Joe-Joe Mojo

When I was in California, my sister Amy took me to Trader Joe's a couple times. I know it's such a cliche, but can I just say how much I love Trader Joe's? I mean, it's like my idea of utopia. On our first trip, I bought baby bok choy to make Nie Nie's fantastic tofu stir fry, and I found I liked the newborn version of the vegetable much more than its adult counterpart. Thank you, Trader Joe's! And on the same visit, Amy bought me a little container of the mini milk chocolate peanut butter cups. That same container is sitting approximately four inches from my computer right now, with just a few cups remaining, and I am eying those few cups seductively. When Amy said I would never be able to eat another Reese's peanut butter cup again, she wasn't kidding. The Trader Joe's cups are so smooth and creamy, and they lack one key distinguishing characteristic of their Reese's imitators: that waxy feeling. No, no, these Trader Joe's peanut butter cups melt in your mouth like they were made for your palate and yours alone. I cannot begin to describe the joy that is my mouth when I am eating one (or two or twenty) of these bad boys.

Now we come to next item of business. Joe-Joe's:(please note the apostrophe in joe-joe's on the package. I am having a moral dilemma about this apostrophe, and I just want everyone to know about it.)

OK. I may or may not be sitting here typing while eating joe-joe after joe-joe after joe-joe with a cup of WHOLE MILK to wash them down.

Like I say to Bria while changing her dirty diapers: This Is Serious.

Joe-Joe's are so good I could scream. In fact, I chatted my sister Whitney today: "I am so obsessed with joe-joe's. I am eating them right now and simultaneously crying and dying out of culinary pleasure and delight." (Yes, that means this is at least the second time today I have sat around eating multiple joe-joe's.)

Oh. What's a joe-joe? Well, look at that picture up above and see that it is very much like unto an Oreo. Only, like the picture, I got the ones with the chocolate filling. And the filling is so. much. better. than an Oreo's. It oozes out just a little when you bite into it (but not so much it drips). It is soft and creamy, and all natural, with no hydrogenated oils, which means I don't think it will take 72 hours to digest, or however long it takes Oreo cream to get through.

Also, I would like to state for the record that I didn't like Oreos until I lived with my old roommate Audrey, who loves them. Sometimes I would eat Oreos with my roommates just to fit in (ah, peer pressure), and then I started liking Oreos. So, Audrey, I blame you. Also, Audrey is from the Bay Area, and so I can blame her, along with our other roommate Joanna, who is also from the Bay Area, for introducing me to Trader Joe's. I hold both of you responsible, and I will also be indebted to you for the rest of my life.

So, if you live in California, or anywhere near a Trader Joe's, and you, for some wild reason, have not yet indulged in a Joe-Joe, please, I beg of you, go buy some. And also buy another box and ship it to me. I expect to polish this box off my midnight and will probably be in withdrawals by 2 am.