Seasons Eatings

December 18th, 2009

It is so much fun to share during the holiday season. Gift exchanges are rampant and the blogging community is no exception. My blogging friend Katie of Thyme for Cooking the blog is the hostess of this holiday exchange which anyone can sign up for. Season’s Eatings is a spicy/herby/foodie gift exchange to celebrate the holiday season. Katie put all of our names into a virtual hat and paired us up with a Secret Santa. Each person sends a small gift of a local herb, spice or other food that is unique to where they live. They can include a recipe to utilize the food item and it is up to the recipient to make something with it and blog about it. Katie will be doing a round-up of all the participants before the holidays.

What is so great about this event is that we live all over the world. Katie blogs from Provence and we have been following her often humorous adventures in restoring a French farmhouse. She paired me with Cindy Ruth who blogs from Alaska. Check out her blog; Baked Alaska. Cindy sent me the items below.

The box included Wild Salmonberry Jam which she explained was a berry similar to a raspberry that grows in Alaska. That was a relief because I had visions of salmon roe made into jam. Also included were three spice blends that would compliment fish or meat and a wonderful locally made chocolate/coffee bar.

I thought about using the Coho Mojo spice blend on grilled salmon and I still plan on doing that, but for this post I decided to use the Matanuska Pepper Blend to coat some thick pork chops. After sauteeing the chops I placed them in the oven to finish cooking and deglaced the pan with white wine, the salmonberry jam, and balsamic vinegar. The meal was delicious. The chocolate bar was dessert. Thank you Cindy Ruth.


Now I wonder what Meredith – deedee in france will do with the grits I sent her. I also sent her a grits cookbook with a recipe for Bill Neal’s shrimp and grits. Hope she likes grits. Season’s eatings to all of you.

10 responses to “Seasons Eatings”

  1. Good for you… I love these stories. And what a wonderful idea… heading over to your friends site now

  2. Kate says:

    How wonderful to be able to sample foods from another region! What an exciting event! Looks as though you have some keeper ideas/recipes!

  3. What a fun idea. I’ll be interested in what happened to the grits in France. Please keep us posted on that for those, like myself, who adore grits.
    Sam

  4. Katy ~ says:

    How fun to share foods and ideas. Can there be a greater gift for a foodie?

  5. Susan says:

    Penny–it will turn out to be a true Christmas for you in NC–snow and all. Have a wonderful holiday.

  6. Penny, sounds like a great exchange. I always like to get food products from from other parts of the world. It opens a new adventure with food.

    Save travels to NC and I open you don’t get too much snow, just enough to enjoy.

  7. Karen says:

    What a fun thing to do!

  8. Barbara says:

    Blogging friends are such fun, aren’t they? Let us know what they think of grits. (I love ’em myself!)
    Have a wonderful holiday at Lake Lure.

  9. Lovely! What a fun exchange. Brings a little extra sparkle to the season.

  10. katiez says:

    Salmonberry jam…. I could see why you might wonder. Your dinner looks wonderful – I love the spices. But, asparagus? Now I can’t wait for spring!

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