February Foodie Penpal Reveal

This month marks my one year anniversary since joining foodie penpals and I have enjoyed every minute of it. However I must say when I got an email from Leah asking about all my likes/dislikes and she told me she would be sending me a package from Okinawa Japan I got very excited! Just knowing my package was coming from half way around the world I knew this was going to be fantastic. Let me tell you Leah did not disappoint! I really can't even begin to thank you enough Leah! The package was fantastic and I don't even know where to begin.

This is what I was greeted with as I opened the box. I love that Leah included some menus and sales flyers from Japan. She even included the letter that her electric bill comes in. She can't read it so she just pays it.

Then it got into all the goodies!YUM!

I told her that I love chocolate and peanut butter and she definitely ran with that which I love.

This was an array of chocolate "bars" that she sent me. Leah thank you so much for your notes some of them I wouldn't of had a clue; not that it would have stopped me from trying them! I have already tried the mega combo which was tasty a cross between a wafer and those hershey delites chocolates. I also drove into the Godiva bar. Who can resist anything that says it is filled with chocolate souffle? The one on the bottom left is their version of a larabar or soyjoy. I have yet to try it but no doubt that I will most likely enjoy it!

These caught my eye next. They are probably the smallest donuts I have ever seen. And they are yummy too! I had to make sure I put the bag away so I didn't eat them all at once.

I had to break this into two to be able to take a picture because it was too long for me to get the whole thing and it be a close shot. It reminds me of the candy you could get at a carnival or fair. They are all individually packaged but stuck together with perforations in between each which has been fantastic cause I can pack one in my lunch for a little something sweet and not have to worry about not eating a whole candy bar, etc.

This is probably the one thing I am most excited to try although I will admit I have not tried it yet. It is basically little packets that you squeeze together to get chocolate peanut butter. My two favorite things!!

The note had fallen off this one and until I opened it and figured out that this is the note that went with it I was totally lost what this was. I opened it and had to taste it despite that it is bitter cocoa spread. It actually tastes pretty good. I have decided I want to use this in my baking some how I haven't decided exactly how but I will figure it out.

These are interesting because when I think of caramel corn I think of popped popcorn caramelized. However these are different, the texture is more like Cheetos but they are sweet and strawberry flavored. This was a big hit with my husband. He has become very involved with the foodie penpal packages and that is what he chose to open to try.

I was very excited about these. When I went on a kayaking trip last year one of the snacks they had for us were these organic dried veggies which are very similar to these. They were really good and I am hoping these will be the same when I try them.

I love the Leah sent some hard candy too. The bag on the left is flavored sugarless candies. They are delicious and I would have never guessed they were sugarless they are that good. The ones on the right are lemon & salt. They are very good and a very interesting combo. I was a little unsure at first but it definitely a good flavor.

This package was 100% worth the wait and I really can't thank Leah enough for listening to my likes/dislikes and sending such a phenomenal package! and of course thanks to Lindsay for putting together this fantastic program!

Now after reading all this you know you want to join for March, so here is all the info!

-On the 5th of the 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 can choose 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 Penpals is open to US, Canadian residents & UK residents.

Click HERE to get more information on the terms and conditions of the program and to sign up!

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. So, I’m going to keep two separate lists and match US w/ US and Canada w/ Canada!
***If you’re in the UK, please contact Carol Anne from This Is Rock Salt at rocksalt@thisisrocksalt.com to get involved!

Jingle Bell Chocolate Tour

My mom was looking through a magazine she got at the New Hampshire liquor store of all places last year around this time and came across an ad for the Jingle Bell Chocolate Tour. However it was the last weekend it was being offered and it was sold out. So going on this tour was a year in the making.

Once we finally figured out where it was and how we order tickets we asked my friend Sara and her mom if we could possibly make a weekend out of it and stay at their house in New Hampshire. They of course said yes. Sara's mom's friend Donna also came and my best friend Julia and her mom came along with us as well.

We had tickets for the 2pm tour in Jackson, Nh so we left Wolfeboro about 12:15pm to head up there. After an hour and 20 minute ride we arrived at Nestlenook Estate and Resort.

Once we were there and parked we got to walk through the estate which was exactly what you would think a cute little winter resort would look like. You could go ice skating, sleigh rides around the property or just enjoy your stay there. We went over to check in for our tour 

which was inside an enclosed gazebo 

that had a sleigh inside for photo ops as well as a lovely fire going. We got our tickets and of course our jingle bells to wear on our tour, and our first chocolate which was chocolate covered coconut, took some photos in the sleigh

  and headed outside to get some hot chocolate which was delicious! Then we headed over to wait for our sleigh.

We got on and got settled under our horse blankets and met Issac our tour guide who was very nice!

  Then we were off on our way to the first stop The Inn at Jackson! Where two lovely little girls greeted us with some yummy white chocolate cranberry almond candies.

Then we were off to our next stop. We slid up to Backcountry Bakery & Cafe where a nice woman came out ready to give us our treats.

 She approached up with a huge tray of brownies. We learned that they were double chocolate espresso brownies. 

I love brownies so I had to take a bite. They were good but the espresso flavor was too over powering for me, which did not stop me from eating the whole thing later that night. 

