Foodie Penpals for Charity

Hello all – it is me, writing in the present tense and not reposting! A miracle! However, you won’t have the dubious pleasure of my words very much today, either. Today is Foodie Penpals reveal day, and as such a good day to draw attention to something that Lindsay, the original Foodie Penpals creator, is organising. Instead of sending each other parcels next month – December, that is – Lindsay is encouraging us all to contribute whatever we would usually spend to charity; specifically to a charity that will support victims of Hurricane Sandy. This is open to Foodie Penpals past, present and future, and even those of you who may not join in the scheme but would like to contribute something to this particular charity.

 

I’ll hand over now to Lindsay herself – all these words can be found on her blog The Lean Green Bean under the Foodie Penpals for Charity tag.

 

Attention all past, present and future Foodie Penpals. I’m talking to all of you – Americans, Canadians, Europeans, Australians…We’re changing things up for Foodie Penpals December!

Introducing….

 

Instead of matching people up to send FPP packages in December, we’re going to use this group for good and raise some money for the victims of Hurricane Sandy. There are two ways you can get involved:

1) I will be setting up a paypal account to accept donations. Please consider donating the $15-$25 you would have spent on purchasing items and mailing your FPP package in December. Donations will be accepted from December 3-7th and I will make one big donation to a recovery organization in the name of Foodie Penpals at the end of the week. I’m still researching organizations. Some that I’ve looked at include Brooklyn Recovery Fund and Kids In Distressed Situations.

2) I’m in the process of searching for an organization that will be collecting holiday gifts for the people affected by this storm. With the holidays approaching, if you’re in the mood to shop instead of just donate money, I will try to provide an address that you can mail gifts to and encourage you to spend $15 to purchase some gifts and send them out so they can be distributed to families.

So….this is just to provide the basics. More details will be coming as I figure them out.

I’m going to leave the signup form open for December even though it isn’t a traditional month of FPP. Consider signing up to be your virtual commitment to donate money or items during the week of Dec 3-7th. I’ll be sending emails with information to those who sign up and also posting info on my blog! 

You guys, we have the power to make a huge difference here. Think about it. On average, there are about 1,000 participants per month. If we all donate the $15 we would have spent, that’s $15,000 right there. That’s HUGE. Let’s make a difference!

To recap:

• Sign up now to commit.

• Donate Dec 3rd – 7th!

• Let’s raise $15,000 for Hurricane Sandy victims!

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To Signup:

CLICK HERE TO FILL OUT THE PARTICIPATION FORM

 

So, that’s really it – we’re sitting out this month for Foodie Penpals, and devoting ourselves to helping others, but normal service will resume in January. If you’re not already a penpal, you can continue to sign up in the usual way. UK and Europe Foodie Penpals, click here for all the info. US and Canada Foodie Penpals, your signup form will become available at The Lean Green Bean from December 18th onwards.
If you are already a Euro penpal, you don’t need to do anything to be signed up for January. If you are a US or Canada penpal, you will sign up again for January (as usual) and your signup page will be available from December 18th.

 

Thanks all – look forward to seeing more, exciting parcels in the new year!

Foodie Penpals June 2012

This month, my Foodie Penpal was Lin, from Lin’s Foods. We exchanged a couple of emails wherein I was very vague about what I’d like in a parcel, then Lin sent me this gloriously fragrant parcel full of hand made treats. You can’t see it, but the whole box was scented with rose petals, so as soon as I opened it I was treated to their wonderful, soothing fragrance. I love rose scented and rose flavoured things, rose tea is one of my favourites at the minute, but I’d never mentioned this to Lin. Quite a coincidence, and another piece of evidence to support the ‘Foodie Penpals have psychic powers’ theory.

She also included a really long handwritten letter, telling me all about the contents of the parcel, and a print out of a recipe for Spanish tortilla. This was because I’d told her I was starting to learn about tapas, such a thoughtful gesture. I envisage me, a bucket of sangria and a Spanish tortilla having a whale of a time in the not too distant future.

I was deliberately vague about what I’d like in my penpals parcel because one of the most interesting things about Foodie Penpals, to me, is seeing what your Penpal will choose for you. I like to see what things catch other people’s eye while they’re shopping, find out what their favourite things are and try local foods that I might not otherwise have heard of. In this case, Lin has a Passion for spices, and some serious skills in mixing them. She showcased this in these three pots:

From left to right, they are curry powder for meat, curry powder for fish and a Japanese seasoning, togarashi. All crafted and mixed by Lin herself, isn’t that awesome? If you’d like to see how she does it, you can find her page on Homemade Curry Powders here. I can’t adequately describe the smell of the curry powders to you, but I can say that they are head, shoulders, torso, legs, feet and six inch heels above any ready-mixed curry powder I’ve ever bought. They smell a little sweet, and fragrant, with a pleasant tingle at the end. This is just the smell, you understand, the taste is bound to blow me away. I already have a slightly unusual idea for their use in my head, as well as imagining making pots and pots of the most delicious curry anyone has ever tasted. Togarashi is something I usually have in the cupboard, but the pre-mixed stuff pales in comparison to the fresh and potent home made gear. Lin says she likes her togarashi to have tangible flakes of seaweed in it, and I can’t say I disagree. I’ve already used the togarashi – I’ll tell you more about that next week.

