Foodie Penpal: Month 10

Another month flies by and another great month of Foodie Penpal foods. I was paired with someone in Indiana that has an insulin intolerance - thus she prefers high protein, low sugar foods. I had never heard of this before, but how many people do you know that have a low intolerance to Vitamin C like myself? I put a nice package together for her with items from Penzey's and Brennans. To read more, here is her blog.

My Foodie Penpal (her blog) was from Alabama and told me to expect my package on a Monday. I came home from work and found a package on my front porch after a torrential downpour. Unfortunately, the box had seen better days and was soggy. I couldn't figure out if it was just rain, but I feared something inside must have broke.

I took it right into the bathtub to open (probably not the smartest spot thinking back on it, but luckily it turned out ok).

Turns out that a jar of pickles broke open in the box. I told her about this and she said that when the USPS worker was helping her wrap it all up, she noticed the deflating air packs and pointed it out the the worker. The worker said it would be fine and she would just stamp the box Fragile. (Typical response from USPS!!! Do they really not know how packages are received??? I never get them in nice shape!)

Anyways, besides not getting the pickles (and I love pickles), everything else made it in once piece. The letter was a little hard to read with the vinegar saturation, but I got the gist of it and I thank her for it.

Here are the goods -- all from Alabama! I love that she truly got me local goods. I try to do that too as much as I can and being as I have never been to 'Bama, I will experience it with my belly!

Whistle Stop Fried Green Tomato mix. I am not a huge tomato fan, but for the fact that the word "fried" is involved, this will have to happen soon!

Bama Strawberry Jam (at least I think its Strawberry. When I washed the pickles from the jar, the label disintegrated. I have seen this brand before but have never had it - I love me some jam on an english muffin. I'll finish up what I have in the fridge and then I have a date with this jar. 

Big Sky Granola = heaven. Although the clumps are larger, this is amazing granola. I take two pieces out for a morning snack and am good to go. The honey and almond taste so fresh and are real flavors - no fake products here!

Golden Rule Original BBQ Sauce - From what I can see online, this is a restaurant as well in Birmingham. BBQ is something that I put on a lot of things. I dip fries in BBQ, chicken, pork, beef - it all goes great with BBQ. I can't wait to open this bottle and try it. 

Pitas - I love making flatbreads with pitas and it said for ultimate freshness, store in the freezer until ready to use. They are safely in my freezer at the moment and hopefully I can make a pita soon. 

If you want to join the fun of the Foodie Penpal program (and maybe have as fun of an experience as I did this month), here are all the details.

-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 & European residents.  Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. Same with Europeans. 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.