tastes like cinnamon graham crackers...  There should have been an emergency announcement broadcast on every station in the world that this stuff is AMAZING!   

Last thing, I promise.  Milk Chocolate Covered Potato Chips.  I was inspired to make these myself years ago after seeing them in a chocolate shop in downtown Easley, South Carolina. They were fairly easy and so sweetandsaltilicious.  For a store bought substitute, these are pretty good.  Tons of smooth chocolate and salty enough, but the taters are lost in the thick coating... needs thicker or larger chips.  I am taking these with me to see Casablanca on the big screen tonight. (Yes Kathy, I will share.) 

That's it!  Your must have list at Trader Joe's just grew by a mile. 

I hope to see some of you at the Fiction Addiction Cookbook Book Club!