The All-Trader Joe's Dinner

Back in the days when I worked 20 minutes from home and Mr. Brilliant worked in New York City, I had time to cook from scratch every night. But now my ride home consists of sitting in traffic on Route 46 and his ride home is the same bucolic ride through tree-lined suburban neighborhoods that I used to enjoy. So he is helping out with meal preparation, often with great help from Trader Joe's.

Tonight's menu was Mediterranean stuffed chicken breast with a stuffing of bread crumbs, black olives, herbs, and feta, the aforementioned multigrain pilaf in a pouch, and Brittany Blend vegetables sauteed with garlic in olive oil. If you buy, note that the chicken has to cook longer than indicated on the package -- 1/2 hour before removing the foil and another 25 minutes afterward.

I could get used to this.

Meanwhile, Trader Joe's employees work long days. At various times during my three years of waiting for the next round of layoffs, and realizing that I was an over-50 Cold Fusion web developer, I often thought that I could do worse than to work at Trader Joe's, which from all accounts pays reasonably well for grocery work, even if you do work till 11 PM stocking shelves after the store closes.

If you ever wanted to know what happens at your local Trader Joe's after hours with all that Sirius/XM oldies music pumped in, these two gentlemen give you a clue: