539: Trader Joe's Favorites

Molly 0:04

I'm Molly. And I'm Matthew and this is spilled milk, the show where we cook something delicious. Eat it all and you can't have

Matthew Amster-Burton 0:10

any and today we're talking about Trader Joe's favorites.

Molly 0:13

Yes meaning that it's our favorite things from Trader Joe's

Matthew Amster-Burton 0:16

Trader Joe's personally favorites. Yeah. And this episode was requested by literally everybody who lives within Trader Joe's range. I think probably there will be a number of international listeners who are nowhere near a Trader Joe's and possibly don't know what it is. So we should give like a little was trying to describe what Trader Joe's is,

Molly 0:36

will you do that because I'm crunching okay.

Matthew Amster-Burton 0:39

So Trader Joe's is a is a grocery chain that really mostly does like their own branded products and is really heavy on like snacks and frozen food. Not that not that that's all they do. But that's a big part of what they do. I mean, you could do all of your groceries. Yeah, they do carry greater job produce and meats. But it's not not the same kind of selection you would get at even a fairly small supermarket. You know, people people who get excited about Trader Joe's it's because of something something you get in the the cookie section or the chip section or the freezer case. Yes. Yeah, I think there's some good refrigerated items. Also.

Molly 1:18

I think it's a German I think that's right. But I think of it as originating on on the coasts i Yeah, at least in California. I

Matthew Amster-Burton 1:26

definitely first heard of it in California that I remember like it came to Portland in like the early to mid 90s. Okay, because my parents got into it.

Molly 1:36

Oh, yeah. Tell me tell me your memory lane, your T J's memory lane.

Matthew Amster-Burton 1:39

Yeah. So my Today's memory lane. I remember like, my parents starting to shop there. Like shortly before I left for college, or maybe around the time I left for college, which would have been 93. And then I definitely knew of it well enough by the time why for the show, Laurie and I moved to Seattle in 96 that we like look to see if there was a Trader Joe's in the Seattle area, and I think the nearest one was in Kirkland. So we would drive over to the east side and like stock up on some favorites from Trader Joe's.

Molly 2:07

Wow. Okay. I'm curious to hear what those favorites might have been. But hold I remember a couple of them. Okay. I did not grow up anywhere where there were Trader Joe's. There is now a Trader Joe's in my hometown and we even Yeah, it's Nicholas Hills Plaza. It's where Crescent market used to write and I have to say, I mean, I love Trader Joe's but I wish they were still aggressive.

Matthew Amster-Burton 2:27

Yeah, of course, like Trader Joe's does not have a suit of armor. No, they carpet very light nautical theme.

Molly 2:35

So my first awakening or my awakening to Trader Joe's came through visits to my Aunt Tina, who lived in Northern California. I think that maybe it was the Trader Joe's in San Rafael, California. I want to say

Matthew Amster-Burton 2:51

oh, yeah, we all know that Trader Joe's.

Molly 2:54

I remember Tina was really into this like wild rice blend that they sold. They're called California Rice trilogy. Sure. Yes, I remember this and I remember my mom bringing home California Rice trilogy in her suitcase and I remember I never liked it. And that was my first introduction to Trader Joe's it was this thing that existed in California and they made a rice blend that my mom was really into and I was not

Matthew Amster-Burton 3:24

okay. Do you remember when you started like having things from Trader Joe's that you liked?

Molly 3:29

I think that it was probably around the time I went off to college. I don't remember going to Trader Joe's when I was in college I don't either sure there was one nearby and God what a great place to go if you are in college totally cheap snack food like ready to eat meals that are really tasty

Matthew Amster-Burton 3:47

Yeah. Oh by the way we should specify this episode is not sponsored by Trader Joe's producer Abby put a note on the agenda and said can we get some of that sweet sweet Trader Joe's money for doing this episode and we cannot

Molly 3:58

know Trader Joe's does not want to need their money. Anyway, I think I first became interested in Trader Joe's as a grad student maybe I think

