Foodie Penpals October 2012

I’m a few days late writing this post – half term has been very fun but super hectic! Family Halloween party this afternoon, but I made the – slightly embarrassing, but definitely necessary – decision to buy cakes rather than make any, so that has freed me up for a couple of hours!

So, last month’s foodie penpals. I sent my parcel to Charley who writes at Charley’s Kitchen, and I received a lovely parcel from Emma-Louise, who doesn’t have a blog but does have a twitter account.

Emma sent me a really thoughtful parcel and included a recipe for white chocolate & cardamom mousse which I am looking forward to trying soon. Coconut palm sugar, cherry juice drink, apple & plum puree, tabasco sauce, dried cranberries, cardamom pods, sugar mice and Montezuma’s orange & geranium dark chocolate.

As per Emma’s suggestion, I gave the sugar mice to the children…Izzy refused to eat hers for a few days though though, haha, keeping it as a “cute decoration” instead…

Toby, on the other hand, gobbled his up straight away – little sugar addict!!

Emma forgot to include her note with suggested uses for the items, so instead emailed it to me. A lot of these included porridge…not sure whether that was deliberate or not re my blog name, but it did make me chuckle!! And so the next morning I made a big bowl of pumpkin porridge and topped it with dried cranberries, Montezuma chocolate, and palm coconut sugar…divine!

I think this may have even been my first hot porridge “of the season” and what a good one it was…I loved the combination of dried cranberries and orange chocolate, so festive!

I loved all the contents of my parcel, thank you so much Emma!

As Emma doesn’t have a blog, and neither does the person who sent it to her, she asked me to include a few words from her about the parcel she received…

Yay! Received my first ever foodie penpal today, chock full of treats! The lovely Laura explained in her card that she lives on the Norfolk/Suffolk border where I know for a fact they have a glut of wonderful farm shops and the area is famous for its apples. I have received a lovely looking bottle of Norfolk Pure Apple Juice where the fruit is grown and pressed on the farm, as well as a pack of delicious looking apple crumble biscuits (everyone in the office is eyeing them up), a hot chocolate stick complete with marshmallows (perfect for this time of year), an apothecary style bottle of cinnamon extract that I’m looking forwards to trying out this weekend as I reckon it’ll pack a punch into my gingerbread men, a bbq spice mix that’ll come in very handy, and a jar of local mint jelly which is a winner as I love roast dinners! To top it all off, there’s a card with a picture of a kitten drinking out of a cup that is just terrific and is going to have pride of place on my desk.

 I can’t wait for next month, my first foodie penpal experience has been really wonderful and everyone has been so lovely!

If that inspires you to join in, go to Rock Salt’s blog to find out more details and fill in the form. You can read about many other foodie penpal swaps on Lean Green Bean’s blog.

Foodie Penpals August 2012

This month I was lucky enough to receive my foodie penpal parcel from Pia, who lives in Germany. Armed just with the knowledge that I don’t eat meat and prefer sweet things to savoury, she sent me an awesome parcel filled with childhood favourites and new-to-me products!

As a lot of the products would be ones I wouldn’t recognise, she sent me a lovely letter explaining what they all were (plus a postcard of a seal as there is a seal shelter near the town she lives in. I thought I would copy extracts of the letter to explain some of the products, so here goes!

First up, we have the vegetarian jelly sweets, yoghurt gums:

Pia wrote that she likes to put these in the freezer to eat as a cold treat when it’s hot outside. I’m going to go and put the rest of my bag in the freezer as soon as I finish this as that sounds delicious, plus otherwise they are going to disappear too quickly before I get the chance to try them cold!

These, especially the pink ones for obvious reasons, remind me a lot of percy pigs…so good!

Next are some treats for Izzy and Toby, chosen by Pia’s 5 year old twin boys. Brandt rusk biscuits, and Kinder chocolate bars:

I am saving the Kinder bars for when Izzy goes back to school (next week, sob!) as they are the perfect size for a lunchbox treat, but both bags of biscuits – or “toast” as Toby, kind of understandably, insists on calling them – have been eaten and loved!

The Eszet cuts, or something similar, are something I remember from my French exchanges when I was at school. You put them on toast or bread…I can’t wait to tuck into these!

Also some ice cream sauce which looks like Magic Shell – was that what it was called? Again, years since I’ve had any of this!

Pia’s favourites were the Knopper wafers…

which I’ve tried and agree are really tasty, and so pretty too!

and also the lemonade powder which you add to water to make sparkling lemonade…

I can’t work out what the green (“waldmeister”) flavour is…anyone??

