July's Foodie Penpal reveal day................

Well it's that time of the month again, so it must be time for one thing. Reveal day!

This month I was selected to send my box to Kimberley @ fullasanegg Apart from a dislike of perfumey (is that a word?) tastes she didn't have any preferences so I was able to run wild with my box. You can see what she thought of it here.

I received my box from the lovely Julia @ sthingmissing.    She writes a brilliant blog with recipes that all "have something missing" whether that be gluten, dairy, eggs or meat/animal products proving that you don't have to miss out on great food and treats if you are on a restrictive diet. Her pineapple and coconut semi-freddo recipe is to die for!

 I always try and resist peeking at the box's content before I've read the letter, but after reading she'd made me some gingerbread men I just couldn't resist and had to have a quick peek. They looked so cute looking up at me with their wonderful chocolate shoes. She even sent me a cookie cutter and the recipe so I could have a go at making my own. There is only two left in the photo, the rest had already been devoured by my little boy and his friend. I did manage to try one of the remaining ones and it was delicious.

 Stevie has helped me eat the Cadbury's chocolate mascot too. It was like eating an Easter egg in the middle of July.  We live near to the City of Coventry stadium where some of the Olympic football matches are being played, so it's nice to get into the spirit of the games (any excuse for chocolate!)

I love both mustard and Guinness so I was excited to find this little beauty in my box. I quite like a cheese and mustard sandwich (I'm odd, I know) so that's how I first tried it. The Guinness flavour was very subtle but it was a nice mustard all the same. I'm going to try in my sausage and leek casserole when the weather cools down.
I nearly bought plantain chips to go in the parcel I send this month but changed my mind at the last minute so I'm interested in trying them myself, but I haven't got round to sampling them yet.
The thing I'm most excited about is trying Julia's Tom Yam Kung recipe, she sent me. She told be how she had learnt this recipe from the locals at a Thai cookery school whilst travelling in Thailand. She thoughtfully included some of the ingredients for me to use. Lime leaves are not something I would usually keep in my store cupboard so it was fantastic to find them in my box.

 Another first for me is white tea. I love spiced tea and enjoying drinking fruit teas in the summer but I like my black tea very, very strong so I wasn't sure if the delicate taste of white tea would be for me. I was actually quite surprised as I really quite liked it.
Thanks again go to Julia for putting together my box of treasure.

If you are in the UK and would like to take part next month, fill in the application form here  before the 4th August. If you are reading this from America or Canada they you can join in here

Foodie Penpal June Reveal

Another project I found whilst browsing Pinterest was Foodie Penpals. What stated as a small project in America organized by Lindsay at theleangreenbean  in September 2011 has now turned into something much bigger. Carol Anne from thisisrocksalt bravely took on the challenge of bringing the scheme over the pond so we could take part too. The basic premise of Foodie Penpals is that every month, you are assigned one person to send a thoughtful foodie parcel to and a different person will send to you.

So this was the first month that I've taken part and I couldn't wait to get started but as I had just missed this month's deadline Carol Anne paired me with a Penpal called Emma to do a direct swap with. Emma and I exchanged a few emails to suss out each others likes and dislikes and with a spend limit of £10 we had until the 20th of June to post our parcels.

So here's what I received......................................

Cheese and Jalapeno Popcorn.

She must have read my mind as we have a real thing for popcorn at the minute. When I have family visit from Canada I always ask the to bring me a brand of popcorn called Smartfood. It's popcorn with a powdered white cheese coating (it tastes better than it sounds). I love the stuff so I'm hoping this stuff tasted similar with a bit of a kick.

Pink Himalayan Salt

I had never heard of this before so did a quick google to find out more about it. Apparently it contains the full spectrum of 84 minerals and trace elements. It is an unrefined, unprocessed "raw" salt that's hand-mined from salt caves that were formed 250 million years ago as ocean salt settled in pockets around the earth. It is suppose to give a more complex flavour to dishes and as it has a strong taste you need use less of it.

Clipper Indian Chai Tea

I'd told Emma I loved drinking chai tea so I was really please to see some included in my box. I haven't tried this brand so I'm looking forward to trying it.

Organic Mango Slices

I'm love my snacks and these were delicious. A perfect mid afternoon snack.

Silverspoon Icing and Paper Cases

Emma also send me a cupcake recipe so I'm going to give it a go and decorate them using these. I'll blog about my results when I get round to it.

My favorite part of the parcel had to be Emma's letter. It contained some fabulous recipes including cupcakes and pumpkin soup but the ones I'm most looking forward to try are the barley recipes, both sweet and savory. I love pearl barley but just tend to throw it into stews and soups so it was nice to see it being used in a different way. Emma's recipes are cooked in the slow cooker which appeals to me and I'm looking forward to trying the "Breakfast Barley" recipe and using the nutmeg and mini grater that Emma also included.

I was provided a with a really thoughtful box and my greatest thanks go to Emma for sending it to me. Hopefully you will be able to see the box I sent Emma here

I really had fun both putting Emma's box together and receiving hers, so I'll definitely be taking part again next month. If you are in the UK and interested in taking part you can find out more about the project here and if you are reading this from America or Canada then have a look here

My first postcard

Well I've been waiting for nearly 2 weeks to do my post and for a very good reason.

I recently discovered Pinterest which I must say is utterly addictive. Anyway while browsing a few people's boards I came across a website called Postcrossing. It's a postcard exchange project that invites everyone to send and receive postcards from random places in the world. After reading a bit about it I duly signed up and posted my first postcard to a lady called Sari in the Netherlands. The idea is once the member receives it they register it using the unique code assigned to each postcard. You then become eligible to receive a postcard from another random user anywhere in the world.
My postcard to Sari only took 2 days to arrive in the Netherlands and since then I've been patiently waiting to receive my first postcard. Of course I had no idea where in the world it was being sent from and therefore how long I would be waiting in anticipation. That was until Wednesday and I heard the postman pushing the mail through the letterbox.

Look what was waiting for me on the doormat...................................

It was a postcard from Ola in Poland.

She told me that the Polish have a saying which goes "Porywać się z motyką na słońce" (To lunge at the sun with a hoe). It means "to bite of more than you can chew". Don’t you just love idioms?

I've since posted a number of other postcards to various places in the world and I can't wait to start receiving some back and filling up my new pinboard. I'll update you along the way......

My very first post, in more ways than one

Well here goes...................

My name is Kim and I'm married to Kev, my husband of  2 years. Together we have a beautiful little boy called Stevie who was born in the Spring of 2011.

This blog is primarily about my love of post (or mail) and how it touches my life but I expect I will veer of course regularly and it will come to also contain posts about food, crafts and family life.

I've always loved sending and receiving post for as long as I can remember. A lot of my family emigrated to Canada during the 70s and 80s so I got to know my cousins through the letters we exchanged as kids. I recently found a bag containing these letters and I spent nearly an hour reminiscing and having a good giggle at the things we wrote about. My Auntie Kerry also used to send postcards to my brother and I from the far-flung exotic places she visited whilst working on the cruise ships.

I must have caught the bug because when I was 11 or 12 I joined a penpal scheme run by Royal Mail. I was paired with 2 penpals, Susanna and Cristina, both from Spain. As I didn't speak and word of Spanish and their English was limited to say the least, our letters never really progressed from "Hello, How are you?" stage but I still remember the excitement, getting home from school to find the postman and visited and left post just for me.

There are a number a ways that nowadays I'm involved with sending and receiving post. This things take up a varying about of my time but each gives me great pleasure. I'll post more about them soon but for now...............

Happy posting