November Foodie Pen Pal Reveal

It's that time again, time to reveal the foodie pen pal stash of the month. YAY!

My pen pal this month was Robin Lourie - she sent me this fabulous box. You can check out what she got from her pen pal here. I sent to Anna, who doesn't have a blog but sent me this e-mail in regards to the goodies we sent her.

I hope you are doing well this day before Thanksgiving! I wanted to send you a BIG thank you for the great box of goodies!

I truly appreciate the thoughtfulness that you put into creating this package. The almonds were YUMMY!

The dark chocolate bars will be consumed post Thanksgiving! I can't wait to try the recipes you sent as well. The can of pumpkin is exactly what I needed!

The barbeque sauce looks so pretty! I think that will go great on tempeh for a vegan tempeh reuben.

Again thank you very much! It has been a pleasure exchanging emails! Thank you for reaching out!

I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving! I've got to get to the co-op to get my "turkeyless roast"

Here is what she got: 

So now on to what we got :) I must say that Robin was lovely and sent the most wonderful things.

Look at this haul! I mean seriously! Of course this arrived the day I was heading out to go to Mike's, the mailman freaked me out by knocking on my front door (mind you I consider my actual front door the back door so, this really does worry me when I hear a knock at that door). Come to find the mailman waiting there for me and handed me this loveliness which I immediately became quite excited about and began smiling. I don't think she quite knew what to do with me other than walk away from me.

First thing I busted open, even before Mike got to see it were these bad boys. Soo freaking delicious, they were gone in 3 days (would have been sooner had I not had will power or the need to share at least one pretzel with Mike). I will be recreating these for a Christmas treat to pass out, rather than bake a bazillion cookies like I normally do. Going easy this season with the baking.

Then we have enchilada sauce and smoky pulled pork seasoning sauce. Um, delish!!! Mike and I had to make pulled pork for sure. So bought a pork shoulder (couldn't find one unseasoned at Walmart so I bought a BBQ seasoned and slow cooker ready one). This is the result ----

Yes, it's as delicious as it looks, super simple too. Add 1 cup of water to the packet of sauce and one 2-lb pork shoulder and cook on low for 8 hours. Easy peasy and super delicious with some baked potatoes and green beans. Yummmm :) I still have leftovers hehe.

Then we have tea, Tazo Passion, Nature's Splash (a lot like Crystal Light) and then some green tea. I adore the Tazo passion tea - when I worked at Starbucks that was my go to drink. I haven't tried the green teas yet and have brought the Nature's Splash to work with me for my water - I use Crystal Light daily so this is perfect.

And at this rate I will never have to buy peanut butter again, I just have to ask that they include peanut butter in every FPP box I get haha!! I do love peanut butter A LOT. It's got to be my favorite food. I was also getting low on honey and this was a pleasant surprise. I prefer local honeys and this is just perfect. Actually used it for the first time last night in some oat bars.

And now for the adult side. She must have read that I like to make beer bread. :) So I received two cans of this Bombshell Blonde Ale. I drank one, was not overwhelmed or in love with the flavor, it's beer. But it made some fabulous beer bread, which I made the other night and have been enjoying since.

A big huge thank you to my pen pal for sending such a lovely box of goodies that I am still enjoying.

Wanna be a foodie pen pal? Check it out below.

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!

Boredom hits the baker - prepare yourselves

So this is what happens when I, Sarah, get bored. Mike usually will ask what is wrong if I've been baking since I'm usually upset or in a mood to bake. There are times I bake for a reason but typically there are a few things that trigger a bit of a worry. The movie "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and random baking.

So this and last week I've been bored and I have also had to bake for a co-worker.

So a couple nights ago I made sugar cookies, of course I had run out of sugar. Great...didn't want to go to the store so I subbed brown sugar (light) for the white sugar. A little experimentation never hurt. These type of sugar cookies are meant to be chilled and cut out. I didn't care to go through that process (I do that once a year at Christmas time). So I just did drop sugar cookies.

As you can see I frosted them with a chocolate frosting. What you cannot see is that it is not just chocolate. It is a mocha frosting. I made a standard butter cream with cocoa powder to make it chocolaty and then added a little bit of instant coffee (I use Starbucks via, Colombian blend, since I have a crap load in my cupboard from working there for a year).

