From Coast to Coast - Satisfying the Tummy

YUMMY!!!!

2006-01-11T19:11:00.000-08:00

Chocolates and Pastries

2005-11-04T16:30:00.000-08:00

Oh Noelle! Such creative food blogging by mail – I have much to learn from you! Well I’m glad 2nd round is off to a great start. I received a package from Noelle in the mail today. What was inside? First I pulled out a CD. Then a box of chocolate from Ethels. And then an almond croissant from Bennison’s! But where was the letter? Being ever so innovative, Noelle recorded a very sweet and thoughtful letter on the CD. I was happy to hear her voice describing all the wonderful treats she included: “…the next chocolate is an earl grey truffle…and yes, his croissants were very good.” Props to you for creativeness!Oh man, the truffles. Such splendid sweets! I opened up the rectangular box to discover four beautiful chocolately gems. Clockwise from the top: Earl Grey, CocoMango Tango, Key Lime Limbo and Passion Fruit. I’ve only eaten the Earl Grey truffle (am planning to savor them slowly one by one). The truffle boasted a richly smooth ganache, dark, of course, infused with the hauntingly aromatic earl grey flavors of bergamot. Dipped in a crisp, thin shell of milk chocolate, my little earl grey truffle was a wonderful and soothing treat! I had to eat the almond croissant immediately. It’s such a shame I have no control when it comes to baked goods. I toasted it for a couple of minutes and then devoured it in less than a minute. It was a very delicious and buttery pastry. The many layers of croissant dough puffed up beautifully and encased a nutty and flavorful marzipan filling. The only thing that could have made this better would have been to eat it right when Jory Downer removed it from the oven.
Cheers to Noelle for being such a thoughtful friend. Hearing your voice over the CD while relishing in the delights of almond croissants and truffles made for a perfect November day. Come winter, we must explore the truffle counter at Alan Wong’s!

Round Twwwwooo!

2005-10-24T14:02:00.000-07:00

Oh man! Everything worked out so well, I'm glad we're all happy and full. I know everyone has been terribly busy with midterms and studying but hope the packages (both giving and recieving) were a nice break! Viewing the posts, pictures and drawings were so fun, I almost feel as if you guys are RIGHT HERE next to me...sigh. We will wait till Christmas. Oh wait, we need to have a dinner with just the four of us to reflect and plan and EAT! Grand Cafe anyone?

Now we can start Round #2, hope this gives you enough time.
Next packages go out by Halloween: 10/31/05
Here's the order:
Shann to Steph
Steph to Shann
Noelle to Kathy
Kathy to Noelle

Any ideas on how we can improve this? Just post and we can figure things out...Oh question! Noelle! How did you manage to send out BAKED GOODS without it going bad in the mail?! Steph's pumpkin bread looked mighty awesome (so moist!) and I devoured Shann's pb chocolate bar like no one would imagine.

Good job, hooray and I bet the next round will be even better :) Hope the weather is treating you well - I think fall is the most beautiful season of the year. Cheers to that warm feeling you get when surrounded by family, friends and food!

Woohoo for Baked Goods!

2005-10-24T11:05:00.000-07:00

I was so unbelievably happy when I received Noelle's package in the mail! I excitedly ripped open the box to find it stuffed with various baked delicacies from Bennison's Bakery. But with all the excitement about the baked goodies, I forgot to take pictures of all of it! I'll try to describe all of it to you guys, and accompany my descriptions with drawings (because drawings are always fun!).

First, there was a small white box filled with assorted cookies. Props to Noelle for choosing a wonderful sampling of cookies...everything from shortbread cookies with a strawberry jam filling to a sugar cookie with a perfect dollop of chocolate in the center. Cookies are quite possibly my favorite baked good, so you can imagine the joy I felt holding a box full of them :)

And as if the box of cookies wasn't enough to satisfy my cookie craving, Noelle also sent me a giant Halloween sugar cookie! It was a huuuuuge cookie with a jack-o-lantern face drawn on it with orange and black frosting. Not only delicious, but very festive indeed!

Luckily, when I remembered I needed to take pictures, I still had the custard coffee cake left! Since I devoured the cookies so quickly, I had to slow myself down with the cake. A slice of warm coffee cake with a glass of milk made the perfect breakfast!

The cake itself was so moist with swirls of yummy cinnamon throughout. But, this wasn't just a normal coffee cake. There was a custard layer sort of swirled on top of the cake. This added to the moistness and overall yummyness!

Thumbs up to the custard coffee cake, assorted cookies, and to NOELLE! Thank you!

ps-I promise I'll remember to take more pictures next time we do this (which should be very soon, by the way!)

kathy just wants me to get fat.

2005-10-16T00:26:00.000-07:00

Hurrah! I was so excited to receive kathy's package in the mail! Packages are the best things in the world, they really make your day, especially where there's delicious food inside! Anyway, my friend is borrowing my camera so my pictures are taken with the camera phone which explains their poor quality.
When I opened the package, this is what I found:

so that's "speedi meal" glutinous fried rice which i am excited to make/try, bakuteh (can't pronounce it, make it up) apparently not as "speedi" according to kathy so I will try that soon too, ground peanut cookies, choco puffs and sunlee tasty candy!

Yeah, the choco puffs were the first to go as the box was a little crushed in the mail and already open. It was just beggin to be eaten. I don't have any pics of the actual things, but the looked like miniature liliha bakery coco puffs and tasted like koalas/pandas a little but the outside was fluffier and more exciting. Here is a staged photograph of how the eating went down:

I also thought this packaging was important to include, maybe since I've eaten the choco puffs I'll become better at soccer?