Matthew Amster-Burton 4:09

that as a research concern

Molly 4:14

when I was living on my own in an apartment in Seattle going to grad school there was a Trader Joe's on Roosevelt and there still is yeah parking was terrible

Matthew Amster-Burton 4:25

that's that's one of the only places that I've like crashed my car into another car. Yeah, that parking lot was literally time ago cuz I haven't had a car since 1998 that parking

Molly 4:37

lot was literally like trying to park a full size car inside a shoe box. Yeah, like it was so crazy. I remember going there and I think I even remember like on a Saturday back in grad school when I didn't have a spouse or a child and and like was just avoiding homework. I remember the good old days I remember walking from my apartment to Trader Joe's and back Yeah, which was Quite a schlep, it was like, a couple miles. Yeah. Anyway, you know, just to fill the time. You remember filling the time do

Matthew Amster-Burton 5:07

Yeah. So yeah nowadays we have a Trader Joe's like 15 minute walk from us on Capitol Hill. And so we go fairly often and and mostly get like frozen snack foods sometimes sometimes bagged salad mixes sometimes like stuff when when Laurie was going into the office, she would she would get lunch different Trader Joe's like the individual hummus packs. I'm presenting here a selection of some of my favorites and and you brought one of your favorites which oil yeah, there's gonna be a lot of eating during this episode. Yeah, it's unavoidable.

Molly 5:42

Okay, well, let's talk back and forth doing are going to our favorite.

Matthew Amster-Burton 5:45

Yeah, I was gonna say one more bit of memory lane is that like, Trader Joe's is notorious for discontinuing your favorite product. And like to two of my favorites that I remember getting at the Kirkland Trader Joe's back in the 90s were the frozen kung pao chicken. They do, I think still have a frozen kung pao chicken but this was a different one like an individual sized one. Love that. And the granny smith jarred apple juice.

Molly 6:08

Ooh,

Matthew Amster-Burton 6:09

it was so good.

Molly 6:11

You know, this reminds me my Aunt Tina loved their jarred Gravenstein applesauce trader. Yes,

Matthew Amster-Burton 6:17

we used to get that two special first crush. Oh, it was

Molly 6:21

yes. Oh, that's great. You never forget your first exactly. Okay, well, so Matthew, one of the things that I love at Trader Joe's that is sometimes there and sometimes not, is the California slab apricot. It's a dried apricot. It's usually the blended variety. Especially the ones are super flavorful, super tangy. I can taste it right now even though you didn't bring any and they're Salford so they're bright orange lump. Oh, they're plump but yeah, it's it's like an apricot that's been cut in half. I think that's the slab idea. It's not dried apricots are often whole pitted apricot. Yeah, no, this is much slab here. This is sloppier than that. They are the best dried apricots you will ever have. I don't want unsulphured dried apricots. I don't want to hear about it. I want to eat Trader Joe's California slab apricots the rest of my try

Matthew Amster-Burton 7:16

Sulphuric more foods to see if it makes them plumper and just

Molly 7:20

Yeah. Okay, what about you?

Matthew Amster-Burton 7:22

Okay, so I'm gonna start with the frozen Indian curries and particularly the lamb vindaloo the fiery chicken curry and the chana masala chickpea curry they are so spicy so spicy so good a teenager the show December takes them in their lunch pretty often, like puts them in a thermos. I'm delighted to have one of these for lunch anytime.

Molly 7:42

You know, after you told me about these a couple years ago, I went out and bought like one of each. And I have to say I love spicy food. And these were almost too spicy for me. Interesting. Okay, even the ones that are not I mean, I know a bitter Louis spice. Yeah, but even the ones that are not labeled as being spicy or whatnot. Were very spicy but the butter chicken is not that spicy. I found the butter chicken to still be spicy. And I was like what is going on here? Anyway, all this to say they are also extremely delicious.

Matthew Amster-Burton 8:12

Oh yeah. So I love those. You're up what? Okay.