The final product that Pia sent me is an old favourite – Nutella! In cute little to go pots…I haven’t decided yet whether I’m going to be nice and give these to Izzy and Toby, or keep them for myself!!

Such a fantastic parcel. Whilst I do enjoy eating healthy foods most of the time, sometimes I need to indulge my sweet tooth, and this parcel was such fun – I had a big grin on my face when opening it, and then again when I showed it all to Izzy – she shares my enthusiasm for all foods!!
Thanks again Pia and family!!

I sent my parcel this month to Vanessa at A Green Mess. I don’t think she’s written her post about it yet, but I will update this when she does!

If you want to learn more about Foodie Penpals, or sign up to take part yourself next month, then head on over to This is Rock Salt and fill in the form by the 4th of September.

What was your favourite childhood food? Or the thing you remember most fondly from childhood anyway?! Sweet or savoury??

Foodie Pen Pals July 2012

I took part in Foodie Pen Pals again this month, and was sent a parcel by Kay from Kay Tea's Cakes and she sent me a beautifully wrapped parcel...

...full of some really interesting foods that I couldn't wait to try...

Liam took the sour cream & habanero crispy bites to work and really enjoyed them, although he was surprised by how spicy they were!! He loves crunchy snacks so they were perfect for him, and he was excited to benefit (aka be allowed to try!!!) from one of my parcels for once! I'm looking forward to using this tempura mix...

Kay recommended making tempura avocado which sounds amazing and I also want to try to recreate the tempura asparagus I ate in Barcelona and also in London, so good!

Kay also sent me some cute milk chocolates which are individually wrapped, so perfect for putting in bags/lunchboxes...

as well as silicone chocolate moulds (top left corner) which Izzy is looking forward to using with me, and also some noodles and spicy plantain chips.

Thanks again Kay for sending me lots of unique products to try! :)

******

I sent a parcel to Lisa, who doesn't have a blog yet. I took some photos before I sent the parcel, and Lisa emailed me with her kind thoughts on the parcel, so I'll let her speak for herself....

This was my first month taking part in the Foodie penpal scheme and I was very excited to see what my first food parcel would bring! I'd exchanged a couple of emails with Lucy after we were paired up and told her about my passion for sweet treats, especially fudge! After spending almost the last 12 months on a pretty strict diet trying to shift "the baby weight" I figured I deserved a treat, so by the time my parcel arrived I was salivating with anticipation!!

The parcel contained 3 different types of fudge, all of which were delicious! The honeycomb flavour was sweet, crunchy and very moreish and the lemon meringue was sharp, zingy and just heavenly. However, (despite my initial scepticism) my favourite had to be the sea salt special edition flavour, the proceeds of which, Lucy's note explained, went to support the local lifeboats. As if you'd need any excuse to indulge!

I've tried sea salt chocolates before but this was something else - at first all you could taste was the creamy, crumbly sweet fudge, but then WHAM! A big hit of tangy salt at the end almost knocked my socks off. Suffice to say that bag was polished off before the sun went down!!

My little boy also seized the opportunity to sample his first ever taste of fudge and it was a big hit! He has definitely inherited mummy's sweet tooth!

Lisa sent me some photos to share with you of her little boy enjoying the fudge, so cute! :)

As well as fudge Lucy also sent some tasty looking Florentines (which - as much as it pains me to share - will be making an appearance when we have friends over to dinner on Saturday evening) and a token 'nod' towards healthy eating in the form of some vanilla munchy seeds (unusual and very satisfying!) and a fruit and nut mix.

All in all my first food parcel was fantastic, and I have definitely now got the bug!! Massive thanks to Lucy for creating such a thoughtful and delicious parcel - I only hope my recipient enjoyed her parcel as much as I did!

*****

If you'd like to join in with Foodie Pen Pals, fill in the form on Carol Anne's blog by August 3rd. I'm already looking forward to the spreadsheet being sent out on August 5th to find out who my next matches are!

Thanks to Kay and Lisa for making this month a(nother) enjoyable one, and thanks as always to Carol Anne for organising us all!

Foodie Pen Pals June 2012

This was my second month taking part in Foodie Pen Pals. You can read more about it on This Is Rock Salt's blog, and in case you missed it, this is the blog post I wrote about what I received last month. I was lucky enough to receive another great parcel this month, this time from Beth who writes at Unearth Your Potential.

I put the poster up in the kitchen immediately - it shows all the fruit and veg in season each month...really interesting and the children love it - Toby keeps pointing at it whenever we enter the room!

