The I Love Trader Joe's Party Cookbook: Delicious Recipes and Entertaining Ideas Using Only Foods and Drinks from the World's Greatest Groce

By Cherie Mercer Twohy

FABULOUS PARTIES MADE EASY THANKS TO TRADER JOE’S®

It’s a snap to make your next party a hit! One quick stop at your local Trader Joe’s and you’ll have everything you need to make the mouth-watering, crowd-pleasing recipes in this book. The I Love Trader Joe’s® Party Cookbook serves up over 150 delicious treats and 28 fantastic party ideas, including:

•BAKED GINGER-BOURBON PEARS
to welcome New Year’s Day in style

•STUFFED SUBS
to kick off your Super Bowl bash

•TROPICAL HURRICANES
for a wild and fun Mardi Gras

•CIDER-GLAZED CORNED BEEF & CABBAGE
for an extra-lucky St. Patrick’s Day

•POMEGRANARITAS
to put the fiesta in your Cinco de Mayo

•PORK WITH MUSTARD CREME SAUCE
for a tres bonne French Fete

•MOJITO FRUIT SALAD
for a refreshing Mother’s Day brunch

•TORTA DELLA NONNA
to give your Sicilian Idyll that homemade touch

•BUTTERNUT SQUASH & GREEN BEAN CURRY
to spice up your Passage to India dinner

CRANBERRY-GINGER PINOT NOIR SAUCE
for a bright and festive Thanksgiving feast

TRADER JOE’S® is a registered trademark of Trader Joe’s® Company and is used here for informational purposes only. This book is independently authored and published and is not affiliated or associated with Trader Joe's® Company in any way. Trader Joe’s® Company does not authorize, sponsor, or endorse this book or any of the information contained herein.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ulysses Press
• Release date: Nov 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9781569758847

Reviews for The I Love Trader Joe's Party Cookbook

[neringros · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Nifty little book!I got it through the early reviewers program. I already love Trader Joe's, and there are a couple of stores close to where I live, but in most recipes you can use ingredients from any supermarket, which is nice. The recipes are clear, easy to follow, with times for prep, cook, etc., though photos are mostly hit or miss. Some recipes could definitely benefit from a good photo.I've made several vegan recipes and liked them. Cowgirl Caviar is a hit in our house - so delicious! Would recommend, for sure.

[amy1705 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a great book for anyone who loves to entertain and who enjoys shopping at Trader Joes. It gives you tips, tricks and shortcuts to wonderful tasting food using the products available at the most unusual grocery store chain in the US.

[collsers_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Overall, I enjoyed this cookbook. It is well-illustrated, with full color photographs for most of the recipes (not all, however). I appreciated the number of vegetarian and gluten-free recipes, and there was definitely a variety of cuisines--all sorts of internationally inspired recipes, as well as unique desserts, beverages, apps, and entrees. However, and I know this is a bad thing to criticize, but I felt like a lot of the recipes relied TOO heavily on prepared TJ's items. For example, a mango-chutney chicken sounded great, but then you read the recipe and it just involves pouring a bottle of TJ's mango chutney on top of the chicken. Not exactly something I needed a cookbook to tell me how to do. You can also definitely tell what the author's favorite items are (or perhaps items TJs is trying to push?)...seemed like a quarter of the recipes featured wasabi mayonnaise. There are definitely recipes we will make, but I'm not sure I will buy other cookbooks in this series.

[pensivecat · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Great looking cookbook; puts you in the mood for a party. Some of the recipes I'd like to try out and some I'd run from - but I'm picky in the worst possible way. What I really got out of this book was ideas for party planning, and a sudden urge to run down to my nearest Trader Joe's.

