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Trader Joe's Tuesday: Eggplant Garlic Spread
Trader Joe’s Eggplant Garlic Spread Tastes Like: Kind of like moist, savory baba ganoush… Great With: Spread, as they suggest, on rice crackers or corn cakes. A dip for carrots (my favourite)! Perfect For: This would be a great spread for sandwiches. I used it in a pasta dish with spiralized zucchini and heirloom tomatoes…
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Trader Joe's Tuesday: French Vanilla Coffee
Trader Joe’s French Vanilla Ground Coffee Tastes Like: Nutty, bitter, and dark…just how I like my men. Great With: something sweet at breakfast-time. Wonderful for machines, but perhaps a little too rough-ground for pour-over method. Perfect For: MORNINGS. Must Know: labelled Kosher on the package! Costs: $6.99 – pretty competitive for ground coffee!
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Trader Joe's Tuesday: Coconut Body Butter
Trader Joe’s Coconut Body Butter Tastes Like: DO NOT EAT THIS PRODUCT! Dab a little of the rich, thick-churned creaminess onto your skin and rub it in and you’ll feel good enough to eat. And you’ll smell like a pina colada. Great With: Itchy, dry, or cracked skin. Perfect For: Overshare? My psoriasis breakouts. Dry,…
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Trader Joe’s Tuesday: Green Bean Snack
Trader Joe-san’s Green Beans Tastes Like: Nothing else you’ve ever had. Closest thing I can figure is either veggie straws, or non-cheesy Cheetos Crunchy. Hard and salty outer shell, light and crispy airy insides. Great With: A side for a sandwich, maybe some of the smaller pieces would be nice to adorn a salad or…
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Identity Crisis
So much is said about Identity Crisis when really, so little can be said without revealing major spoilers. Let me introduce you to a couple of very special ladies. First of all, meet Sue Dibny. Adoring wife to Ralph Dibny, The Elongated Man. I’ll let you go ahead and stare at how beautiful that panel…
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Trader Joe’s Tuesday: Yogurt-Covered Raisins
Trader Joe’s Yogurt-Covered Raisins Tastes Like: Soft, supple, yeilding. Sweet and creamy and a little tart. Plump, juicy raisins lushly coated in a thick layer of creamy yogurt. Snackity, snackity heaven. Great With: Dark Chocolate Edamame and almonds as a trail mix, or just by themselves with a cup of tea. Perfect For: Munching in…
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Batman: Hush
Do you have that friend? Of course you do. That friend who can only ever talk about their boyfriend/girlfriend to the utter and complete exclusion of absolutely everything else? In Hush, that friend is Batman. Oh don’t give me “spoiler face,” this shit happens in like the first ten pages. Get over yourself. Which is…
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Trader Joe’s Tuesday: Reduced Guilt Chunky Guacamole
Trader Joe’s Reduced – Guilt Chunky Guacamole Tastes Like: Sour cream and guacamole blended together with strong overtones of red onion. If you blended a perfectly piquant guacamole with a summer cloud, it would be this. Tangy but light and refreshing. Great With: Carrot sticks, probably chips also. I can’t seem to make it last…
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Trader Joe’s Tuesday: Dark Chocolate Edamame
Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Edamame Tastes Like: flaky, savory crunch with a hint of bitter dark chocolate. it almost reminds me of “crunchy” or pretzel M&Ms, but salty and sophisticated. Great With: Trader Joe’s Yogurt-Covered Raisins and salted almonds. The soft sweetness of the raisins is the perfect foil – plus it looks chic in…
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French Milk
A long time ago, somebody (so long ago that I forgot who!) recommended to me that I read French Milk by Lucy Knisley. When I discovered how difficult it is to find, I crossed it off my to-do list until I stumbled across her website and fell in love with her archives. I managed to…
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Trader Joe’s Tuesday: Garlic Chipotle Salsa
Trader Joe’s Garlic Chipotle Salsa Tastes Like: tangy, peppery, garlicky salsa; thin with small chunks (perfect for scooping!). Great With: the usual suspects: chips, carrots, mushrooms. But you’d never guess – it’s amazing for dipping with raw broccoli! The broccoli “hair” catches all the spicy juice and the seasonings offset each other amazingly well! Perfect…
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Batman: The Long Halloween
Sometimes when I’m reading a Batman book, a collection or graphic novel, it can feel like a Very Special Episode. Where random villains show up for no apparent reason but to guest star for three or four pages and remind you that they do, in fact, exist. “Why is the Mad Hatter here? Oh, for…
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Batman: The Black Mirror
You guys you guys you guys! This has been MY FAVOURITE Batman arc yet! Several things make it very unique: SPOILERS AHEAD! 1. Dick Grayson is Batman (not your usual Bruce Wayne) 2. There are several narrators: Dick, Commissioner Gordon, even Harvey Bullock (for a couple of pages) 3. The story covers a few different…
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Drinking at the Movies
In the introduction to her book Drinking at the Movies, cartoonist Julia Wertz asserts that “the last thing New York needs is yet another ‘idealistic young’un moves to the big city and really gets put through the ringer before she beats the odds and makes it big!’ story.” WRONG. Drinking at the Movies is the…
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Batman: Death of the Family
AAAAHHHHH the infamous Batman: Death of the Family !!! As you can see from the cover of this hardbound collection, this is one intense and disgusting ride. It has a dust-cover of a mask of the Joker’s face, covering the actual cover revealing all the viscera because, in case you didn’t know, the Joker has…
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Black Hole
Since it is currently Will Eisner Week, I thought I’d let you guys in on a graphic novel that I just read that absolutely broke my heart: Set in the ’70s in suburban Seattle, Black Hole follows a group of teenagers navigating the tricky nuances of young love and romance during an outbreak of an…
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My Friend Dahmer
OVER the weekend, I devoured Derf Backderf’s My Friend Dahmer – almost quicker than I would have liked! This intimate portrait of the young serial killer is at once sympathetic to his unfortunate circumstances and condemning of his actions. TO be totally honest, I have been having dreams about high school for days since I finished…
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Gadgets and Gizmos
I am a total Luddite. I’ve been using iOS 5 for like, three years! Because of, you know, Cylon threat, and all that. But lately I’ve been – dare I say? – embracing technology? And I’ve discovered some great stuff: My Dynex External Battery is my favourite toy ever. I never run out of battery…
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Day of the Doctor
So, did all my Whovians watch “Day I the Doctor” yet? Because I literally devoted an entire day to the viewing of the 50th Anniversary special and sundry other associated programs. First, the pilot, of course: which originally aired fifty years ago on November 23rd, 1963: “An Unearthly Child.” Followed by the docudrama “An Adventure…
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PSL = Pumpkin Spice LIFE
Fall is my favourite season, and Pumpkin is the reason for the season. I can’t stress enough how much I love pumpkin everything! But here, I’ll try: Mellowcreme Pumpkins: Are the cutest and most perfect Halloween treat! Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks: Celebrating ten years of making New Yorkers absolutely bonkers. I posited the question…