Next in the parcel in this adorable jar of lavender sugar – again, home infused, and the jar is just as welcome as the sugar. I know I should do the right thing, when it’s all finished, and send the jar on to another penpal… but I don’t know if I can bear to do it. It’s hard enough leaving it at home when I go to work, never mind actually giving it away.

The lavender sugar smells floral and mellow, and I’m thinking of pairing it with some white chocolate in a batch of cookies. I’ve baked with lavender a few times – lavender macarons and lavender icing were both well received so I look forward to trying something new.

Keeping with the sugary theme, Lin also included a little box of these wonderful sugar hearts. These were also handmade! I saw the technique for this on Pinterest recently and plan on trying some of my own, but now I have a very high standard to live up to. What’s more, Lin’s kids helped her to make these hearts, and also helped her to infuse the lavender sugar – what a talented family they must be.

The final addition to my parcel this month was these little decorative crackers. They are so pretty! I will try to start including them in my blog photos to fancy them up a bit. Who knows, perhaps now that I have them I’ll become a good photographer?

 

My other penpal this month, the one I sent a parcel to, is Monique at What I Am Up To. Monique lives in Germany, so it was great fun trying to think of interesting things to send her. Head over to her blog to see what I ended up putting in the parcel (there will be a recipe post about one of the items soon!).

If this has inspired you to join in with Foodie Penpals, we’d be delighted to have you! If you’re in the UK or Europe, you can find out more about it at the Foodie Penpals page here on Rock Salt. If you’re in the US or Canada, you can find out more at The Lean Green Bean, where you will also be able to read many other reveal posts from blogs in the UK, Europe, the US and Canada.

The basic premise of Foodie Penpals is that every month, you are assigned one person to send a thoughtful parcel to, and a different person will send to you. This way, you’re meeting two new foodie chums at once. You can specify any and all dietary requirements and preferences and these will be respected, so no worries about ending up with a box full of liquorice (or whatever your least favourite food is) or a big load of chocolate when you’re trying your best to eat healthily.

The group is free to join, and you can opt out again at any time. What are you waiting for?!

Foodie Penpals May 2012

Time for another Foodie Penpals reveal! This month I was really lucky, and was matched with Jessi who lives in the Netherlands. Jessi prepared a really special parcel for me, featuring a mix of Dutch treats and more globally recognisable things!

The first thing I had a look at were two packets of spice mix, one specifically for salmon and one for general use. Part of the fun in opening this parcel was trying to pronounce and translate the Dutch writing on everything, that kept us quite amused at work – perhaps for a little too long…

Jessi had also written little notes on everything to tell me what it all was, which I thought made the parcel even more special. It was obvious that she’d put a lot of thought into everything, and I must thank her again for it.

 

The next thing was a box of Pannenoeken, which is pancake mix to you and me. Looking forward to trying these with some bacon and maple syrup, or a nice thick layer of jam.

After the Pannenkoeken, I took out two packets of Dutch cookies – one is stroopwafel, which my colleague immediately recognised as a favourite treat of hers from times she’d been on holiday to the Netherlands. Needless to say I subtly put these just out of her reach. The other packet is a mix of cookies, which Jessi and I are going to both try so we can compare notes! I’ve opened the stroopwafel and had two in a row, before dinner – very bad, but they really are a delicious snack, two crisp and sweet waffle patterned biscuits held together with caramel in the middle.Just as good as they sound.

Another thing I loved about these cookies was the packaging – so kitsch and quaintly Dutch!

For me, the piece de resistance of the parcel was the next item – and it was such a stand out because I never, ever expected to see it:

 

A bottle of wine in the post! This was a great surprise, and I’m so pleased that it made it safely in the airmail. Slightly amazed too, in truth… I have plans to make this delicious wine into a fruity, refreshing sangria. On the same day as I received my penpal parcel, I got a recipe book in the post that I won in a competition months ago – it’s a Spanish cookbook. I feel like the universe was telling me to make sangria.

As well as all these lovely things, Jessi put in some things of her own that she said were languishing in her cupboard. All I can say is that I’m delighted to re-home them and will try to put them to good use. They were a really good quality heart shaped cookie cutter, two packets of pretty cupcake cases and a weird (I hope Jessi will forgive me for describing it that way) jelly mould, that you can use to make egg shaped jelly. While it is a slightly odd idea, I can see me using in future kitchen experiments where I want to make something egg shaped – not necessarily just jelly. It comes with instructions for making clear jelly and creamy jelly. Again, the word ‘weird’ wants to escape my keyboard, but so do the words ‘interesting’ and ‘fun’, and overall the word ‘generous’ as Jessi went above and beyond to send me a great parcel.

 

 

If you would like to be part of Foodie Penpals, you can see all the details at How it Works, then if you’d like to join in, read the Terms and Conditions – you can sign up from the bottom of the T&Cs page! It’s a lovely community based around thoughtful parcels and getting to know new bloggers within the UK and Europe.You don’t have to be a blogger to join in, everyone with an interest in food is more than welcome. Who knows, next month it could be you getting a bottle of wine delivered to your desk…

To see all the blog posts from this month, visit The Lean Green Bean where you’ll find a linky post featuring enough Foodie Penpals posts from the UK, Europe, Canada and the US to keep you going for quite some time.

 

A final close up on those cute cupcake cases – it’s a wee rabbit!