Foodie Pen Pals #1 (September)

I was pretty excited to get my first foodie pen pals box this month- from none other than a fellow art teacher. Small world, right?

Rachel, from Arkansas, sent me a little hometown love with a big jar of honey! I’m told its an Arkansas specialty. Perfect for sweetening my tea in the morning but also great in my homemade BBQ sauce and baked treats.

She also sent this homemade cornbread mix which was amazing and perfect to whip up one night with a pot roast dinner.

To the mix I was instructed to add:

1 1/2 cups milk

5 Tablespoons melted butter

2 eggs

Baked it at 400 degrees for 25 minutes and it was perfect when I took it out of the oven. Bonus- it smelled fantastic.  I’m a cornbread addict so I had to stop myself from eating the entire thing.

This is a similar recipe to make bulk cornbread mix:

• 7-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 4-1/2 cups fine ground cornmeal (not coarse)
• 2 cups sugar (or to taste- if like it less sweet, cut out a 1/2 cup)
• 1/3 c. baking powder
• 6 tsp. salt

This will make about 6 jars of mix as each recipe takes 2 1/3 cups of mix.  Jars of this mix would make a great fall hostess gift- yum!

Saving the best for last…

…this ah-may-zing granola. It’s nutty and sweet in the best way. I’ve been snacking on it here and there and adding it to fruit and yogurt parfaits. I had to add more raisins because my two year old picked them all out!

Be sure to check out this link for more Foodie Pen Pal love.

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I ended up mailing my own box to a blog-reader.  Since she hadn’t planned on writing a guest post for Sweeter Side, I decided to share what I mailed out this month as well.

I sent out a little package full of a few of my own favorites:

Homemade Dill Pickles, Tikka Masala Sauce made locally in PA, two specialty chocolate bars, Cruncha Ma-Me snacks, SeaSnax (seaweed snack), and single serve Almond Butter packets that are seriously the best thing ever.

For my required handwritten item I illustrated my favorite Tortilla Soup Recipe and popped that in the box as well.