BBM3: The holiday edition

My own sweet blogging by mail package arrived from Jess several weeks ago. In the meantime, I anxiously watched for my partner's posting at the BBM3 update board over at Cathy's, to no avail.

The package had a long way to go, all the way over to the Netherlands. At 5 weeks, I was definately nervous. At week 6, I created an annoymous email to let my partner know that she hadn't been forgotten, something was on the way.

Then one fabulous morning, I woke up to the news that it had landed on her front doorstep, a whole seven weeks later. Since my partner didn't have a blog, I photographed everything before packing it up, and offered her this space for a bbm3 posting.

In the meantime, I'll go over some of the package contents.

Click here for a closer look.

The detailed contents, beginning with the back row, and going left to right:

A bottle of Horton’s Norton- Norton is a grape variety native to North America, and one which Virginia has intensively pursued. Pigman’s BBQ Sauce (Regular): this, or actually the hot sauce, is the same that DucCat uses on ribs or pulled pork. While it’s technically from North Carolina, it’s close enough that we consdier it local. Beneath that, Hubs Peanuts. Virginia is known for its large, flavourful peanuts, and in my opinion, Hubs are the best of the bunch. Pure wild local honey sits perched atop Tuscan Seafood Sprinkle. This is some seriously intense stuff- be careful opening that jar, Mickey! A small jar of the famous Fuller’s Mustard, perfect for slathering on ham sandwiches or pretzels. Finally, Rowena's delectable Lemon Curd Sauce, and the hopefully sturdy Rowena’s Genuine Gingerbread Cookies.

Next row: a postcard of the slightly scary Virginia State Seal (is it really necessary to be stepping on somebody’s head?); King's Arms Tavern Sally Lunn Bread Mix , a slightly sweet yeast bread; a state magnet with my location marked upon it; a piece of fudge, the ubiquitious Brunswick stew, once upon a time made with squirrel (though this rendition uses chicken); a jar of hot jalapeno jelly (it’s very southern to serve this as an appetizer on crackers, with a good schmear of cream cheese); First Colony Coffee’s Southern Pecan blend; Crab’In Nuts, seasoned with a spicy Chesapeake Bay style seafood blend; Edward’s Virginia Ham Pate (because I couldn’t send the whole pig; and in front of all of that, a chocolate bar bearing the slogan: VIRGINIA IS FOR LOVERS.

In front of that, a smattering of local food and city related magazines. The first one on the left is Portfolio Weekly, and the cover features Cowboy Syd’s sous chef, Sara, proudly holding an Easy-Bake Oven (the article was about women working in professional kitchens).

Admittedly, I got a little carried away when creating this package. I lived in the Netherlands many years ago, and have profound and undying love for all things Dutch.

So, everytime I went out and about here, I kept picking up 'just one more item' for my Dutch partner. In the end, what you see in the photo is quite representative of Virginia foods.

Since I already had photos of my kitchen up on the internet, I simply directed Mickey to the album. You can start here, and tick 'next' through the photos. If you're curious, the colour is called 'Bikini-bottom Blue'.

The theme had been holidays and baked goodies, but I didn't have any personal recipes that I felt would make it that far. Before discovering my partner was Dutch, I'd decided to make my Seven Layer Pound Cake, which has been compared to local favorite Rowena's famous pound cake. In lieu of the cake, I sent a package of Rowena's gingerbread cookies, and their rightfully fabulous lemon curd. I also sent the recipe to my pound cake, with personal notes for optimum flavour.

I'll amend this post with whatever Mickey would like to add at a later date. Tot ziens!