It’s time again for the Food Penpals monthly reveal post. For August I was matched up with Jenny who is a delightful lady with whom I have much in common! This was the first month when I actually had some dietary restrictions. I felt really bad telling Jenny I had “gone paleo” in our initial email exchange, because paleo/primal is a pretty limiting lifestyle in the shippable foods department. But, turns out, Jenny is interested in the paleo lifestyle too! So she was ready for the challenge. Without further delay, here are the goodies!
Top: Box crisis! Middle: salvaged letter, goodies group shop, lovely note. Bottom” Dark chocolate bar with BACON and Jewel coconut date rolls.
Okay. Let’s talk about those top two photos. Unfortunately, my box did not make it to my house in one piece. One Saturday morning I got a rather frantic call from my (very) small town post office, stating that a box mailed from a company (not a person’s home) was waiting for me and was leaking an unidentifiable substance profusely. After many phone calls, emails, and time spent Googling the company, I figured out that the box was most likely from my Foodie Pen Pal and not from someone trying to kill me with radioactive acid. Or something. I persuaded the post office staff to just open the box, saying “I almost guarantee if you open it, you’re gonna find a pile of some type of foodstuffs, probably snacky things, maybe some chocolate…” They finally agreed to do so and called me back about 5 minutes later saying, “Um. Yeah, it’s just vinegar, so we can deliver this to you today.” Gotta love this kind of excitement in a small town. 
The box arrived as you see it in the photos, tied in a giant clear plastic trash bag; the bottom was completely soaked and dripping with balsamic vinegar (my favorite – weep!). The PO staff had very graciously pulled out the uncontaminated items, including the lovely handwritten note, and placed them in separate bags so they would remain undamaged. Alas, despite Jenny’s husband’s perfect packing job (with bubble wrap and everything!), somehow one bottle of a very nice-smelling balsamic did not survive the trip. I had a moment of silence for it. Then I dug into the rest! Jenny did an excellent job; all the items she included were totally paleo/primal! The dark chocolate bar was a very dark type with minimal natural sugar. And it had BACON in it, the cornerstone of most paleo/primal diets! The Jewel Date Co date rolls were so super delish and paleo-friendly; the only 2 ingredients were dried dates and unsweetened coconut! I savored those 1 per day until they were all gone. And, the green bottle there is a bottle of really fruit olive oil with sun-dried tomato and garlic. So far my favorite way to use this is to drizzle it on freshly steamed veggies for dinner.
Thanks Jenny for a wonderful package, despite the post office drama! It made a good story for a lazy Saturday morning.
I sent a FPP package to Lisa over at Baking Good; her blog is awesome so be sure to check her out!
Want to be a Foodie PenPal? Click here to sign up, and here’s a detailed explanation of the program:
-On the 5th of the 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 can choose 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 Penpals is open to US, Canadian residents & UK 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. So, I’m going to keep two separate lists and match US w/ US and Canada w/ Canada!
***If you’re in the UK, please contact Carol Anne from This Is Rock Salt at rocksalt@thisisrocksalt.com to get involved!