The first food I opened up was the pack of tamari garlic rice cakes. These were delicious and so moreish! I was hoping to keep these to myself but my Mum looked after the children for me that afternoon and they each had one...well after that the rice cakes had no chance, between the 3/4 of us they were gone within a couple of days!

These are only about 30 calories each so are perfect for a late afternoon snack. I have a bad habit of eating whilst I'm cooking dinner, and then ruining my appetite, so these work well to keep my tastebuds happy without filling my tummy too much - must buy some more!

Next I ate the Nakd lemon raisins. I've actually tried the pineaplle version of these and wasn't too keen - I can't remember if it was the flavour or that fact that the raisins weren't juicy enough. Either way, the lemon ones were completely different - I loved them! The lemon flavour was much stronger and the raisins were lovely and plump...another must buy again soon! :)

The final food I photographed separately was another huge success - Happy Kitchen pecan brownie:

The photo doesn't do this justice as I ate it late at night, but it was truly amazing. I absolutely adored the texture of the brownie - really soft and almost truffle like. I immediately looked up where I could buy them from and Goodness Direct stock them. The pecan version is temporarily unavailable, but they also sell chocolate raspberry and chocolate orange versions, as well as plain chocolate.

I haven't tried the puffed spelt, white chocolate chips or tea bags yet, but we are working our way through the bag of little hazelnut biscuits. Izzy has been taking a couple to school in her lunch box some days, and I have been crumbling them on top of yoghurt. Yum! Thanks again Beth for everything you sent me, I'm so happy to have found some new-to-me products that I now love! :)

I sent my parcel to another blogger this month, Charlotte at Gin Fuelled Blue Stockings. She hasn't written about the swap yet, but I'm looking forward to reading what she thought of the things I sent her!

Interested in joining in with the foodie penpal swap next month? You can read more about it and sign up here. You need to fill in the form by July 3rd to join in with the July swap. I'm really glad I've signed up for it, I enjoy shopping for someone else and also receiving new things in the post - a great way to discover foods you might not have otherwise tried!

Right, time to get off the laptop and start packing! I'm off to London first thing tomorrow morning so I won't be posting again til next week. Have a great weekend everyone!

Foodie Pen Pals May 2012

Hello!

I haven't been blogging as much lately. I miss it, but we have so much packing to do that I feel guilty sitting at my laptop for long! Hopefully once we are in our new house from this weekend I will have more time to write again. I had to blog today though as today is Foodie Penpal reveal day! I'd heard about the foodie penpal swaps in the US, but it wasn't until last month that I read about the UK version on Jess' blog. You can read more details about the UK & Europe Foodie Penpals here.

This month I received my parcel from Lisa, who doesn't have a blog. Lisa was so generous and sent me some great treats:

It was all packed so neatly into the box, with even more goodies hiding underneath...

I let out an excited squeal when I saw the Urban Fruit dried cherries - my absolute favourite, and I can't buy them anywhere near me! I also adore 9Bars and Nakd bars, and have never tried the Dorset Cereal bars before but my Mum was with me when I opened the parcel and said she has had them before & loves them. Trail mix, hot chocolate powder and cashew butter too - yum! I let Izzy have the Bear yo yos and the mini muffins for her packed lunches, and she has already eaten all of those, but the rest of the treats are waiting for me at the new house. I never normally have such self-control but as I took a box of all my unopened foods round to the new house, I have had little choice but to wait to enjoy them...another thing I'm looking forward to once we're moved in!

Thanks so much Lisa, all your choices were perfect! :)

The person who I sent my parcel to, Sandra, also doesn't have a blog. I haven't heard from her since I sent the parcel a couple of weeks ago, so I hope she's received it ok! This is what I sent her:

Tea, chocolate and fudge babies...such a blogger stereotype! ;) Hope you liked everything Sandra!

And thanks to Carol Anne for organising the swap so well. If you are from the UK or Europe and want to join in you need to fill in this form before the 3rd of the month. You can also see the details of the US swap, and all of the foodie penpal reveal posts linked up at The Lean Green Bean.

Have you ever taken part in a food swap before? What type of things did/would you send? I always enjoy shopping for food swaps, but do tend to second guess myself over what things would be good to send. My swap partner doesn't like nuts and avoids added sugar (apart from her love of dark chocolate), and I was surprised by how many of the things I eat include one or both of those! It was also quite challenging to think of things that will post well - I was wary of sending things in glass jars/bottles both because of the weight and the likelihood of breakages. Although I received a glass of cashew butter and I noticed that Carol Anne received a bottle of wine all the way from the Netherlands, so maybe I need to be more adventurous next month!!!