Tried It Tuesday

Howdy-Ho, Everybody!

This week's Tried It Tuesday is all about FOOD!! Plus two lovely music finds that I am absolutely loving this week!

Don't you just love trying new things? I sure do! It makes me happy!!

Food

In case you missed my post about my recent trip to the awesome and amazing international market that is Jungle Jim's, you can read about it here. I picked up some great new finds. I talked about most of them in that post, but I did save three of them for this one :) Here they are! 

Sodas

Whenever we go to Jungle Jim's, Bjorn and I pick up Moxie for him (eew!), and I try a new flavored soda. This time I picked up two different flavors by the same brand:

I absolutely loved the pumpkin pie soda. It tasted exactly like a delicious, Thanksgiving pumpkin pie, but light and refreshing at the same time! It wasn't too sweet either. The blueberry was good too, but wasn't my favorite. I would definitely drink the pumpkin pie soda again!

To find out more about these organically sweetened sodas, click here.



Vanilla Powder

I drink decaffeinated  coffee in order to try to limit the number of headaches that I have per month. I usually buy plain decaf coffee (I've been obsessed with Starbucks Blonde Roast), and doctor it up in the machine before it brews with a little cinnamon and cardamon. I learned that trick from my mother-in-law. It's delish! At Jungle Jim's, I found this awesome vanilla powder to try as well to add to my plain decaf coffee before brewing.

I love adding vanilla powder to my coffee at Starbucks when I order one. But this one is even better. Vanilla and bourbon together?!?! Nuf said!

(P.S. There is no alcohol in this product!)

Click here to visit the website for Nielson Massey fine vanillas.

This bottle was a little pricey. It was $9.99 for 2.5 ounces. It is, however, made with good quality vanilla.

Beer

Seriously, this is absolutely my new favorite beer! It tastes like ripe, juicy cherries mixed with a crisp and smooth, caramel beer. I love this! I am going to find out where else they sell it besides Jungle Jim's. If I find someplace, I will link it below! By the way, I love the name too!

I haven't found a place yet! I'll keep looking for another place that carries this beer!

Giada de Laurentiis Pasta Sauce

I always walk by Giada's products at Target, and just never think to buy them. I happened to stop and look at her pasta sauce last week and thought this one looked amazing. Bjorn and I love artichokes, so I thought I'd pick this one up. It was soooo good! It is a little sweet from the roasted carrots and onions in the sauce, and it has chunks of delicious artichokes in it too. They are so tender and meaty. I made a meat sauce out of sweet Italian sausage and mushrooms, added the sauce with a little water (this sauce is very thick), and then tossed it with Rigatoni and Parmesan cheese. It was a winner!

Blueberry Yogurt

Bjorn and I also recently tried Homemade Brand Ice Cream's Blueberry Greek Frozen Yogurt. It wasn't as creamy as I thought it would be. It's a little hard to scoop out of the box, but the taste makes up for that. It tastes like fresh blueberries. I don't know if it's my favorite frozen yogurt, but it was pretty good. It is especially good the way we ate it. I melted a little lemon curd on top of the yogurt and crunched up a few Trefoil Girl Scout cookies on top. Wowy-wow! Such a good dessert!

Must have been a rough day!

Celery Salad

Bjorn's mom makes this great celery salad. I thought I'd try to replicate it the other night (I was craving it!), so I went for it! I chopped up about six stalks of celery and threw them in a bowl, juiced one lemon on top, added about one Tablespoon of olive oil, added salt and pepper, stirred it up, and grated about one Tablespoon of Parmesan cheese on top. Talk about an easy and delicious side! The next night, I made a double batch for dinner and lunch the next day!

Pork Jerky

I am not a big fan of beef jerky. My husband, however, loves the stuff! When I was at Fresh Market last week, I saw this interesting jerky flavor and picked it up for Bjorn, but I ended up liking it too! It has a really great smoky cherry flavor that I love. It tastes like you're eating a really great BBQ pork loin, minus the loin :) I got this bag for $4.99 at Fresh Market.

Source

Music

I have been obsessed with the next band and musician for the past week! You should definitely check them out! I can't get their music out of my head!!

JohnnySwim

I heard about Johnnyswim on the TV show Live From Daryl's House. (That show in itself is amazing. You should check it out. It features Daryl Hall from Hall and Oates. He invites his friends who are musicians over to his house to hang out, play music, and cook, among other things.) One of the bands featured recently was Johnnyswim. They are a husband and wife duo. Their story about meeting each other is so sweet. They are adorable together. Their music really hits me in the heart. It is full of passion and feeling. They are amazing talents. I love them (can you tell?). Here is a peek at one of their songs:

Aloe Blacc

I LOVE Aloe Blacc. He is like no other. His music is fabulous. His videos are fabulous. I am amazed by his talent. He wrote the lyrics to Avicii's "Wake Me Up" and sings on the track. Here is the song "The Man" from his latest album. 

Have you tried anything new this week?

Thanks for stopping by!

Love and happiness <3 Holly