{"id":929,"date":"2012-07-04T09:35:17","date_gmt":"2012-07-04T13:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/?p=929"},"modified":"2012-07-04T09:35:17","modified_gmt":"2012-07-04T13:35:17","slug":"foodie-penpal-swap-june-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/foodie-penpal-swap-june-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"Foodie Penpal Swap &#8211; June 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m sure it is pretty obvious that I love sending stuff through the mail. Once upon a time I relayed that love with sending postcards (on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.postcrossing.com\/\">postcrossing<\/a>), and crafts on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.swap-bot.com\/\">swapbot<\/a>, or zine swaps or penpals from other countries. Now I still have penpals, but we don&#8217;t write very often, and I haven&#8217;t sent a postcrossing card in years (though perhaps I should change that.) My my love of mail is expressed almost entirely with food swaps (and my stamp collection&#8230; no kidding.)<\/p>\n<p>And really, what better way? I love food, I love sharing food, and I love introducing people to things they might not have eaten before. This month I received my Foodie Penpal Swap from Bonnie at <a title=\"Sitting on the Moon\" href=\"http:\/\/sitting-on-the-moon.blogspot.ca\/\">Sitting on the Moon<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-931 alignleft\" title=\"Foodie Penpal Swap\" src=\"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/2012-06-18-19.40.58-e1341407793464-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/2012-06-18-19.40.58-e1341407793464-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/2012-06-18-19.40.58-e1341407793464-768x1024.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>What was in my package?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Spicy Mexican Rice from The Mix Company<\/li>\n<li>Coconut and Cherry Quinoa Granola from Lotus Fine Foods<\/li>\n<li>A few Maple candies<\/li>\n<li>Made in Nature &#8211; Orchard Select Apples (dehydrated)<\/li>\n<li>Gourmet du Village Bistro Collection Dips and Seasonings<\/li>\n<li>Four O&#8217;clock Organic Green Tea Sampler<\/li>\n<li>A recipe for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pastryaffair.com\/blog\/vegan-chocolate-cupcakes.html\">vegan chocolate cupcakes<\/a> from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pastryaffair.com\/\">Pastry Affair<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Ceylon tea.<\/li>\n<li>A lovely letter.<\/li>\n<li>Cheese dip<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So far I&#8217;ve mixed all of the spice packs the Bistro collection with some of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.earthbalancenatural.com\/\">Earth Balance<\/a>\u00a0Mindful\u00a0Mayo that we picked up from a not-so-recent trip to the USA(it&#8217;s still not in Canada as far as I can tell), and I&#8217;m drinking a giant mug of the Ceylon tea, which reminded me so much of sneaking sips from my parents cups as a child that it got me feeling a bit homesick and nostalgic (or maybe I just really love the tea?).<\/p>\n<p>I did end up getting one not-vegan (cheese dip) thing this swap-o-round, but that was promptly shared with someone else, so c&#8217;est la vie. Regardless, I&#8217;m looking forward to trying out the recipe she sent me, and eating the other treats.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0Gourmet du Village Bistro Collection packs look like they wouldn&#8217;t be vegan, but they are made to be mixed with other stuff. I&#8217;ve seen them at the grocery store, and haven&#8217;t really ever given them a second glance, but it&#8217;s nice to have an option for dips if I don&#8217;t want to make the spice blend myself.<\/p>\n<p>I like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theleangreenbean.com\/foodie-penpals\/\">Foodie Penpals<\/a> a lot because I get to go outside the circle of vegan that tends to exist on the blogosphere and get introduced to people that I might not have ever seen, or read about. In all of these swaps, I find myself connecting with people more during these food swaps, and once I&#8217;m partnered up (or once people join the <a title=\"Vegan Food Swap\" href=\"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/veganfoodswap\/\">Vegan Swap<\/a>), I feel like I end up checking their blogs more often simply because of that connection. It&#8217;s nice to feel the foodie love across the country.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you <a href=\"http:\/\/sitting-on-the-moon.blogspot.ca\">Bonnie<\/a>, I loved everything and I appreciate the effort you put into finding stuff for me!<\/p>\n<p>You can learn more about<a href=\"http:\/\/www.theleangreenbean.com\/foodie-penpals\/\"> Foodie Penpals <\/a>and sign up over at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theleangreenbean.com\/\">The Lean Green Bean<\/a>&#8216;s blog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m sure it is pretty obvious that I love sending stuff through the mail. Once upon a time I relayed that love with sending postcards (on postcrossing), and crafts on swapbot, or zine swaps or penpals from other countries. Now I still have penpals, but we don&#8217;t write very often,&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[537,356],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-foodie-penpals","category-toronto-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}