Molly 8:13

All right. I'm gonna I'm going to talk about an item that we actually have on the table here. Trader Joe's Swiss milk chocolate bar with 30% whole hazelnuts. So this is always in the freezer aisle. You know how above the freezer aisle they always have like, some dry goods like crackers, chocolate cookies and stuff. Hold on Matthew I'm still talking you keep chewing so you will recognize this it is a large chocolate bar that comes in a like a aquamarine blue and white cardstock package so yeah, that Swiss milk chocolate with 30% whole hazelnuts

Matthew Amster-Burton 8:50

yeah it says taste of the Swiss Alps on there. I usually find them like at the cash register oh well impulse buy item and I impulse buy them there's just so good it's so good. It is so good. Like if you leave me alone with one of these it's going to get ugly. Did you

Molly 9:06

buy any more bars than just this one? All right, your turn episode is so fun we get to eat all the good stuff.

Matthew Amster-Burton 9:15

Okay, this was one I was disappointed they were out of when I went yesterday a lotay corn chip dippers it's it's like Fritos scoops kind of size style corn chips with with a Mexican corn inspired spice blend.

Molly 9:30

So does it have some sort of like buttermilk powder or something going on in there?

Matthew Amster-Burton 9:34

Yeah, like like, you know, lime, lime juice powder, chili powder, like and a little, a little bit of sweetness to them also like these. They are so good. And do

Molly 9:45

you eat them on their own or do you just on their own? Okay. Oh, that sounds so good. Okay, the next item this is not a Trader Joe's branded item. But I just want to point it out that Trader Joe's carries Kerrygold butter, right? Oh yes, I was For a second I just had a no, you're absolutely right. Okay, for a second I thought it was PLU grab, which they may be carrying. I think maybe they have had that as well. But anyway, they almost always have Kerrygold butter and carry gold is such delicious butter as we all know, I hope. And it's always like two if not $3 cheaper at Trader Joe's than it is at my regular grocery store. So Kerrygold butter Trader Joe's. Yes. All right,

Matthew Amster-Burton 10:25

my next pick is Trader Joe's pork belly. It's fully cooked, it's in the refrigerator section. And you can like slice it and cook it like bacon, but it's not. It's not smoked or cured. It's just it's just like cooked and then vacuum packed. And so it's very well seasoned, but, but just with salt pretty much. It's

Molly 10:44

so interesting. That's something that you would not find at a mainstream US market,

Matthew Amster-Burton 10:49

but it is really good, like so just crisped up like for a little breakfast treat.

Molly 10:53

Oh, wow.

Matthew Amster-Burton 10:55

So you have it in the fridge. I could get some going if your interest is that like over where the bacon is? It's um, I feel like it's to the right if this is helpful. I think it's closer to like where the hummus is. Oh,

Molly 11:10

okay, I got it. Alright. We're going to travel over to the snack aisle to talk about the pretzels that we've been eating. This morning. As I was making my coffee Jun asked me what topics we were taping today. And I told her we were doing this one and she said are you going to talk about the honey wheat pretzel sticks? And I said I've totally forgotten. She insisted that I bring over our bag of honey wheat pretzels. So glad she did. She also said Don't forget to bring it home. Anyway, we always keep these around. I always buy like two bags of these at a time because they're the perfect thing to like, you know, throw in your kids lunch as a snack or to like throw in a backpack if you're going hiking. It's like a really delicious pretzel.

Matthew Amster-Burton 11:54

Yeah, they're it's they've got a good diameter to them. They're not like too thin or too thick. They're not they're not like so crunchy they'll like take take out a tooth because I know how you feel about dental emergencies.

Molly 12:05

They're not as as like dark baked as some other pretzels that I like However, they still taste delicious and they're definitely on the sweet side. Now I have a question. Oh, they're so good. Who is this? God?

