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The hardest thing about being a Trader Joe’s shopper has nothing to do with budgeting for groceries or dealing with the crowds (that’s just the most annoying thing about being a Trader Joe’s shopper). The hardest thing is keeping up with all the new product introductions. (And, I guess, saying bye to the things you love when they have to go away to make room for new items.) We’re only halfway into September and, already, there have been at least a half-dozen new products.

Related: If You’re Not Doing This Before a Trip to Trader Joe’s, You’re Doing Your Shopping All Wrong!

How are you supposed to know if you’re actually going to like something new? Is it worth your money or are you gonna end up throwing most of it out? In attempts to help you make sense of it all, I picked up five of the newest and most confusing products at Trader Joe’s and gave them a try. Here’s what I thought of each one.

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I have to admit that I was very skeptical when I heard about Compartés’ super-trendy avocado toast chocolate bar. Salty and sweet? Great. Savory and sweet? Delicious. Avocado toast lodged in a chocolate bar? Nothing about this combination was making my mouth water. I was intrigued, but more in the way of I assume this will be terrible, so let me prove it.

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Kitchn’s Delicious Links column highlights recipes we’re excited about from the bloggers we love. Follow along every weekday as we post our favorites.

Whenever my family sits down for a big feast, mashed potatoes are the one dish that physically cannot be passed around the table fast enough. Before the pot lands in my grubby little hands, I monitor everyone’s mountainous scoops with watchful eyes. And no matter how large the servings seem to be (each bigger than the last), there is somehow always enough to go around. That, my friends, is the magic of mashed potatoes.

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Spend enough time looking at kitchen designs, and things start to look familiar. You start to see the same trends and products — KitchenAid stand mixers, pot rails from IKEA, and bright-pink rugs, for example — over and again. Sometimes things become popular because of a dedicated marketing team with a lot of ad dollars, but sometimes it happens on its own because a product is just that useful.

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Quick question: Is it too early to be thinking of what we want for the holidays? We’re already planning holiday gift lists, and Chrissy Teigen’s dreamy cookware line better show up in a wrapped box with our name on it this December (hint, hint, friends and family).

You can find the cookbook author’s new line of cookware at Target beginning September 30, according to The Star Tribune. The company announced this week that it will be the exclusive seller of the 40-piece collection.

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When fall rolls around and we start thinking about side dishes, the conversation turns from zucchini to potatoes. And while there are seemingly countless ways to prepare potatoes, two of the best seem awfully similar. In fact, they’re often considered one and the same. I’m talking about scalloped potatoes and potatoes au gratin.

They’re both super creamy and rich, consisting of rounds of sliced potatoes baked in a casserole dish. But as it turns out, there are a few distinguishing factors that set them apart.

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I’ll confess: I like to cook over high heat. That means I get lots of burnt-on splatters on my stainless steel cookware. And they’re never easy to get out. In fact, a bunch of my skillets had marks on the outside that I just thought I’d have to learn to live with.

Just by chance, when my regular cleaner wasn’t in stock at my supermarket, I picked up Brillo Cameo Aluminum & Stainless Steel Cleaner. And, well, now this is my regular cleaner.

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Every morning, without fail, my husband brings me a cup of coffee and places it on my nightstand. I love the way a warm cup of coffee tastes first thing in the morning; it gives me just the boost I need to get up and face the day. My day just seems to go better […]

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What’s better than a five-minute shrimp dinner? A five-minute shrimp dinner that comes with a built-in margarita. In this smart recipe from Julia Turshen’s new cookbook, Now & Again: Go-To Recipes, Inspired Menus + Endless Ideas For Reinventing Leftovers, buttery garlic shrimp get tossed in a splash of tequila and finished with fresh lime juice for a fast and fancy dinner inspired by the classic cocktail.

Use the rest of the bottle and a few more limes to whip up margaritas for everyone at the table.

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Giada! She’s just like us! In that she also has to deal with that weeknight struggle of getting dinner on the table. We met up with the Food Network star last night (she was celebrating the launch of her four-quart Dutch oven in partnership with Lagostina — it’s stainless steel with a copper bottom and a hammered copper lid, and it’s beautiful) and asked her to share her number-one tip to help people get dinner on the table during busy weeknights, when there’s no time to stop at the store or make any sort of real plan.

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