Open bar and taste testing? Obviously, I signed up! Made me laugh because my friend Nikki said, "Dang girl - I love your life - it's always so fun!" I can't disagree :) Junior League hosted a fundraising event with Kroger's Private Selection brand to invite us to taste some of their potential new products and provide our feedback. Kelley, Adam, Liz and I secured a cocktail table and filled our little plates with boundless goodies. The focus of the tasting was on flatbreads - loved the rosemary and olive oil and sea salt and cracked black pepper. They were a nice, wide size and snapped nicely to accommodate spreads and dips. They had a beautiful wheel of brie with walnuts and apples that we couldn't get enough of. Little sandwiches and bruschetta filled us as we tasted the cheese straws - my least favorite of the items to be rated. The blue cheese didn't have a hint of that flavor. The cheddar flavor wasn't very exciting. I do think the little cheese rectangles would've been good crunched in soup.
The two olive tables were a hit for Adam and I - the girls aren't fans. I told him it was like a martini bar without the vodka! Stuffed with everything from citrus, blue cheese - the best I've had - soft creamy cheese not a hard square shoved in the olive like they usually are, garlic - with a big crunchy ripe clove and a few others, all of which I loved! Lastly, the cookies - we all really enjoyed the little pumpkin spice tea cookies and my favorite was the raspberry cookies with chocolate-coating on the bottom - except I think the raspberry seeds got stuck in my teeth, which was annoying. The butter pecan cookies weren't as good as a pecan sandie from Keebler.
It was a fun way to spend the evening and may have convinced me to try shopping at Kroger again - it's always a zoo and the aisles break in the center and turn so you can't just work up and down as you go. But their private label brand does have great offerings. I prefer the aesthetics of shopping at Biggs but their produce has declined and they don't carry a lot of the great gourmet products they used to. Trader Joe's is my favorite these days. But it's great that the League was able to provide the little evening of entertaining and benefit our efforts for the year.
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