Two things about me: 1) I rarely use the microwave. Ours in fact, has been broken for months. The only button that works is the “add 30 seconds button” that I will occasionally use to warm something up (3 x 30 seconds lol). For the most part the microwave is just large clock in my kitchen. The other thing about me is that both my daughter and I are obsessed with Trader Joe’s. There isn’t one close to me in Clearwater, which is rough since I used to live around the corner from one in New York. We always ponder what we call the “Trader Joe’s Parking Lot Phenomena”. People seem to loose their minds in the excitement of being at a Trader Joe’s and forget that they’re actually driving. Every Trader Joe’s parking lot is a shit show. I’ve seen maneuvers and accidents in these parking lots that are pretty incredible. @TraderJoesRants – anyone have any idea what is happening in these parking lots?

Well yesterday I needed some retail therapy so I drove 40 minutes to get to the nearest Trader Joe’s (in St. Pete). I knew what to expect and was not disappointed. There’s a certain calm that comes over me when every location of a store chain that I love is set up the same way and your not standing in a random isle confused and lost. For $50 I got quite a bounty. One of the items that I was excited about was a bag of frozen mushrooms, which I decided to microwave – without reading the instructions. After a small fire erupted in the microwave, my husband was happy to point out the clearly explained “DO NOT MICROWAVE” instruction on the packaging. Oh well.

This is my bounty:

And this is the small fire…

Anyway, in the end I made a great stir-fry of shrimp over cauliflower rice (sans the mushrooms) with mixed veggies. It was healthy and yummy. The Argentinian Red Shrimp from Trader Joe’s were excellent, I highly recommend.

Shout out to Trader Joe’s in St. Pete that had not only the normal great stuff that we love but a wine selection that was very impressive!