Matthew Amster-Burton 12:18

I don't know who this guy is this there's a very disturbing man. Oh,

Molly 12:23

hold on this it says loot vague. Trader Joe's head Pretzel Guy says that this dumb pretzels trick can only be done with our oven baked honey wheat pretzel sticks and a pair of later Hosen Okay, and what he's doing is he's balancing a stick like vertically on his index finger.

Matthew Amster-Burton 12:39

The other thing that Trader Joe's is known for is is like bad puns and like silly product names and they publish a newsletter that's full of terrible jokes.

Molly 12:50

Anyway, yeah, so Trader Joe's honey wheat pretzel sticks.

Matthew Amster-Burton 12:53

Alright, my next pick which I don't have here is the southwestern chopped salad I think Trader Joe's bagged salad mixes are quite good they had a spicy one called the go to Jiang salad. That was my favorite that they discontinued just because they don't like me. So

Molly 13:09

so wait to be clear. This is in like the the raw vegetable section not in like the like grab and go salad section.

Matthew Amster-Burton 13:17

Right. So this is this is like a salad kit. Okay, with and it's so it's got like a bag of dressing and like little crispy tortilla strips and little cheese cubes. Hmm. And like, you know, it's never something I think of it really but then like whenever we get it I eat like pretty much the whole bag.

Molly 13:34

Wow. Okay, I hadn't even thought of that. I think I've had the southwestern chop salad. Yeah, in the prepared version, and that was delicious. Okay, I assume it's similar. The other thing I want to talk about is so not It's not far from the honey wheat pretzel sticks. It's also on the like savory bagged treats. Aisle. It is the peanut butter filled pretzels. They come in a like a royal blue and white bag. And you can see them through there. They're like nugget shaped pretzels. And they're filled with peanut butter. Now I think this is what a Trader Joe's most famous items. Yes. Do not buy the unsalted ones. Right. That is what unless you have to right but if this is a truly perfect product, have

Matthew Amster-Burton 14:19

you tried the almond butter version? No, I have it. I saw I saw them there. Yeah, I have mixed feelings about almond butter in general.

Molly 14:28

I went through a real almond butter period in grad school actually, uh, now when I list it as a research concern. When I taste it, it just tastes like grad school. Yeah. Okay, now, I know what I mean. Anyway, peanut butter filled pretzels.

Matthew Amster-Burton 14:44

Alright, my next pick is dark chocolate covered caramels. This is one of it been one of my Trader Joe's favorites for a long time. If they discontinue it. I will be very sad. This is a super chewy caramel. I'll warn you

Molly 14:56

is this usually on the frozen food aisle? Yeah. Oh Ah, this looks like a little like BonBon comes in a clamshell type thing. Oh, I've never had this. I've had the peanut butter.

Matthew Amster-Burton 15:09

Peanut Butter Cups are good, of course. But this is my favorite candy item.

Molly 15:12

Hmm. And she's really good. Mm hmm.

Matthew Amster-Burton 15:15

Now, here's the thing you can do with these if you're a maniac. You can put him in them in the microwave for like seven seconds. Very satisfying, huh? Okay, what is this called again? Dark chocolate covered caramels.

Molly 15:28

I would have never thought to buy this. Now is delicious.

Matthew Amster-Burton 15:33

Mm hmm. Somewhat sometimes when someone like in my family wants to give me a gift that they know all appreciate dark chocolate covered care mouths. Oh, yeah, yeah, but I mean, it glues your mouth together for a while. So if there's someone who's like really yappin and you need to and you need to like shut that mouth. Like just stick a caramel that's why your family gives it to you. Oh, wait, I just I've just now making this connection. Do you

Molly 15:55

usually cut them in half like you just did? No, because that was really satisfying.

Matthew Amster-Burton 16:00

No, I usually like to eat it into bites. Okay, okay.

Molly 16:03

I bet it does a nice like stringing thing Sure does. That caramel was also the perfect texture. Yes. Oh, that's delicious. Wow

Matthew Amster-Burton 16:21

All right, what do you got for me next,

Molly 16:22

this next one is kind of boring. But as we all know, from our many holiday baking episodes, I do a lot of holiday baking. The Trader Joe's not aisle is fantastic. So

Matthew Amster-Burton 16:38

Caravelle might throw it but it's worth it.

