May Foodie Penpals

It's my favourite time of the month again - Foodie Penpals reveal day! This month I was sent a parcel by Nic from The Fit Writer who took what I told her in the email I'd sent her about my likes and dislikes and put together the most perfect, thoughtful parcel!

I was super excited when a packing slip came through my door one day so I set off for work early the next day so I could pick the parcel up on the way. Great plan, apart from I ended up leaving too late which meant I couldn't rip the parcel open there and then, I had to drive with it next to me, tempting me the whole journey! Naughty parcel.

I followed the correct etiquette of present opening which states that you should always be polite and open the card first, I loved the funny picture of people having a bit of food - very appropriate!

And now, onto the nitty gritty, what were these delicious treats that the fabulous Nic got for me?

Well, first of all there was an excellent selection of different posh tea bags and Nic had really played a blinder here as I love drinking tea, plus my favourite at the moment is chai tea and there were two different flavoured chai teabags in there! I have drunk all of these now and thought they were really lovely so will be trying to get my hands on some more of them.

I'd told Nic about my love for Japanese food and she'd included something I'd never even seen in the shops before - Japanese Green Nori Sprinkle! What a cool present. I used this for the first time at the weekend to coat the outside of some reverse maki rolls and it was a really tasty alternative to the sesame seeds I normally use.

Nic also sent me a block of tamarind which I've only used in paste form before. It's quite a coincidence as I'd been saying to Bailey that I wanted to use my Levi Roots cookbook again as I haven't made anything out of it in ages! A lot of his recipes call for tamarind so I will be sorted!

I was very intrigued to take out the Gourmet Mix of Quinoa, White Raddish and Lentils and I think this will be right up my friend Kate's street so I'm going to save them for next week when she is coming over, I will probably sprinkle some on a salad!

Nic also sent me some Honey Halva which I am really looking forward to trying sometime soon. I am ashamed to say that despite living just off the Curry Mile where there are countless wonderful Indian sweet shops, I've never even tried halva so I'm waiting on a special occasion for this one.

Nic also included some Chia Seeds in my parcel which I have heard of but really have no idea about! They sound exciting though and are apparently super popular in Mexico. I've found this useful website which gives 40 ways to use chia seeds which has some fabulous tips - I like the idea of making a traditional Mexican Chia Fresca drink so will probably whip one of those up over half term!

Finally Nic also included some cinnamon sticks which I totally love putting in my Christmas mulled wine. However I decided to use them for a lovely batch of rice pudding yesterday and it was awesome!

I have to say Nic's parcel was absolutely spot on - everything was quite unusual and exciting which I really loved and she had really made sure she included items she knew I would like. What a great Foodie Penpal Nic has been! Thanks so much lovely Nic, you made me very happy!

My Foodie Penpals match for this month was Helen from Casa Costello. I was a bit pushed for time this month so was sorry not to bake anything for Helen but instead I tried to find her the finest of treats from my favourite suburb of Manchester - Chorlton, of course. I nipped into the fancy Épicerie Ludo and Barbakan Delicatessen and grabbed everything I thought looked nice. I hope she liked it!

To see more of this month's Foodie Penpals reveal posts and learn about what delicious foodstuffs have been flying around the country via Royal Mail, click here.