Foodie Penpals October Reveal

It feels like a long time since the September Foodie Penpals reveal post, so much so that we almost have nothing left to show for the parcel we received earlier this month. My penpal this month was Heather Tucker whose life and accomplishments fascinate me! Heather is from the US but lives in Rotterdam so I was very excited at the prospect of a parcel full of Dutch treats and that is indeed what we received. Heather, amongst a long list of other exciting things, writes a fantastic blog over at www.cloggiecentral.com.

So here's my parcel, it was full of surprises and Heather had catered very well for Simon's gluten intolerance!

Sausage, chocolate, cake, sweets - you can't go wrong with a box like that!

I was excitedly studying the contents of my parcel to find Eben (left) had already tucked into the Chocolate 'Zwarte Piet' (right) and pretty much demolished it!

The 'Hagelslag & Vlokken' (boxes of chocolate & fruit sprinkles) were one of the most exciting things in the box - they are traditionally eaten on a piece of bread for breakfast. Most chocolate sprinkles taste nothing like chocolate and are just like dressed up sugar but these sprinkles, they really taste like chocolate - it was like my toast turned into a pain au chocolat! 

So then I put some of the fruit sprinkles on my 'OnbijtKoek' - its an amazing dutch spiced cake that's sticky and delicious and also traditionally eaten for breakfast.

Heather bought us a nice lot of dark chocolate and some cinnamon, I'd literally just finished my jar of cinnamon so that was super handy. She gave us a recipe for Cinnamon Chocolate Mousse which I made for friends on Friday night and it went down well!

I can no longer find either of the items above in our cupboards which implies to me that Simon has claimed them as his own.. On the left we have 'Drop' which are licorice sweets, they're like those milk bottle sweets you get from the sweet shop but licorice flavour. The chocolate 'S' is meant to be for 'Sinter Klaas' but being that it is Si's first initial he has decided the 'S' stands for Simon.

This 'S' is for sausage - Eben's favourite. I made a really easy risotto with this Dutch Smoked Sausage and Eben loved it!

The 'Stroopwafel' on the left is possibly the item I am most excited by. I usually buy these in Starbucks and sit them on my latte to go all gooey, now I get to do it at home! I'm just waiting for a quiet moment when I can enjoy a cup of coffee and delicious waffle! The 'Old Dutch' sweets on the right served us very well on a recent long car journey, they are really unusual flavours but went down a treat!

I think we did extremely well with this month's Foodie Penpals parcel, thanks so much to Heather who sent us such an exciting and enjoyable box. If you're interested in Foodie Penpals I really would recommend it, just have a look here at how to get involved.

If you're wondering who I sent my parcel to, I am delighted to reveal to you Fiona Potter who doesn't have her own blog at the moment so is guesting on my blog today:

Foodie Penpal October Reveal - Fiona Potter

This was my first month of taking part in Foodie Penpals and what a good first month it has been!

I received a beautifully packaged food parcel from the thoughtful Carly. Carly had chosen an autumn theme for my parcel, so had filled the box with some autumnal treats. As you can see Carly had wrapped or put the food goodies into cute little jars all with hand written labels on them.

The box contained some tasty homemade items such as a loaf of Sticky Stem Ginger Cake, which as you can see from my photo didn’t last long. You can get the recipe from here.

Other homemade items included Slow Cooker Pear and Apple Butter , which as explained in the letter she had put in the parcel was picked as Apples and Pears are at their best this season. I also followed her suggestion and spread some of the butter on to some crumpets for a weekend treat and it was delicious!

There was also a jar of spiced cocoa which really did taste of Autumn and was perfect for a cold day. The cocoa was a combination of sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. Carly had kindly included extra marshmallows and cool stripy cups to use on bonfire night which is a brilliant idea and a really nice touch.

Lastly, Carly included a fig and almond wedge that she had chosen as figs are also in season. She had suggested that the wedge went extremely well with some cheese. I was adventurous and as it was from Spain, I tried it with some Spanish cheese called Manchego. It turned out to be a great combination as they went beautifully together.

I have really enjoyed being part of this scheme and definitely recommend it and thank you Carly for such a great introduction to Foodie Penpals.

You are welcome Fiona! I'm going to take a break from Foodie Penpals in November as I'll be putting the money towards making a Christmas cake instead but I hope to join again in December as long as I'm on top of my Christmas gift making!