The one downside: Much of their produce is lacking in the sense that it is often imported from far and distant lands. I try to buy locally whenever possible to support the local economy, reduce carbon footprint, and so forth.

We love Trader Joe’s — it is about once a month for us as its fairly far away, but they provide easily 70% of the staples in our household.

Funny on the “smell” approach to judging it - I do the same, but I must confess: I do on occasion dip my finger in it and take a taste - but only when its for our family dinner.

I used to love a little balsamic on rice and kidney beans. Anyway, this recipe sounds delicious and I plan to try it! I’m not worried, I sometimes do an olive oil/balsamic marinade with rosemary and garlic… and I judge when I have it right by the smell, LOL!

On the glass jars note, it’s funny you should mention that. We do the same thing. On the Balsamic, it is definitely true that many folks don’t have a taste for it. My only suggestion would be to make sure you’re having “good” balsamic, which unfortunately means a little more expensive. You don’t have to go with the ridiculously expensive stuff (although we’ve tried it, and be warned, this will really gross you out: We’ve even had a tiny bit of the extravagant stuff successfully on ice cream!), but it shouldn’t be the super cheap stuff either. A specialty foods store will usually carry a broad range of balsamics. For us, we default to the less expensive Trader Joe’s balsamic in the little glass jars for daily use (because we use a lot of it), but we have a $20-$30 dollar bottle that we reserve for special occasions. Man do I look forward to those special occasions.

Thank you for the comment!

And thank goodness for Marion Cunningham so I don’t have to be embarrassed of my love for iceberg lettuce

Don’t be a salad hater - try this recipe for great balsamic vinaigrette. This recipe is the regular weekly installment on cooking for good health at AlmostFit.com….