Molly 16:40

You know, nuts can be expensive. The nuts at Trader Joe's are always like reliably high quality not rancid and they're reasonably priced. So I always buy my nuts for holiday baking at Trader Joe's. Yeah,

Matthew Amster-Burton 16:52

if you ever want a bag of macadamia nuts and don't want to pay like $16 for it, Trader Joe's is the place to go.

Molly 16:59

Even raw almonds, which I mean and the other thing is these things are not like dirt cheap there, but they are just more reasonable than they would be elsewhere. Sure.

Matthew Amster-Burton 17:08

All right. I've got a couple of frozen and refrigerator items. I'm going to grab a couple of different ice cream sandwiches.

Molly 17:16

I'm on episode just I should say that we're recording this at like 11am on a Saturday. Happy weekend, Matthew. I'm out close up this bag of honey we pretzels. Oh wow. We're eating entire ice cream sandwiches. Oh, it's so good to be a grown up. Yeah. Okay. Wait, can I eat this before it starts to melt? Oh my god. What is this? Perfect. Mm hmm. Matthew, what is this? This looks like an Oreo. Yeah, with like, so you can picture double stuff. This is like quintuple stuff. But what's in the middle is actually ice cream.

Matthew Amster-Burton 17:56

These are the Trader Joe's mini mint mouthfuls ice cream sandwiches is like mint chocolate chip ice cream between two Oreo styles. This is so good, huh?

Molly 18:05

I'm so excited by this. Why didn't you put this on the agenda? I forgot. This is so good.

Matthew Amster-Burton 18:12

Are you saying I'm not allowed to talk about it? Mm. Hmm. It's like the perfect size because it's literally a Oreo sized Ice Cream Sandwich.

Molly 18:20

The other thing is that the cookie parts of it look like the wafer cookie of an Oreo. They're soft, like the chocolate part of a vanilla ice cream sandwich.

Matthew Amster-Burton 18:31

And when I say they're the perfect size, I mean, they're the perfect size to eat alongside like seven other snacks and hold on Minnie. Minnie Minnie Mouse false.

Molly 18:39

Okay. Oh, wow. Oh, yes. Oh, yeah.

Matthew Amster-Burton 18:45

Okay, ready for another ice cream sandwich? Yeah, kind of small pieces. Oh, this

Molly 18:49

is so fun. Okay,

Matthew Amster-Burton 18:51

Mm hmm.

Molly 18:54

Oh, you're no good. Oh, great. Why didn't we do this episode before

Matthew Amster-Burton 18:59

I was afraid it was gonna come off like a Trader Joe's Add Widget is showing off as given that we're not getting we're just not getting paid for it. But we get to sit together and eat a bunch of like snacks. Oh, this this is so good. This is one of my absolute all time favorite items. It is the brownie coffee ice cream sandwich. I do find that like the chips the chocolate chips in the brownie. Like I kind of think it'd be better without them. But who am I to complain? Brownie coffee

Molly 19:25

ice cream sandwich. Down? Wow.

Matthew Amster-Burton 19:30

I'm gonna cross off my next thing because I'm pretty sure it's discontinued. Okay, I'm just gonna make me sad. I don't want to be sad. I want to be happy. Okay,

Molly 19:37

so this one's really boring. But we we recently did an episode on non alcoholic beer. And Trader Joe's was one of the first places I found in Seattle where I could reliably get non alcoholic beer made by athletic brewing. Excellent and and it's a little cheaper there than it is elsewhere.

Matthew Amster-Burton 19:53

I think $1 forgot to look in the beer section to see if they've started doing like their own brand of non alcoholic beer because it'd be cute to try that if you do, I'm sure they will at some point. Yeah, because Trader Joe's branded beers are pretty good. Oh, I've never had them. Oh, have you had the unexpected chatter? Yes. Okay.

