October Foodie Pen Pals

Another month of Foodie Pen Pals has come and gone. Another month where I received some awesome food stuffs from all over the country. Over the course of October I was able to enjoy the products from my September package, as well as the October package. Those items received from Jilly are slowly getting used up. Again, it has been another month of us not being home very often. But we are getting there.

Before I start with my box, I wanted to talk a little bit about it. Foodie Penpals is a program Lindsay from Lean Green Bean started in September 2011. It was born from a random idea  and she wasn’t really sure how it would work out. Turns out, it’s amazing! The basic run down is you get paired with two people at the beginning of each month. One person is the recipient of the box you send and the other is the person you will be receiving your box from. You spend the next few days getting the items you want to send (with a $15 limit) and get your box out by the 15th of the month. Then everyone reveals on the last day of the month (usually).

This month I received my package from Elena from The Jittery Pen! She sent a Brooks box full of great  fall goodies! This month's box included:

• Vegetable Soup mix
• Sweet Potato Soup mix
• Peanuts and Candy Corn
• Caramel Apple
• Cola flavored Mentos
• 21 Seasoning Salute spice blend

When I opened this month's box I was super excited. Elena sent a mix of treats and real food, which I appreciated.

When I opened the box, I was most excited about two things. First is the soup mixes and I was secretly hoping for some colder temperatures so I could whip some up for dinner. The Sweet Potato is great! It was hearty and filling.

Also, and possibly even more exciting, was the Caramel Apple. The label says its "decadent" from Kowalski's Markets. It was a granny smith apple covered in all sorts of chocolate and maybe even some nuts. We ended up bringing it down to Tucson with us and shared with Berkeley's parents. At first we tried to cut it with an apple slicer. That wasn't working so I pulled out the big guns and sliced it up. Between the 4 of us, we ended up with one little slice left. It was delicious!

As excited as I was for that caramel apple and the soups, the first things out of the box were the Mentos and spice blend. I have never had Cola Mentos before. They have that familiar zing of a freshly opened can of Coke mixed with the crack, crunch, and chew of a Mentos. They are neat. And the 21 Seasoning Salute? Well it is just that. It is a salt free mix of 21 different spices and seasonings that pack quite the punch. It has a nice spice kick without being overpowering, while still delivering a bunch of great flavors all at once. So far, besides just tasting it as is, I used it in a bowl of dipping olive oil and vinegar for bread instead of the normal cracked pepper. It was great!

This was such a great pen pals box! It makes me really geared up for another month. Unfortunately, I will not be participating in November and possibly even December Foodie Pen Pals. With the wedding and honeymoon and holiday travel, I don't know exactly when I will be home to intercept a package. The timing would probably end up wrong and I wouldn't be able to post and/or enjoy my package. I fully encourage you to sign up with Lindsay over at The Lean Green Bean!