Blogging by Mail #3

When I arrived home from Colorado, there was a package sitting on my table. From Australia.

"Australia?" I thought, "I don't know anyone from Australia..."

I checked the name on the back - Clare B. - and didn't immediately recognize it. So I opened the package.

It was full of lots of foodie goodies! It suddenly donned on me that this was my package from Blogging By Mail #3, hosted by Cathy at My Little Kitchen. What a lovely and unexpected Christmas/New Years present!

I reached my hand in to find a pleuthera of delicious snacks and fun ingredients:


There were Horizon Australian salt flakes - pure white crystals with a sharp, very intense taste that I can't wait to dash onto some yummy dishes. A package of wasabi noodle snacks - both Loving Boyfriend and I love wasabi-flavored anything!

Reaching further, I found three Indonesian Seasoning mixes: Rendang (Beef in chili and coconut seasoning), Nasi Kuning (Yellow Rice), and Opor Ayam (Chicken in coconut gravy), all of which sound delicious. I have never seen any of them before, so I'll be sure to post pictures and comments as soon as I have time to try one of them.


On top of all of this, there were also Tim Tam cookies - chocolate covered wafers sandwiching more chocolate (yep, there are four in the picture, but I won't tell you how many are left now - they're fabulous!), as well as some Cadbury chocolates with different flavors - strawberry, milk chocolate, and caramel. Cadbury makes really tasty milk chocolate!

Down at the bottom, I found little goodies to help with all that holiday baking...Ceres chocolate meises - little sprinkles, also from Indonesia. There were also two little containers of 'sparkling cachous', which Clare just informed me were recently banned in the US, so that makes them even more precious! They're for freshening your breath, right Clare?

And to top this very generous collection? A plate full of homemade cookies, wrapped in pretty green cellophane, and all of which were very tasty. Since there aren't many left, so I decided not to take a picture in an effort to not make myself feel guilty for devouring an entire plate of cookies. Hey, it was still the end of the year, so I figure that I was still allowed to gorge before the New Year's resolutions start up, right??

I'm speechless...thank you, Clare! I truly appreciate it, and I'm so happy to be able to experience a little peice of Australia through your kitchen. What a wonderful way to begin a new year. Clare is the webgoddess of Eat Stuff.net and if you've never seen her site, do go over, check it out, and say hello! (I'm especially drooling at her latest post of the stollen she made over Christmas...it looks amazing!)

And thank you, Cathy, for hosting! Blogging by Mail #4 has been announced, and there is still some time to sign up if you're interested in joining in!