My Foodie Penpal demonstrated how very small the World is.  Turns out the lovely Alice (who cant cook)  was celebrating a significant birthday as she packed up my parcel, had for many years lived in the same village I currently live in!  What are the chances of that?

Alice sent me a letter to explain her choices in the box she sent me, which was great, and interesting to see how peoples food tastes vary.  The first goodie I spotted was a glass tube containing a vanilla pod. I ADORE vanilla. My husband is known to sit and sniff it in the bottle, swooning quietly with each inhalation! Alice said she wasn't a natural baker and wouldn't do the vanilla pods justice, so she thought they might be happier with me.  I didn't use the pods in baking either - I made a rich creamy custard with them, that was then churned to velvety smoothness in my  CuisineArt ice cream maker  ready for the next crumble or pie I make with this Autumn's bounty.

The second item that caught my attention was the cinnamon stick, cinnamon is one of my favourite flavourings, and I use it a lot as it works in both sweet and savoury recipes. This stick was used to make the Cauliflower Pickles I blogged about  recently

The Ras el Hanout seasoning hails from Morocco Africa and is a completely new food experience for me.  I wasnt sure what it was or how to use it, so I did a bit of research. Apparently Ras el Hanout translates as 'head of the shop' meaning a mixture of the best  spices the merchant had to offer.  I liked that, it had me in mind of the casbah, not that I have ever been to one, but smelling it invoked images in my head from books and films I had read that were written located in North Africa.  I believe it contains ground petals from a Damask Rose - how beautiful an image is that. I think I may try a tagine with it, something safe, because the iGit isnt an adventerous foodie, and may take some persuading. Me, I cant wait!

Another interesting item was a little sachet of what Alice called a 'pinch seasoning' Herbamare. An alternative to salt (which I seldom use in cooking). Again, this is something I had never seen before, so am curious about it and how it works in food. Having checked its ingredients, it is sea salt infused with a huge list of seaweed, herbs and various alliums. I am thinking it might go very well in a cheese and tomato toasted sandwich. I will experiment!

Thank you so much Alice - it was certainly a taste adventure in a box - some old familiar favourites that I love, and some new unknown ones, which I am really looking forward to experimenting with.

I think my other pen pal for August was happy too, she has written a bit about what I sent her here

All in all this month's Foodie penpals was a good expeirnce and I loved connecting up with the other people involved and getting a tiny peek into other peoples tastes and lives.

If you would like to join in  you can read all about it at Rock Salt or click on the button in my sidebar on the right.  Looking forward to what September brings!