Molly 20:10

It's a great white cheddar. It's like the perfect eating cheddar. It is. It's

Matthew Amster-Burton 20:13

one of my favorite cheeses. It's like it's more crumbly

Molly 20:16

than like Attila muck that we would buy for grilled cheese or something like that.

Matthew Amster-Burton 20:21

I find it weirdly good considering it's like an inexpensive like supermarket cheese. Like I feel like it is a cheese that if you told me this, this cost $27 A pound and it's like from a cave in England. I'd be like yeah,

Molly 20:33

you know, we should do? We should. Oh, that was from the last episode.

Matthew Amster-Burton 20:38

I was okay, I was gonna say run listen to that episode.

Molly 20:41

Because we were in the last episode we were talking about the cheese cart. You know, rolling around. I was saying how I always find it so there's there's this feeling about being in a restaurant that is like fancy enough to have like a cheese cart or a dessert cart that comes around but not not so fancy that you feel uncomfortable there you know? Okay,

Matthew Amster-Burton 21:03

I'm curious where you're going with this?

Molly 21:05

Well, I'm just thinking that I forgot what I was gonna say. The cheese right to say is that I think that I should just get a whole bunch of bunch of stuff from Trader Joe's and put it on a cart. Oh, like a service to you like on your birthday? Just come over and like offer you like Oh, would you like some cheese after your meal? Matthew? Oh, would you which of these ice cream sandwiches would you like and I will carve you like a portion of these things? Just to make you feel cared for?

Matthew Amster-Burton 21:40

Would you? Would you be like hanging out doing this for several days? Like I grabbed a call? Why would the show Lori's like, how do we get rid of her? Like this was fun for like the first day. Yeah,

Molly 21:49

this is just gonna last for like 20 minutes on my birthday.

Matthew Amster-Burton 21:53

My birthday was in August and it's October now. Getting pathologic. Okay. To do that, okay, get a car.

Molly 22:03

You know what the next item that I want to talk about is discontinued but I know that we're gonna have some listeners out there who who liked it too. And it was the Trader Joe's lentil soup. It came in a large can like a 28 ounce can. It had a white kind of very plain label. I remember the soup, you mean and it was just a really solid like vegetarian lentil soup. It was just really good.

Matthew Amster-Burton 22:24

Yeah, discontinued items. What are you gonna do? I have another thing that I forgot to put on my list. Okay, but it's the blister peanuts. Which I don't know the story of like, what blister peanuts are or how they're made or why they get like a blistery skin on them. Oh, but there's just a really good really crunchy roasted salted peanut.

Molly 22:42

Oh, this makes me want a beer. Mm hmm. Yeah. And they're

Matthew Amster-Burton 22:46

very inexpensive. I think they used to be $2 for like a 13 ounce bag. I think they're up to like 279 or something, but hmm,

Molly 22:53

well, that's delightful. Okay, one other thing I really want to mention non edible is the cedar Balsam candle. So Trader Joe's has started doing these seasonal scented candles. They don't know about this at all. Oh, you'll notice them on at various times of year on the display when you walk in the door. So in the spring, they often have one that is Peony blossom. Okay, except it's very confusing, like the graphic design of the labels. No, no, like, so they come in a little like a little aluminum tin. Almost like some people put spices in Sure. Okay, with a lid and it's just got a simple white label on it. And whatever the scent is of the candle. They take the initials of that thing and put that on the white label. Okay, this is starting to get complicated. Well so so the peony blossom candle like what you see from a distance is just the letters p b

Matthew Amster-Burton 23:48

So you think it's a can of peanut butter.

Molly 23:49

Well it's just so confusing. I mean, who sees the letters PB and thinks Peony blossom?

Matthew Amster-Burton 23:55

I guess I will now Okay,

Molly 23:58

anyway, Peony blossom is nice very floral. I like it more than I thought I would but Mike yet a peanut butter scented candle. My favorite one is the cedar Balsam candle that comes out around the holidays.