Here is the recipe:
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2 cup butter, soft
1 cup sugar, white or light brown
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp milk

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg, milk and vanilla. Stir in flour, salt and baking powder. Blend thoroughly. Chill in fridge for 1 hour. (or just drop by tablespoons on a greased baking sheet)

Once chilled roll out on floured surface with a floured rolling pin, to a 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out into desired shapes. Bake on greased cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees.

OK, so there are those, I took them to work and left them on the coffee maker (our water cooler). I get to work at 8, these were gone by 9 and I had a note in the container asking for the recipe. Glad people enjoy them :)

So tonight I'm bored and a bit on the meh side so I came home, worked out and then proceeded to bake while NCIS is playing in the background. Aren't I exciting on a Monday night?

So I was looking through one of my cookbooks and found a "Peanut Butter Ball" recipe. Basically a buckeye for those that are familiar with those. Or as my co-worker Mai says "Peanut butter balls of death!"
Due to the sugar content. ;) At least the other recipe I used. This one doesn't make as many. About 30 balls.

This recipe comes from the "Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook 12th Edition."

Start to finish, according to the book, is 1 hour. However, if you have to run out to get ingredients to finish these "Peanut Butter Balls of Death" and beer bread, it's more like 2 hours.

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup peanut butter of your choice
3 Tbsp butter, soft
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
8 oz chocolate flavored candy coating (chocolate chips work too)

1. In a bowl stir together PB and butter. Gradually add powdered sugar, stirring until combined. Shape mixture into 1 inch balls; place on waxed paper (tin foil is what I used because I don't have waxed paper right now). Let stand for 20 minutes.

Sent this pic to Mike and all he said was "Yum"
He is visiting his parents for the week so no baked goodies for him 

2. In a heavy saucepan, melt candy coating over low heat, stirring constantly, until smooth. Cool slightly. Dip balls, one at a time, into coating. Let excess drip off (use a fork, it's easier). Place balls on waxed paper. Let stand until firm. Store tightly covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.

I sent this pic to Mike and he immediately started making jokes ;)

(per piece 92 calories, 6g fat. 32mg sodium, 9g carbs, 0g fiber, 1g protein)

Delicious, simple and super easy. Great for kids to help with if you want to bake/cook with your kids.

OK final thing I baked tonight/this week - so far.

Beer bread. I have, for whatever reason, an over abundance of beer in my fridge. People would bring it over and I already have beer and it just keeps coming. Ugh, I drink beer but not that much and Mike hates beer. Great mix there right? So let's make beer bread :)

Super simple recipe that my mother passed to me.

3 cups flour, sifted
3 tsp baking powder, sifted
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar, again I used brown because I'm cheap and haven't bought white sugar yet.
1/4 cup melted butter
1 - 12oz - can/bottle of beer (darker beer makes tastier bread)

Oven at 375 degrees.
Mix dry ingredients, sift flour. Add beer. Put in loaf pan. Pour butter on top for a crunchy crust or mix into batter for a softer crust.
Bake for 1 hour.
Cool for 15 minutes before turning out of pan.

I double this recipe and use a 9x13 pan sprayed really really well with PAM/Non stick spray. I also have an abundance of beer. So if you have beer and are trying to get rid of it, here you go. Quick, easy and soooo tasty!!

Mixing, using Bud Select - not a lot of flavor

Baked up :) I put butter in and on it, so tasty
- do it!!!

Perfect snack or breakfast or sandwich bread
- if you use a loaf style pan

So I have had a productive night I would say, I even made myself some dinner, yes I too cook - not just bake. Mike does a lot because I say he's better at it than I am. I like to cook too though.

Red, yellow and orange peppers, onion, garlic
 and sweet and smokey, I then added tomato
sauce and made it a BBQ style with the shrimp

Peeled and deveined shrimp and tails popped off

So busy night but productive. Now I think it's bed time for my burnt raccoon self. (I spent 6 hours in the pool outside in the 99 degree heat at a friends yesterday, Sunday) Guess I didn't put enough lotion on. It was hot but the water felt good. 


There will be more food this weekend with my grandmother coming to town. 75 yr old German lady cooking at my mothers huge kitchen. Yeah, there will be food! Get ready to loosen your belt Mike. 

Mike and the Hyvee guy say it's not so bad
You can just see the red arms and red face