My fellow food bloggers are the most fun and creative folks! This month I signed up to do a sort of “Penpal” exchange with other bloggers. We each agreed to send a box of food to our selected pal and in return a different pal sent us a box of goodies. There were a few restrictions, such as don’t send chocolate bars to the dessert, but other than that it was open to the imagination.
box of toppings
My foodie penpal was Kathi Jo Patterson, of Chino, California. Kathi sent me a box of goodies from her favorite store – Trader Joe’s. And her these was “toppings” which she entitled The box of Big toppings.
salsas
Two by two she sent toppings from categories like “butters,” “salsa,” “savor,y” and “Grinders.” Like animals going into the Ark, they were preserved for the future.
To top it all off was a bag of nuts, because we foodies are a bunch of nuts!
savory
She also sent along a prayer card and a letter giving me ideas as to what to do with some of the items…such as cookie butter. I opened that one right away and spread some on graham crackers. My dog Zoe and I both loved the gingerbread flavor.
butters
grinders
toppings galore
Can’t wait to try the other toppings. Thanks so much Kathi Jo for putting so much thought and personality into your box.
For my side, I sent my foodie penpal a box of items made in Iowa, including a box of my favorite gingersnap cookies – made by me.
If you’d like to read more of the foodie penpals, check out Lindsay Livington at the Lean Grean Bean.
www.theleangreenbean.com
Here’s Linsay’s explanation of the program in case you’d like to participate!
And now it’s time for some details about Foodie Penpals. In case you’re a new reader, here’s a reminder of what the program is all about:
-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 September 4th as pairings will be emailed on September 5th!
Lindsay Livingston
The Lean Green Bean
http://www.theleangreenbean.com @LeanGrnBeanBlog