[spacecommuter · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Right off, I'll explain what makes this a "Party" cookbook instead of a regular cookbook - these recipes are rich and delicious, and very high-calorie items. This cookbook takes a lot of things that taste great on their own - grilled cheese, TJ's nearly magical Israeli cous cous, brownies - and cranks them up to 11. Beware making most of these dishes when you're home alone, like I did to test the cookbook. Great features of the cookbook: Where possible, it includes directions for how to make the recipe vegetarian and vegan (most of the time, this just means swapping butter for oil or a similar small change). To my amazement, when I took the book to my Trader Joe's, I found every ingredient I needed, in quantities the cookbook called for. Though the book was written by an independent writer who happens to love Trader Joe's, I wouldn't be surprised if reps from TJ's looked it over before publcation to make sure the ingredients matched their stock. When a recipe is Gluten-Free, Vegetarian, Vegan or can be made ahead of time, it notes that under the ingredients list. These recipes are way beyond daily food items - they really do resemble the types of amuse bouche you see at high-end restaurants and catered affairs, and yet none of the recipes looks hard to do. Drawbacks: No calorie or nutritional information, though it's just as well since you'd start to worry about your guests' health if you made them the Croque Monsier (p. 68) using butter, milk, an egg yolk, 1 cup of Gruyere cheese and four slices of ham. Also, the "prep time" line in each recipe is a bald-faced lie. It assumes you did all the chopping, browning, peeling and draining before your guests got there and all you need is a few minutes to throw everything into a pot during the party. We all know this never happens. I made three of the dishes. I was going to try to make a fourth, the chicken chili (page 30), but I've trashed my kitchen and am calling an end to the experiment before I got there. The Israeli Couscous (p 45). Let me tell you about Trader Joe's 8-ounce box of Israeli Couscous - it is already perfect. Just bring home some chicken noodle soup from your favorite deli and throw a fistfull in the soup on the stove until it thickens into a pasta dish and let your head explode while you eat it. But if you insist on following a recipe, I like this one (cook in chicken broth and add grilled red onion, sliced olives and a little butter) because it doesn't mess up the magic that's already in the box. It was delicious...if I find myself craving couscous and the deli isn't open, I'll probably make this again. Grilled Asparagus with Cheater's Saffron Aioli (p. 92). Curiously, the book never explains why it's "Cheater's" aioli. I had to spruce this one up after I made it according to the recipe. The saffron, lemon and garlic didn't show up and it was mostly mayonnaise at first. I ended up adding a lot of Trader Joe's agave nectar, which I had in the cabinet and stirring in the optional mustard to make a salad-dressing style sauce. The mustard completely overpowered the asparagus at that point, though at least the sauce was palatable. I think asparagus was the wrong vegetable to try with the sauce, and though the recipe calls for a "whisk" it should specify that this needs to be fluffy and airy at the end so that the asparagus doesn't get soaked by all the mayo. Also, I can't figure out for the life of me why you need 1 cup of mayo for 12 ounces of asparagus. Finally, the Guinness and Coffee Cupcakes (page 79). Don't be afraid of the Guinness - it adds an awesome caramelish, coffeeish flavor to the batter that tastes and smells nothing like beer. I can't even detect it in the cupcake at the end. My cakes came out dry, which might be because I left them in the full 25 minutes that the recipe called for and they had clearly been set for a few minutes. They should just be brownies, given the ingredients, but they did have a cakey consistency. The icing, however, was a miracle - it calls for marscapone, butter and coffee and the taste is pitch-perfect tiramisu in icing form! To get the color in the picture, use real coffee. I used the Trader Joe's instant coffee crystals because I had them on hand for another project, and they speckled the frosting like vanilla bean and gave it a fantastic espresso punch. Honestly, I think the cakes would turn out better if you kept the icing as it is but used a (gasp) duncan hines cake mix for the bottoms. They'd win contests at that point. At least a third of the recipes in this book caught my eye and made my mouth water. This really is packed with stuff most TJ addicts would not only enjoy serving, but stuff we can all actually make without too much trouble. I'm surprised I liked it as much as I did, but it's a very well done cookbook!

[sheherazahde · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a glossy book with lots of pretty pictures. Not surprisingly a lot of the ingredients are Trader Joe's brand, but you can probably find substitutions at any upscale grocery store. The recipes are collected into menus based on holidays and seasons, the recipes include alcoholic drinks. This book would be good for someone who already shops at an upscale grocery store (such as Trader Joe's) and likes to quality, fresh, seasonal ingredients.

