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I love the packaging on Fresh Direct's new line of chocolates, and the varieties, like this dark chocolate bark with fig, pine nuts and cinnamon, are enticing. But I'm withholding judgment; I learned from Target's choxie that pretty packaging and yummy sounding flavors do not a good chocolate make.

I have opened up the PB & J bar and it's pretty good. I'm not swooning, but the raspberry puree is a tart hit. The peanut butter, though, is all texture: smooth, bland peanut butter with crunchy little bites of toasted rice throughout. No, wait. Yummm. Chocolate. Peanut butter. Raspberry.

I bought the dried tortellini, mini ravioli and penne the last time I was in Trader Joe's, and I'm kind of disappointed. The tortellini was nice for a quick soup with broth and baby spinach, but I cooked that mini ravioli 5 minutes longer than the directions said and the filling was still crunchy. And every time I've used the penne it has stuck together.

I usually buy Barilla pasta, which I like quite a lot. I never fully appreciate how much I like it until I try a different brand. The firm bite of the texture is its main appeal, but it also actually tastes really good. You know the difference in smell between cooking a nice jasmine rice and a plain, medium grain? It's like that.

I bought the dried tortellini, mini ravioli and penne the last time I was in Trader Joe's, and I'm kind of disappointed. The tortellini was nice for a quick soup with broth and baby spinach, but I cooked that mini ravioli 5 minutes longer than the directions said and the filling was still crunchy. And every time I've used the penne it has stuck together.

I usually buy Barilla pasta, which I like quite a lot. I never fully appreciate how much I like it until I try a different brand. The firm bite of the texture is its main appeal, but it also actually tastes really good. You know the difference in smell between cooking a nice jasmine rice and a plain, medium grain? It's like that.

Today I was lamenting to Todd that my blog is dead; it's been almost two months since my last post, and the time has flown by without an impulse on my part to write about any of the cooking or baking I've done. (It's too bad, too, because I have baked some yummy things from Once Upon a Tart and come up with some recipes that August really liked.)

I told him the only time I feel like posting is when I have a passionate reaction to some product I've tried: the Cascadian Farms broccoli florets (not the cuts) that are the perfect degree of tenderness for August without being too mushy for me, the loaf of pecan-raisin bread I picked up on impulse from Natural, almost everything from Bonelle pastry shop near my apartment. I wanted to write to complain that Trader Joe's individually quick-frozen baby spinach was literally 50 percent spinach stems; I decided that picking out the actual leaves was faster. The vinho verde I picked up from the Trader Joe's wine shop, however, introduced me to a whole new school of summery wines (although I did NOT like the single vinho verde offered by Fresh Direct). I've become more of a shopper than a cook, and when I do cook it's often something I've made before.

He told me to go ahead and do it; the whole point of writing your own blog is making it whatever you want it to be. So here it is. The posts may seem kind of mundane sometimes, but I hope there'll be a useful tip every once in a while. And maybe my family will still manage to get a little picture of what's going on in my life (and what the baby's up to).

The last time a taste of ice cream hit me with such a unique, clean flavor I was at the Biltmore Room and my mouth was tingling from their ginger ice cream. This time it was the grassy taste of fresh mint, nothing like that sharp, peppermint stick flavor that other ice creams pass off as mint. I almost expected to find rough, chewy mint leaves in the ice cream (I didn't, of course).

I've been picking up Ciao Bella's gelatos at my local natural food store, and I have to admit I was kind of disappointed by the ingredients list, but the texture is so nice, really creamy and thick. We had a chocolate hazelnut that wasn't quite chocolaty enough for me, but Todd really liked it. This one, called fresh mint" on the package, has dark chocolate chunks in this great mint ice cream. Hello new favorite.

I'm so glad I got the new NYC Gourmet Marketplace in the mail. I had no idea what a wealth of food shopping was available to me right around work. These are the places I've decided to try:

I'm going to send Todd to Good & Plenty to Go and the Little Pie Company for some prepared food and a 2-person pie next time I don't know what to make for dinner. Maybe for a special occasion I'll pick up some steak at Le Marais.

And there's a wealth of bakeries: in addition to Amy's Bread and Cupcake, which we already frequent, there's Poseidon (I think I may have been there for cannolis that are filled to order), Pazzo, Ruthy's and an outpost of Sullivan Street.

The only reason I call this posole at all is because the original recipe I was using was for posole. I ended up substituting so many ingredients, though, that it was a different animal altogether (good, though).

Substitution number one. When I originally wanted to make the recipe I couldn't find Anaheim chiles, so later, when I was ordering from Fresh Direct I checked to see if they had what I needed. Problem is, I didn't remember correctly what I had been looking for and ordered six poblanos. I broiled them until they were black, then put them in a bowl in the fridge, covered with plastic wrap, until I was ready to use them (in the meantime I "borrowed" about half of a small one to chop up and put in an quesadilla I made for my dinner; just plain jack cheese and roasted poblano, but it was really good; I get a good char on my quesadillas just in the pan).

Substitution number two. Food Emporium (which is the grocery closest to my office; I've lost my stamina for running all over the city looking for ingredients in the heat and humidity with my growing belly) doesn't carry pork shoulder, just lean pork loin. I found some really meaty pork ribs, though, that did the trick quite well.

Substitution number three. This was the most detrimental one, the one that makes this really, really NOT posole. Couldn't find hominy at FE, and Todd didn't feel like running around looking for some (I don't blame him), so I put a can of garbanzos in at the end. It was OK, but hominy would have been 100 times better.

Brought 4 cups water to a boil then added the pork ribs and cooked for 10 minutes. Then added the chiles, which I had seeded, peeled and chopped, a chopped onion, three minced garlic cloves, a teaspoon each cumin and oregano and a tablespoon ancho chile powder. Simmered that for 2 hours, then removed the pork (it was falling apart by this point), shredded it and removed the bones, then put the pork back in. Added a big can of drained garbanzos and heated through. I served it with lime wedges, toasted tortilla strips and pickled minced red onion (just minced a red onion and added salt, oregano and white vinegar to cover).

It made tons, with good, spicy, deep flavor that contrasted well with the pickled onion and lime. I'd make this again, definitely, but next time with the all-important hominy.