October Foodie Penpal

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BOO!

Okay, okay . . . I know Halloween is not everyone’s cup of tea, but I happen to love it. I have so many fond memories of going Trick-or-Treating with my brothers in the freezing cold or pouring rain, but coming home with bags and bags of candy. Looking back, most of it was really cheap-o candy that you’d normally never buy, but still – the thrill was there.

My sender for October was Kim. I was very impressed when I got an email from Kim saying that the package was on it’s way, and it was only the middle of the month! When I got it and opened it, I wasn’t even thinking about Halloween that was still almost two weeks away.

Boy – was I in for a treat (and not a trick!)

Once I got through the postal packaging, I was greeted with this, and I could tell this was going to be a good one.

The complete package

The complete package

It was completely wrapped like a wonderful pressie under the tree at Christmas, but it was a Halloween themed wrapping paper, with a little note taped to the outside.

The Dare

The Dare

Who could resist that?

So I dared, and opened up the box, wondering if a black cat was going to come leaping out at me. . . But as much as I like cats, what I found was even better!

The box

The box


and it was full of cobwebs!
The Cobwebs

The Cobwebs


and spiders! EEEEEEEEK!
The Spider

The Spider


Every item was wrapped individually in either black or orange paper, just to keep the Halloween theme up. I got a lovely card inside the package, and I could hardly wait to delve in and unwrap everything like an excited 3 year old!

One of the first things I came to was a bottle of Vampire hot tomato relish.

Vampire Tomato Salsa

Vampire Tomato Salsa


Let me tell you what this is good on. EVERYTHING! It’s not burn-your-mouth-out hot – it’s just full of flavour and zing. You could have it on most things – it is delicious.

Then I grabbed this box of cheese thingies

The Cheese bits

The Cheese bits


Now you know by just looking at them that they’re going to be good. The kind of good that when you put them in your mouth, your eyes roll back in your head a bit. They are delightful.

Then I picked up the bag of gold. . . er . . . I mean honeycomb!

Whole lot of Honeycomb

Whole lot of Honeycomb


To my knowledge, we do not have this readily available in the USA where I grew up. So I find this particular sweet very appealing. I like it’s simplicity. I guess it kind of reminds me of Cotton Candy (Candy Floss), which IS readily available in the US. In any case, I love it and my dentist loves Kim for sending it, as it will keep her in business!

The next thing I reached for was this Chili making kit.

The Chilli-making kit

The Chili-making kit


Chili is one of our favourite household dinners, especially in the cooler weather, so this could not have come at a better time. I have seen these little kits in the shops, but have never had the nerve to try them. I have this one ear-marked for next Wednesday night. I can’t wait!

Next, I came to this very large, very smoked garlic.

Smoked Garlic

Smoked Garlic


Probably out of all the things in the box, this was one of my favourites because I have sent smoked garlic bulbs very similar to this in the past, but never had the nerve to try it myself. Now I get to! Maybe I’ll squish some in to the chili next week!

After that, I grabbed this ghostly character.

Ghostly Gingerbread

Ghostly Gingerbread


It was a lovely piece of gingerbread – still a bit soft and bendy, and the perfect gingerbread cookie – even if it was a bit scary!

Now came the surprise of the package.

Cheese and Onion Chocolate!

Cheese and Onion Chocolate!


This is a chocolate bar with little bits of cheese and onion crisps in it. Now before you turn your nose up at this and decide it sounds dreadful (which it does), you MUST try it. It is a case of the sweet chocolate being the perfect compliment to the salty crisps. This shouldn’t work together, but it does. I recommend every tries this once. Or maybe even twice.

And finally, I fished out these three little treats.

Little Treats!

Little Treats!


These are the perfect little pick-me-ups during my work day when I just need a little something sweet to wake me up a bit.

Kim, you did a fantastic job and should be commended on the amount of thought and effort that clearly went into this package. It was a delight to have from the very first layer to the last little item in the box. It was the most appropriate Halloween package, and I thank you. Well done!

June Foodie Penpal Reveal (what I sent out)

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As you can clearly tell, my blogging is still in its infancy. But I learn new things with every article I post, so I WILL get there – I promise.

This site wasn’t up and running in time for the last round of Foodie Penpal reveals, but I think we’re really good to go this month. This particular posting is about the package I gathered to send to lovely Lisa in Craigavon.

I have historically used all kinds of shopping sources to fulfil the penpal requirements. I would really like to use our Farmers’ Market that comes to Epsom every month, as more and more unusual vendors are selling their wares. And it’s all local stuff – which is kind of the point, right? But our once-a-month market shows up on the first Sunday of the month. And our new Penpal matches aren’t sent out until the 5th of the month, so unless that first Sunday falls on the 6th or 7th, I’m stuffed. So sorry Lisa – no local-to-Epsom products in your parcel this month.

I was lucky enough to visit the Lake District earlier this month, however, and I tend to picture all of the Lake District like a Beatrix Potter sketch. So with countryside that cute, I knew I could probably find at least a couple of items there . . . and I wasn’t disappointed. A combination of traipsing through Grange-over-Sands and Cartmel really provided me with a variety of things that I just wouldn’t find here in Surrey. So I did pick up a few things for the parcel.

But I knew I needed more items once I got back home, so I did the ‘farm shop’ google and found several within an acceptable radius. I chose one and went for it. Boy, did I strike gold! I found a place called The Larder, and it is a magical shop with local grocery items – and some very unusual things. It’s a quite petite shop, but it still took me about 20 minutes to walk around and see the whole thing. And this is where I did the rest of my shopping. Note to my future recipients: be watching for more items from here!

So here are a few things that went into this month’s parcel –

Ready for the goodies!

Ready for the goodies!

The first big decision, of course, is what box to use. I now tend to keep all the boxes that I get stuff in, just for the foodie penpal, so we might need to move house to incorporate the extra cardboard I’ve accumulated.

Chocolate handbag

Chocolate handbag

In Grange-over-Sands, there is the most delightful chocolate shop (I kind of feel like it’s more of a “ye olde shoppe”), and one of the things Lisa said she liked was chocolate. And what girl doesn’t like a handbag, so a combination of the two seemed appropriate.

Pretty pasta

Pretty pasta

Lisa also told me she likes pasta, and this was so pretty that I had to get this – also from Grange-over-Sands. I think it must have other flavours in it, but I just liked the colours.

Smoked garlic

Smoked garlic

The rest of the stuff came from The Larder in Cobham. This freshly smoked bulb of garlic was just so aromatic, and nice and light to post! So that went in – although I did double wrap it in two zip-lock baggies to try to contain the aroma.

Snacking Salami

Snacking Salami

Battered broad beans

Battered broad beans

I had send the snacking salami as it looked really nice, and then I happened upon the battered broad beans. I have to say that I glanced at it and thought the flavour said “Mojito”, which has to be great on anything, right? It wasn’t until I got home and was wrapping everything up that I realised they weren’t actually mojito-flavoured. Sorry, Lisa . . .

Ladybug!

Ladybug!


Lemon & Black Pepper chocolate

Lemon & Black Pepper chocolate

And finally – a few more sweet things, because you never can have too many – some lemon and black pepper chocolate and a lucky ladybug!

What a fun package this was to put together. I wonder what the next one will bring?