[booklizard_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received this book through the Early Reviewers program. I haven't tried making any of the recipes yet, but there are a few I want to try like the Penne Di Pistache, the Racks of Lamb with Panko-Pistachio Crust and Dried Cherry Sauce, and the Watermelon, Feta, and Olive Salad. Although it's called the Party Cookbook, it's more of a dinner party cookbook. Most of the recipes serve 4, which makes it easy to do the math if you're cooking for 2 or 8. The cookbook is arranged to follow special occasions throughout the year and it takes advantage of seasonal items. Nutritional information is not included, but I suppose you are expected to indulge at parties, right? The biggest complaint I have with the book is the misleading "Prep Time." One of the things I like about Trader Joe's is the convenient prepared foods they carry. One recipe lists the prep time as 15 minutes but it has 13 ingredients including a pound of chopped potatoes and a pound of peeled and deveined shrimp. Maybe a TV chef who had everything measured and laid out for him in prep bowls could put it together in 15 minutes, but I don't see that happening in the real world. A little more accuracy would help with the planning for the party.

[anniehidalgo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This cookbook is, of course, primarily designed to sell you Trader Joe's food. So, most recipes include things like "Trader Joe's Mango Ginger Chutney" or a type of Trader Joe's seasoning, or something like that. Which does not mean you can't make them work perfectly well without Trader Joe's, if you're a little creative. Still, that's something to be aware of. It's made up of recipes organized into themed menus. Some chapters even include a list of ready-made foods that fit the theme that the store carries, which I personally like. Sometimes you feel lazy, but still want to throw a party. Or sometimes you're up for making one recipe from scratch, but maybe not a whole spread. I found that the recipes I tried got progressively better. Literally. The first one I tried, Mexican Bread Pudding, while good, is probably not $20 worth of good (what you've invested after buying a new bottle of Kahlua). The last recipe: chicken with some kind of a mango-ginger-Dijon mustard sauce, was awesome. I found that the easy international menus were a definite strong point. I love Indian food, but cooking traditional cuisine from scratch is a little intimidating. I will be using this cookbook again, definitely.

[theboltchick · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was received through the early reviewers program, and unfortunately got delayed. Luckily, it was worth the wait. I absolutely love Trader Joes, and couldn't wait for more creative ideas using their products. (Although if you don't live near a TJ's, most recipes use ingredients that can be purchased at any major supermarket.)The recipes are clear and easy to follow. They include prep time and cook time, and appropriate recipes are clearly labeled "vegan" and "gluten free". I quickly prepared the "Cowgirl Caviar" tonight, and it was delicious! I think the only weak point is the illustration. Where a recipe is photographed, it is done remarkably well. I just wish there was a picture for each recipe. All in all this is a book I am sure I will turn to repeatedly. Definitely a recommended purchase!

[mrfletcher-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Trader Joe's is a store I love to shop at and when I saw this book I had high hopes for the tone of the book and the recipes included. Would it be a fun read? Could I make the food? Could I get the ingrediants? The answer to all of these questions is YES!The first thing that struck me was how nicely photographed the food is. The images are clear and make the food look delicious. The font types used with the images and the recipes reflects the hawaiian shirt/beach theme you get in the stores. Cute and interesting without being sacharine sweet and annoying.The recipes cover a large choice of foods from meats & seafoods to desserts. While the idea is to make the dishes with food you buy at Trader Joe's, you can easily make these recipes with items you can purchase anywhere. This makes this "branded" cookbook far more useful than many of this ilk that are out on the market. You will always be able to make the recipes even if you can't purchase the specific ingrediants at a local TJ's.Over all I like the food presented here and it is a cheery alternative to make the family dinner from. I would recommend this to Trader Joe's fans and just anyone looking for good & tasty dishes to try.

[adamps_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A creative way to look at a unique store. This book covers all sorts of easy party favorites for those looking for a twist. Most recipes are easy for the at home and busy chef. The book does leans too heavy on recipes from the sea for my tastes, but most things can be tweaked for individual preferences. Unfortunately, many of the recipes are reminders of how many things come and go at TJs and how many great finds eventually disappear from the shelves.