Last night, as I desperately tried to finish some work for my client, the lights began to flicker. I knew there was a storm coming, but OMGoodness. I’ve been here for several hurricanes, but I’ve never seen winds like that arrive so fast, be so intense, and move out so quickly, leaving behind a path of destruction. We were lucky. We had a temporary power outage and a longer internet/tv/phone outage (still don’t have phone…), but we only had a few decent sized branches land in our yard. In our neighborhood, several 100+ year old oak trees came down, bringing down wires, landing on roofs, and demolishing cars. Outside my immediate neighborhood, traffic lights were without power, the grocery store could only take credit cards not debit, the gas stations were closed, and the mall was without power.
Sadly,as a result of the storm, Jones’ cub scout camp is now closed. They sent back the boy scouts that went down today and told the cubs to not come down until further notice. Jones is devastated. He was really looking forward to this. And I don’t know how to make it up to him.
So, please forgive me if my PenPal reveal is not my best post ever.
My box this month came from Monique, who does not have a blog. She sent me a really wonderful assortment. All things I like, but brands or variations that I’ve never had. Even better, she included a recipe for making my own vanilla extract from the vanilla beans she sent.
1. Pumpkin Butter from Wilson Farm. YUM!!!
2. Hero Strawberry jelly – I’ll be fighting Shoo for this one.
3. Honey Nut and Seed Crunch from Wilson Farm. These things are addicting! I’m so sad that I’ve nearly finished them.
4. Trail Mix from Wilson Farm – Shoo and I demolished this the day it arrived. (I’ve gotta stop opening things when he’s around!)
5. Blue Monkey coconut water – I love coconut water, but I’ve never tried this brand. I’m looking forward to trying this soon (I was saving it to take to camp with me…)
6. Haribo gummy bears – Monique said she uses these as fuel on her long runs. I’ve used gummy worms a few times, so you’ll know I’ll be trying these. If I ever get past 3 miles again, sigh…
7. Vanilla beans – her extract recipe calls for vanilla beans and vodka. That sounds like a good drink right there LOL.
Thank you so much, Monique! I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve tried and look forward to the rest.
I also sent to a reader this month and, silly me, didn’t even keep a list of what I sent. I’ll see if she’d like to do a guest post later.
A huge thank you to Lindsey at the Lean Green Bean for organizing. My second month of Foodie PenPals was just as awesomeas the first. I love how totally different the two packages were.
Want to join in?
-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!
Crazy storm! Poor Jones… Bet you aren’t nearly as disappointed. 😉
Hero is THE jam over here in NL… Good stuff! And as vanilla extract is hard to find (actually, I have only seen it in the past year, over the border in Germany), I make my own, too. Easy peasy! I use vodka, but you can use other booze if you prefer. Rum is often recommended.
Poor Jones. I really feel sorry for him. But he’ll recover. I feel sorry for you to – having done all that work in preparation and having to come to terms with being hirsute for a few days.
We heard about the storms over here and I always wonder if any of my bloggy friends have been affected. I’m glad it was only an inconvenience and nothing more damaging for you.