I dove into the ground peanut cookies tonight. At first the texture was really crumbly and dry then it became tough like caramel or toffee does but it was peanutty. I thought I didn't like it at first, but kept eating more and started getting addicted to the peanutbuttery taste. Mmmm. Anyway, I ate 5 right away then felt silly about not having willpower. Here is a picture of me and the terrible addictive devils. If you can't read the label it says "GLORY" and that it is, that it is.

Next time I'll include pictures of me not gaping like an idiot. Here's to next time eh?! I'm so glad the first round went so smoothly, cheers to all!

end post!

2005-10-15T23:58:00.000-07:00

Steph's package made my day!!! It was fantastic! Steph sent me the following:

1) Earl Grey - one of absolute favorite teas, the original type of tea I got hooked on when I was traveling in England. Awesome fragrance and great taste. I wanted to run down to the dining hall immediately to try it. :-)

2) Apple Cider - I haven't tried it yet, but I plan to try it during the Christmas season. It looks delicious.

3) Pumpkin bread - Two slices of delectable bread!! I LOVE pumpkin bread--it's one of my favorite breads Ever. Very, very most. Perfectly spiced. As soon as I opened the box, I tore open the bread immediately and started eating it. I just couldn't wait. :-p

More pictures!!

I was so excited to eat the bread, I just dug in without taking any pictures. By the time I remember, it was mostly gone. :-p

Mmmmm.

Thank you so much, Steph!!!! I loved it.

Look how happy I was afterward.

I Love You, Shann!

2005-10-15T23:48:00.000-07:00

I found this waiting for me in the mailroom. It was a boring Wednesday about to get a million times better....

SOOOO happy! That's how I felt! Here's what was in the package:

1) Pretz Roast. Shann recommended dipping it in nutella or peanut butter. Do it. Nutella AND peanut butter. Pretz should be one of our main food groups.

2) Koala's March (chocolate, of course :)) I missed those Koala's. They played a very big part in my childhood snacks, you all know what the taste like: crunchy, chocolatety, very very yummy. Some pop the whole thing in their mouth, others break them apart, others scrape out the chocolate first, either way, you can always count on Koala's. As the bag promises, they are "delicious crunchy cookies."

3) Pocky G - it's chocolate Pocky dipped in chocolate, what more could you ask for? The shiny "G" is indeed eyecatching. And yes, chocolate in chocolate is so much better than normal Pocky. We shall consume Pocky G from now on...and maybe Men's Pocky.

4) A Peanut Butter Caramel Bar from the Chocolate Bar. The Chocolate Bar was one of my favorite places to go a browse (but never induldge) in the city. I long admired the rows of confections piles of chocolate bars, but never once did I buy one for myself. Shann - you are so thoughtful to remember all the little things! I ordinarily prefer dark chocolate, but after they infused the milk chocolate with an intense amount of peanut butter...well I just may give milk chocolate a second chance. The bar had a thin layer of caramel in the middle - the perfectly complement to this peanut butter delight. Oohh, such a smooth and luscious luxury!

5) Chocolate Bar Chai. This is GOOD stuff! I opened the box as soon as I got the package and started brewing away! The smell of the tea leaves are wonderful; black tea flavored with chocolate, a good dose of vanilla and just the right about of masala spices. You can even make out just a hint of mint floating in the back. It's a haunting-make you very lazy and deliriously happy drink. A hot cup of chai and a chocolate bar...yes :)

6) A package of multigrain cheerios. This bag of cereal has sentimental value more than anything. Shann really loves her cereal and she taught me to love my cereal. One of the many things we have in common is multigrain cheerios (which Shann introduced to me). But out here is Claremont access to supermarkets is rare unless you have a car, so no multigrain cheerios for me...until Shann saved the day!

Thanks man! The package made me heart and tummy so content. It brought bad so many wonderful memories of our time together in the city...cooking/eating in your dorm, walks around the village and chinatown, little japanese supermarkets. Food is not quite the same without you!

Step 1: Here We Go!

2005-09-18T11:41:00.000-07:00

Oh man guys, I'm excited! After spending far too many hours on sites of fellow food bloggers, I figured we may as well induldge the gourmet that's lurking inside of us and what better way to do so than with food packages!

Ok, here's how it works. We start off with the four or us: Shann, Steph, Noelle and I - all conveniently located in different parts of the country (that way we can REALLY taste the US!, or sort of...). Once a month each of us will send a package to another filled with food. Since there's just four of us now, we'll roatate around so that everyone will be able to send/recieve from everyone else.

There's no set criteria as to what the food should be, but just stuff that you think your recipient would enjoy and cannot get in her city. Price range is anywhere from $5-$10, or whatever you feel most comfortable with. Just as an extra, it would be nice to include a note (including decriptions/random information about the product/where the food item came from) and any nice pictures to add some life to the (already very exciting!) package.

As soon as you recieve your package, quicky whip out your digital camera and start snapping! The purpose of the blog is for everyone to post pics/descriptions/what they did with the items for everyone else to view. Some examples can be found on these sites: http://onokinegrindz.typepad.com/ono_kine_grindz/confections/index.html (this one's pretty awesome - he's from Hawaii and has covered most of the local restaurants as well as places in SF and Seattle)
http://www.chocolateandzucchini.com/ (this lady is crazy! I would give anything to live her life, but for now, this food chain is making me pretty happy! :))
As for the actual posting part, I'll email you the login name and password. I hope this is enough info but if I left anything out, just give me a call!

Package to be sent out 9/26/05
Who sends to who:
Steph to Noelle
Noelle to Steph
Shann to Kathy
Kathy to Shann

PS.
I'll try to get more pictures up on this post, just so the page is more asthetically pleasing!