foodie penpal reveal!

In late July, my foodie friend Sarah told me about an online program she'd discovered called Foodie Penpals that's run by Lindsay of the Lean Green Bean. Some of you might know that as a kid, I had several pen pals, and I still love to write -- and receive! -- letters and postcards today (Izzy and I have been writing since we were 6 and 7). The idea that I could have another pen pal paired with a mystery package of yummy foods was enough to make me hop in line. Well, today's the big reveal, when all the Foodie Penpals bloggers post about what they received this month.


The person who was given my name was Autumn from Illinois, just over the Wisconsin-Illinois border. We emailed a few times while she was deciding what to select for my package, and I learned she's lucky enough to work at a local farm market. Here's what she sent.

• Gin-Gins are one of my favorite candies. They're super chewy and pack a ton of gingery flavor. I have the bag at my desk, so when I'm craving a snack, I eat one of these. It's spicy, so it makes me feel full.
• Blue Farm organic tortilla chips are distributed by a company in Janesville, Wisconsin, so pretty local for both of us! I'm saving them for a time when we have salsa. It seems that our abundant supply of tomatoes has been going into Italian-inspired dishes lately, but I'm betting that Labor Day weekend will be the perfect time to pop open the bag.
• I'd been seeing recipes for dilly beans and wanting to try them. I was thrilled to find a jar right in my foodie box. They are delicious -- spicy and pickly, and I can't wait to make my own next summer.
• I love jam and pie, so am very much looking forward to opening this jar of strawberry-rhubarb jam. Unfortunately, I'd opened a jar of delicious apricot-peach jam the day before I got this package, so I'm trying to finish that off before I open a new one. There's just no way around moldy jam.
• Can't go wrong with maple syrup! Big breakfasts are a weekend staple at our house (ha! I can finally say "house"!), and it just might be due to our love of pure, authentic maple syrup.
• Kind of ironic that I'm writing about it last because it was the first to be devoured, but my box also contained cherries and almond dark chocolate. If you see this somewhere, buy it. It is the perfect combination of tart cherries, slightly sweet chocolate and roasted salted almonds. Yum. So good, that I felt like Augustus Gloop while I was eating it.

I sent a foodie box to Amanda from Colorado (because the program has over 1,000 people and we each get a new pal every month, people don't exchange packages; it's more of a round-robin). When we were writing pre-mailing, she told me she's gluten free, which added a twist to my shopping agenda. It was a fun challenge to find things she could use and enjoy. If all goes as planned today, she'll be writing about my package at her blog, Natural Living Mamma. I hope she likes it!

I'll be curious to read more about Sarah's foodie box at her blog, Food, Fun and Life in Waukesha. And you can find out what others got by searching #foodiepenpals on Twitter.