Bring it! Trader Joe's product watch: Jalapeno blue cornbread mix

Lori Midson

As we anticipate the arrival of Colorado's first Trader Joe's, the California-based grocer with a cult-like following that's allegedly building its first Colorado store somewhere in Boulder's Twenty Ninth Street (three more Trader Joe's stores are rumored for Denver, including one at Eighth and Colorado Boulevard), we thought we'd give you a taste of what we're currently craving from the Trader Joe shelves. We'll spotlight a Trader Joe's product once a week that makes us wistful for April 1, 2012, the day that, according to documents filed, the market says it will begin "transacting business or conducting activities."

Lori Midson

First up: jalapeño blue cornbread mix. "Like cornbread?" asks the verbiage on the box. "Fond of spicing things up now and then?" Why, yes, we are! And while this product comes and goes from the shelves -- as do many of the grocer's fan favorites -- when you can get your hands on it, the mix, made with ground blue corn pelted with sweet yellow kernels and dots of dried jalapeños, results in a much-better-than-average boxed cornbread that goes really well with a batch of chili. You can make cornbread muffins with it, too, which works just as well.