Saturday, December 12, 2009

Pay It Forward: Sweets and Treats From Brussels!

Oh my goodness! Chocolate, marzipan, caramels, more chocolate, intensely fruity gummi bears, violettes candies, coconut enrobed truffles, and more chocolate. . . !

All of this came in a package sent from Sophie of Sophies Foodiefiles, in Brussels, Belgium. Sophie had received her Pay it Forward package from Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella , then asked her readers if they would like to take part in this event. Goodies from Brussels? That's pretty much a no-brainer. I signed up right away.

Soon Sophie sent 3 lucky foodbloggers a Pay it Forward package of food and non-food items that were specific to her region.

Her package to me was a very generous assortment of sweets and treats that I have shared with friends and family. Click on the photo to see more detail; to return to the post, click on your back button. Mr CC was especially taken with the small chocolate espresso wafers (little green and red squares in photo above) in both milk and dark chocolates. I sampled the gummi bears, which I adore, and they were delicious.

Here is a sampling of what I received:
From Corné Royal, caramel sel de Guerande truffles, sugared marrons (chestnuts), and dark chocolate ganache spread.
From Sirop de Liege, a delicious fruit spread that is perfect for toast, pancakes, waffles. . .
From Café Tasse Chocolatiers in Belgium were several selections that included these incredible bars (Mr CC told me so), flavored cocoa powders for hot chocolate making, and mini-chocolates as mentioned above.
Sophie also sent me chocolate bars from Galler Chocolates. We're saving those for another time.
From Roodthooft in Antwerp came Mokatine caramels.
The delicious and fruity gummi bears are from Joris (I couldn't find a web site).
I couldn't find a European web site for the very lovely violet hard candies, which according to Sophie have been made in Europe for centuries, but the link will take you to a French version that is sold on Amazon.

So there you have it. Sophie is a very kind and generous person, as well as a prolific food blogger, and I am lucky to call her my friend.

Now it's my turn to Pay It Forward: Three food bloggers will receive a package from me within the next 365 days. The only caveat is that if you are chosen to receive a package, you must send a package to three more bloggers within a year from receiving yours. To enter, leave a comment on this post. Please be sure to leave me an email address so I can contact you.

I can't promise to send a package as sweet as the one Sophie sent me, but I do promise that it will have locally produced foods and non-food items from the beautiful northern California coast and I'm pretty sure you will enjoy it!





Copyright © 2005-2009, Christine Cooks. All rights reserved

2 comments:

  1. Picture me raising my hand high above my head, stretching it towards the ceiling and squirming in my chair while chanting, "me! me! pick me! oh! oh! pick me!"

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  2. Whoa! You have hit the lottery! There is enough good stuff here to last you the winter! What fun this must have been to receive this! A great idea........keep it going!

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