Blog By Mail - Look What I've Got!!!

Yesterday morning I came racing out the door, desparately late for work as usual, and almost ran down my friendly local parcel delivery guy. He is used to this (oh my aching credit card). The parcel he had for me was from my blog mail partner. I had signed up for the latest round - My Favourite Thing - hosted by Stephanie at Dispensing Happiness.

Unfortunately, I had to leave the parcel behind unopened for the sake of my future employment. It was torture. My poor colleagues had to listen to me going on and on all day about what could be in it.

Finally, after about ten years at work I got home, opened my parcel and found this delightful assortment of goodies sent by Chelsea at Tres Bon Vivant.

I knew as soon as I made the first dent in the parcel that there were chillies in there. The aroma just washed over me. Sure enough, Chelsea had included a huge bag of mild green chile powder.

And that wasn't all, there was also a bag of red cloud peak seasoning for use on venison, wild boar, ostrich, goose, duck or any dark red meats (salt, paprika, garlic, black pepper, ancho, onion, oregano, thyme, cumin, cayenne, green onion, chimayo chiles, and aleppo), la plata peak latino spice for use on pulled pork or chicken (toasted onion, garlic, salt, cumin, mexican oregano, aleppo chiles, balck pepper, chimayo chile powder) and mexican cocoa (dutch cocoa, ceylon cinnamon, vanilla powder).

Chelsea also sent me a lodo fresh adobo spice mix and a mexican mole spice mix. Unfortunately, these were confiscated by Australia's 'zealous' customs service. It seems they have something against cloves. What I don't know. Maybe they escape into the wild and choke wombats or something. Maybe they bring scribbly gum trees down with the galloping sniffles. Maybe there's a vast right wing foreign clove conspiracy to take over the floral kingdom. Your guess is as mine.

I'm sorry Chelsea. I really appreciate the thought and intentions you put into your parcel.

Anyway, along with the deliciously fragant spice mixes that did get through were recipes cards for a green chile sauce and a mole de pollo and a fantabulous cookery book 'Simply Simpatico - A Taste of New Mexico from the Junior League of Alberquerque'.

'For dessert' Chelsea included a box of chocolate orange sticks. Errrrrr....., sorry Chelsea, they didn't make it that far. They were simply too tempting and disappeared in short order. I love jaffa.

I couldn't be more delighted with Chelsea's choices. You may have seen from my mole adventure that I have made one small foray into mexican/southwestern cooking. This is an almost totally unexplored foodie area for me. There are so many dishes and ingredients that are totally alien. I am keen to learn and experience more and Chelsea has given me some wonderful tools with which to get started.

I have already picked out a first recipe to try from Simply Simpatico, Guaymas Salad which is made with avacodos, limes, oranges and jicama.

Thanks again Chelsea.