Matthew Amster-Burton 24:10

That's a very evocative name. Right

Molly 24:13

right. And then you know there are a whole bunch of other ones there's like gingerbread or pumpkin or something. Those are not my thing. I don't like those.

Matthew Amster-Burton 24:20

Okay, yeah, look for a holiday candle coming up in about eight months here.

Molly 24:23

Okay, great. And then I think I think I'm gonna leave it there. There are a couple other items I thought of but I don't feel as strongly about them as I do about these. Okay, I've

Matthew Amster-Burton 24:32

got one more in mind is also a seasonal item. So when you are picking up your cedar Balsam candle look in the refrigerator section for the fondue it's just it's just a packet of fondue you can get this other places than Trader Joe's I think Trader Joe's already liquid is a good one it's it's refrigerated so it's like solidified and then you melt it and put it in your fondue pot or as we do in a Pyrex bowl above like a votive candle. Okay. And like I got a rack like a cookie cooling rack. And then we chop up a big baguette kind of a big gap and like, make some roasted potatoes and carrots and like some chunks of ham. And we'll have fun tonight and it's so easy and so satisfying.

Molly 25:15

I can't wait to come over for fun tonight. Bring a cart. Okay. All right. Well, Matthew, do we have any spilled mail today?

Matthew Amster-Burton 25:32

We do this spell mail is also in response to our Caesar salad episode and it's from listener Jennifer so on the Caesar salad episode, Molly You read from an old newspaper clipping from Dorothy Kilgallen gossip column about how like their a restaurant in New York would be, would be serving the new trendy food from California Caesar salad. And listener Jennifer wrote in to say Dorothy Kilgallen his column was syndicated in many newspapers even in Pennsylvania. She was a real reporter and a force to be reckoned with. She died mysteriously while investigating JFKs murder and was that ever hush hush Wow lingo of the day has it sounds funny now, but her memory has my total respect. So yeah, just had to say that old episodes of What's My Line highly recommended. She was on a guest on the game show. What's My Line?

Molly 26:16

Thanks for your good work. Oh, thank you listener Jennifer.

Matthew Amster-Burton 26:19

Yeah, I mean, thanks. Thank you for your good work. Let's hear Jennifer. We didn't do anything.

Molly 26:23

Oh, I have an Albert. Wow. This week.

It is a poem. I always bring such me now but wow. Yeah. Yeah. So this one actually is a very sad poem, written by the late Lucille Clifton, whose poetry I think I've been reading since I was like 16. Okay, I was introduced to her in like an anthology of contemporary poetry in the mid 90s. And anyway, her whole body of work is just incredible. A lot about the black body, but also just, she was incredible. And the poem that that I'm thinking of today and that I wanted to share with everybody is called blessing the boats. And I was reminded of it by a reader of my newsletter, who wrote to me to share it with me after my dog passed away, because it is kind of a like a sending off into other lands kind of posts. Sure. So you know, I don't think I'm going to read it today. On a you're not gonna read it on the you want me to read it on the podcast?

Matthew Amster-Burton 27:38

Do you on my honest answer?

Molly 27:40

You don't want me to? We're gonna share a link Yeah, to blessing the boats by Lucille Clifton, and absolutely check out her whole body of work.

Matthew Amster-Burton 27:47

Thank you. Our producer is Abby circuit hella.

Molly 27:50

Mm hmm. And you can rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts

Matthew Amster-Burton 27:54

and jump on to the Reddit reddit.com/are/everything Spilled Milk where I bet by now there is already a thread of people talking about their favorite Trader Joe's items that we forgot to mention. Thanks for listening to spilled milk. The show that will be back next week unless our mouths are glued shut with caramel which is likely to happen. Yeah. Okay. Bye, everybody. I'm Molly, and I'm Matthew Amster-Burton.

Hang on, I'm gonna stand up and stretch. Okay,

Molly 28:25

okay. I'm crunchy.

Matthew Amster-Burton 28:30

And I'm Matthew