Trader Joe's Pumpkins Sugar Cookie Dough

These are pretty commonplace sugar cookies in most regards. The pumpkins are cute, but they're just there for decoration. No pumpkin or pumpkin spices here. And honestly, the pumpkins aren't even all that distinct once you bake the cookies. They're like a faded shade of orange on a golden-brown background.

Flavor-wise, there's nothing wrong with these cookies. They taste like every other sugar cookie I've ever had. Particularly when they're fresh out of the oven, they're pretty scrumptious, both taste and texture-wise. They're nice and soft, warm, and the sweetness just melts in your mouth.

Unfortunately, after an hour or so, these cookies lose almost all of their charm. They get oddly hard and crunchy. They still taste fine, thankfully, but they're not the type of snack or dessert that I'm craving with any regularity. If you have a big family, it wouldn't be any problem at all to finish them within a few minutes. If you're just an individual or a couple, you might struggle to finish the dozen.

Check out the video review embedded below to see me (Nathan) refer to myself as a "culinary idiot," use a tape measure to space the cookies exactly three inches apart, and find out what the only class I ever flunked in school was. Madcap antics ensue when Sonia accidentally hits the time lapse button to record most of the video. It's five minutes of fun you don't want to miss.

$3.99 for 12 sugar cookies, each one about 2.5 inches in diameter, found in the refrigerated section. Kosher. Bake at 350° for 12 minutes (ours took closer to 15). 

Nothing particularly wrong with this product, but nothing particularly memorable either. Probably wouldn't buy again. Seven out of ten stars from me for Trader Joe's Pumpkins Sugar Cookie Dough. The beautiful wifey will go with seven and a half.

Bottom line: 7.25 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Icelandic Style Skyr Yogurt

Never had Icelandic yogurt before. "Skyr" sure sounds like an Icelandic word, though. I bet Björk eats a lot of skyr.

It's very thick. It's on par with Greek yogurt in terms of thickness. It's not an unpleasant texture by any means, but I almost want to compare it to the texture of paste. Not that I've ever eaten paste. I mean, some kids did, but I wasn't one of those kids. I was pretty weird as a kid, but not like paste-eater weird.

Sonia wanted to say the texture was slightly "gritty." I think that's primarily from the berry base, which might contain some faint whispers of raspberry seeds or something along those lines. I don't know that I'd call it gritty. It was pretty smooth to me. Thick. Tacky. But not particularly coarse.

The flavor is unusually subtle. In both cases, there's just a faint fruit flavor behind the tangy yogurt essences. It's slightly sweet—and I mean very slightly sweet. It's almost like what you'd get if you mixed plain Greek yogurt with a spoonful or two of berry flavored yogurt. Color-wise, the product is an extremely faint shade of pink, just a hair on the reddish side of plain yogurt white. Both flavors look remarkably similar.

On the plus side, calories and fat are very low. Protein, on the other hand, is very high. Each cup boasts 15 or 16 grams, about a third of your recommended daily allowance. This skyr yogurt is quite filling.

$1.19 for each 5.3 oz cup—40 cents to one dollar cheaper than leading brands of Greek yogurt in the same size container. Kosher. Found in the refrigerated yogurt and cheese section. Trader Joe's also sells a vanilla skyr flavor, but we weren't able to get our hands on that one this go around. Despite its health benefits, Sonia and I both think we'd stick to more familiar, more palatable yogurts before buying Trader Joe's Icelandic Style Raspberry and Cherry Skyr Lowfat Yogurts again. Still, we're very glad to have tried this interesting product. Seven out of ten stars from both of us.

Bottom line: 7 out of 10.