October Foodie Penpals

It's that time again... Reveal day for Foodie Penpals. And I remembered to post with time for you to join for next month! Aren't you proud!? ; )

This month I received a wonderful package from Laurie, who is not a blogger. But I'd like to send a big Thank You to her in case she checks out this post! Laurie sent me a box full of goodies to please my sweet tooth, so I was very happy. : )  Here's what was included:

Isn't the Micky Halloween card adorable? : )  The first of my tasty treats are a bag of Raspberry Milano cookies and some Muddy Buddies Chex Mix. Drooling already...

Next we have a cute box of M&M's and a little pack of nutella with breadsticks. I've actually never had nutella, so I'm excited to try it. : )

Here we have a bag of Planters Snack Mix, some French Vanilla instant coffee mix, and a delicious-smelling Warm Apple Pie candle. It's currently sitting on my desk at work and making my office smell like Autumn.



Last, but certainly not least, we have a pack of Grandma's Peanut Butter cookies, a box of Cracker Jack's (classic!), and a yummy bag of Sour Patch Watermelons. So as you can see, I'm definitely good on the sweets for a while. : )  Thanks again, Laurie!

And here is the info if you'd like to join next month's Foodie Penpals Swap:

-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.

-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!

-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!

-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)

-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.

-Foodie Penplas is open to US & Canadian residents. Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa.

If you’re interested in participating for November, please CLICK HERE to fill out the participation form and read the terms and conditions.
You must submit your information by November 4th as pairings will be emailed on November 5th!

*If you’re from somewhere besides the US, Canada or Europe and want to participate, send Lindsay an email at theleangreenbean@gmail.com and she'll see if there is enough interest this month!

September Foodie Penpals

 

 

So, I'm a little late once again posting this... Sorry! I'm such a slacker. : (

 

But anyway, I once again got a wonderful package in the mail from my Foodie Penpal for this month. It came from the wonderful Teresa at Farm Share Stories. Thanks Teresa! Here's a pic of what came in the mail:

 

I was excited right away when I saw the leopard tape : )
 

And here's what I found when I opened it up:



My box full of goodies

The cutest little card : )

A cool book on eating locally grown food. It's got some great recipes in it too!

 Teresa thought that Asian cuisine would be a good match for me since I'm lactose intolerant, so she took a trip to Boston's Chinatown to grab some foodie treats for me. They included:

Ginger candy and green tea pumpkin seeds

 These two were interesting, but not my favorites... The ginger candy (which, by the way, says it's good for digestion) was surprisingly spicy, and I'm a wuss when it comes to spicy. I love pumpkin seeds, but I'm not a big fan of green tea... They weren't bad though. I gave these to my father-in-law, and he loved them! : )

Sauces for cooking my own black pepper chicken and sweet & sour pork

I haven't tried these yet, but I'm really looking forward to it!

Pretty chopsticks and rice vermicelli noodles

 I LOVE these chopsticks!!! They're so pretty in person. They make me want to eat sushi. : ) And I'm going to try and use the rice noodles to make a soup to go with the chicken and pork dishes.

Red bean mochi and peach gummy candy

The peach gummy candies are yummy! I took them to work to have around when my sweet tooth attacks. ; ) As for the red bean mochi... I had no idea what those were! Or how to eat them. There weren't any directions in English on the back, so I assumed you didn't have to cook them. I was under the impression that they were some sort of dumpling since it was rice and red beans, but I googled it, and it's a dessert! I'm sure I would have figured that out when I opened the box, since they were each sitting in a cute little green cupcake liner. They weren't bad... The red bean center wasn't sweetened, but the outer rice part was. I thought that worked really well. The rice part was a weird consistency... like a soft, gummy kind of. It's hard to explain. But I kind of liked them. I'll have to save them for dessert with my soup and chicken/pork dinner. : )

 

And that's my Foodie Penpal package for September! Thanks again, Teresa! It was a very fun package. : )  I'm sorry again for not being on the ball... I'll try to post this earlier enough next month for you to have time to sign up for the next one!

 

Hope you have a great weekend! : )

 



August Foodie Penpals

 

Hi Everybody! I'm posting this a little late (imagine that), but last month I participated in my first Foodie Penpals Swap hosted by the lovely Lindsay over at The Lean Green Bean.

This month I got a wonderful package from Amanda at Kitchen Kanvas. Everything in the box was wrapped in pretty yellow tissue paper, but my hubby surprised me by cleaning the kitchen and threw all the paper away before I could take a pic... But here's a shot of everything I received:

As you can see, Amanda put cute little notes on everything to let me know why she picked each item.

She lives in Idaho, so you know she had to send something with potatoes! : ) I haven't baked this yet, but I'll be sure and let you know how it turns out when I do.

According to Amanda, these are the cookies served on Delta flights. They are super yummy, and they're dairy free, which is awesome since I still think I've developed a lactose intolerance...

I'm not familiar with Huckleberries of the non-Finn variety, but they apparently grow all over the place where Amanda lives. I tried this spread out on a good ole PB&J, and it was quite tasty. It reminded me of a blackberry jam but a little more tart.

Another potato item... These are candy bars that she put in for Matt. They have milk in them from the chocolate, so I unfortunately can't try them. : (  But Matt said they were good. : )

 

 She included these Crystal Light packs since she saw on here that I made a goal to drink more water. Wasn't that sweet!? : )

The final item was some Mediterranean sea salt. She said she fell in love with it when she lived in France... Jealous!! I can't wait to cook with it. : )

Wasn't that an awesome foodie package!? I think I'm going to really enjoy being a part of this swap each month. Unfortunately, since I waited so late to post this you've already missed the deadline to be a part of September's swap. : ( Sorry... But you can join next month!  Click on the pic at the top of this post for more info. And I'll put a link to sign up when I post about my September goodies. : )