Foodie Penpals - August 2012 #foodiepenpals

Since I had such fun doing this last month, I signed up for Foodie Pen Pals again this month! I received a package in such speedy-fast time from Katie from The Eight Hour Project that I suspect she is an alien or something. Who on Earth gets stuff done EARLY?

My Loot

Two Leaves and a Bud Tea Company's Assam Breakfast Tea - Mmmmm. I love me some fine, rich, strong tea. With a crap-ton of sugar! Ahhhhhh!

Whole Foods' 365 Safflower Oil - This intimidates me. It looks like it is used for cooking things. I am not skilled. It says it's good for "High Heat" cooking. Maybe next time I try the PF Chang's copycat wraps. Or I'll let Hubby try something ambitious. I wonder if this is good for deep frying...

Brad's RAW Leafy Kale Vampire Killer flavor - I barely got to try these, between my little kale chip fiend and Hubby, who was excited to see ones that weren't over-salted or burnt. Harumph.

Near East Wild Mushroom and Herb Couscous - We had fun making "hug hug couscous" jokes [get it? Hug hug kiss kiss?] all night as we ate our surprisingly yummy couscous. Z even asked for seconds! I avoid "frou frou" foods like risotto and couscous on the principal that they are too fancy and complexicated for me. But this was a snap to make. Seriously. An untrained monkey could have done it. Now that's MY kind of cooking! 

I wasn't sure about Baby and mushrooms, but Hubby and I decided to go for it anyways. Baby E loved this. LOVED IT! If I wasn't shovelling it into her gob fast enough, she'd start fussing. I had to hose her off afterwards, though, since she was coated in little couscous granules!

I even went out on a limb and bought some plain tricolor couscous to try my own concoctions. You know. For kids.

Here are the rules, if you're interested in trying this Foodie Penpals thing for yourself in the future:

-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!