We said our thanks you and started on over to The Wentworth Inn.

Where again we were greeted by a lovely lady bringing us chocolate chip cranberry cookies dipped in chocolate. Oh how I love chocolate!!

 I saved that for when I got home after dinner. Even though I am not a fan of cranberries it was quite tasty!

After our fellow riders were saved from Mikey and Butch the horses on the sleigh behind us we were off again and pulled up to J-Town Deli where there was a large basket coming towards us with all these little white bundles. We couldn't wait to see what this was going to be.

We were pleasantly surprised to find that they were homemade nonpareils. I tried one right away and they were pretty good. I saved the rest for later.

I was most excited for our next stop because we had past it on the way out and because of it's name The Snowflake Inn. I love all things related to snowflakes! They also had their porch all decorated for Christmas with Santa and all.

Then another tray was approaching us and when she came to our sleigh all I heard was Kahlua balls and I was sold!

The great thing is that they had another option for those that didn't want the alcohol ones. They were white chocolate dipped pretzel sticks. Some of us got one of each but I only got the Kahlua ball which I ended up having enough trouble eating cause I kept dropping it haha. But it was still worth having to pick it up three times.

The last stop was probably my favorite chocolate while on the sleigh. We pulled up to Flossie's General Store and emporium. 

We were greeted by a very homely looking man with a basket. 

It took some coaxing to find out exactly what kind of truffles they were. But he finally told us they were Chocolate Truffles which turned out to be amazing!

Then it was time to head back to Nestlenook Estates. We got off our sleigh and then had a little photo shoot with our horses Fred and Pete.

Then we toured the grounds after we all got some more hot chocolate to warm us up after having those blankets on and now being totally exposed. It really was a beautiful place to be.

If you are interested in going on this tour (which I highly recommend) next weekend is already sold out but they do have openings for December 22nd so get them while you can! Call 1-800-866-3334 otherwise your tour will be a year in the making as well cause you will have to wait til 2013.

September Foodie Penpal Reveal

This month my foodie penpal was Sara from Sarathlete. She did a fantastic job of putting together a great package for me. It's funny because when I opened the box it was all covered/wrapped with purple tissue paper...

my first thought was 'oh I love it.' my second thought was 'I don't remember telling Sara purple was my favorite color.' Then I went back and checked out her blog again which has lots of purple and so I came to the conclusion that it just so happens that we both like purple. But it was a nice surprise in the box none the less and made me even more excited to see what was under it.

The first thing I spied were theses.

 I am a huge fan of Trader Joe's but I had never had theses so I couldn't wait to try them. I LOVE CHOCOLATE! Of course as soon as I ate them I was in love. The funny thing is that my husband is now just as excited about foodie penpal boxes as I am and he does not like chocolate. However I am pretty sure he ended up eating more of these than I did. (yea they are that good)

Next thing I took out was...

mini milk chocolate peanut butter cups! my two favorite things all together. There was only one problem (sort of) you would think that at this point sending anything like this to the New England area in September the likely hood of anything melting would be pretty small however something happened and they were all melted together. But have no fear that did not stop me! I ate the whole package anyway. Don't worry not all at once. Even all squished together they were still delicious!! Definitely something I will be getting again.

Then I took this out...

The cocoa almond butter from Trader Joe's is one of my favorite chocolate flavored nut butters out there. I love to use it in the morning with my breakfast. This couldn't have come at a better time because I just finished the jar I had and was in need of some more!

Now I was getting to the last few things in the box and the next thing that caught my eye was...

Trader Joe's peanut butter chewy coated & drizzled granola bars. I was so excited to see these for three reasons. First because I LOVE peanut butter. Second because I really like granola bars and I like trying new ones. And third because I like to have little snacks with me and these would be perfect. I have to admit I am always a little weary of sending a whole box of something in case they don't like it. However Sara was right on the money sending the whole thing because they are delicious and I still have some left even after using them for snack while at work. This was a great find!!

The last thing I pulled out of the box was...

GHIRARDELLI! It is hard for me to find a Ghirardelli chocolate that I don't like. It takes some getting used to for me to like the dark chocolates so I am working on these but I am sure they will be delicious.

One of the cool things Sara does is in every foodie penpal box she sends she puts in one thing that is vegan but she doesn't tell you which one it is, she asks that you guess. Well I was very thorough and really study all the ingredients of each thing she sent me. When I was sure that I had the right thing I emailed her back and told her that I thought the Ghirardelli chocolates were vegan. As it turns out I was correct! It is always good to know about new things that are vegan. Although I am not vegan I try to be as educated as possible so that I am sending people things they can eat.

As I am writing this and looking back on everything I got I see the theme Sara was going for Chocolate and Nut Butter. I approve this theme 100%.

Thank you again Sara you did a fantastic job and I have enjoyed everything! And of course thank you to Lindsay over at The Lean Green Bean for putting this whole program together and managing everything too!

Now, after reading that don’t you want a penpal of your own?! Here are 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 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 September, please CLICK HERE to fill out the participation form and read the terms and conditions.

You must submit your information by October 4th as pairings will be emailed on October 5th!
*If you’re from somewhere besides the US, Canada or Europe and want to participate, send me an email and I’ll see if we get enough interest this month!