Goodies Galore!

This is going to (hopefully) be a quickie post since I'm only allowing 30 minutes of blogging time tonight!

I'm turning over a new leaf...a responsible one. I've set up a work area in my dining room (conveniently at a table I haven't been able to move on my own since Christmas - WEAK!) to keep myself from typing from the couch and get organized.

What do you think? It's still a little messy as I'm trying to figure out an iTunes/iPhone connection thing from my old laptop. It forces me to look at the white wall of no distraction haha.

Another part of this leaf turning process was passing up on an annual Chinese New Year dinner with friends. Every year my friends (also big food nerds) do a big Chinese New Year feast at a local restaurant and every year it is jam packed with delicious food. Tonight's celebration was at Joe's Noodle House in Rockville, a small restaurant with quality dishes. I'm bummed, but I turned it down with very good reasons: 1) I had to put in extra time at the office 2) I needed a run 3) I'm trying to be financially responsible and 4) I wore this today:

Yes, two different socks. That means laundry time. Big laundry time.

My spirits lightened up a bit when I checked the mail and saw a package from Jamie! All the snow delayed its arrival and Jamie kept talking it up on Skype. I definitely didn't expect the onslaught of goodies when I opened the box!

First up, some curry/saucy things

And instead of packing peanuts, I got a bunch of these marshmallows:

That one was filled with some sort of strawberry creme (just a dab) and the other flavor (not pictured) appeared to be a 'purple fairy' flavor. Apparently a picture of a purple fairy means delicious chocolate surprise.

Kiwi Creme Cake took up the most space in the box. I think these are like Tastycakes. Jamie started snacking on a sweet potato one while Skyping and it definitely wasn't what I imagined when he said he got sweet potato cakes. Eh, I'll give one a shot.

I giggled when I saw this next treat:

Yes, Crunky. Upon further inspection, it sounds like heavenly candy - malt balls in chocolate? HELLO.

He also sent some SPAM singles.

Have I mentioned my love of SPAM? I share this love with my siblings too and I think it's TOTALLY NORMAL. haha. My gramma used to make SPAM when we were little and I never questioned it. She would either pan fry some thin slices or pop them in the toaster until they got crispy and served it with some rice. SO yummy. Not exactly the healthiest dish, but at the time it was quick, simple and delicious. Now it's one of the many random tasty memories I have of my childhood. What foods bring you back to your childhood?

These single packs looked fun, but I looked a little closer and noticed they were different flavors:

Yeeh! A little scary. Sweet potato SPAM? How does that work?? I did like the nifty pictures of what you can do with SPAM, though hehe

Shrimp Chips were also tossed in.

Have you had shrimp chips before? They're not as scary as they may sound. It's usually not an in your face shrimp taste...mostly a crispy chip taste with a hint of shrimp. My mom used to get the shrimp chip disks (they're brightly colored, plasticky looking circles) that you fry up at home. Those are WAY better than the french fry looking ones typically found at Asian markets. Just a heads up.

And last, but not least, some chewy fruit candies (I think) that look a little bit like Hi-Chu so I'm going to bet they're good. I trust Jamie's sweet tooth.

Not quite sure what to do with all these goodies, though. There will be sampling, but the rest will probably be stashed until he returns...whenever that may be :\

Do you have any favorite foods/candies/beverages from travels abroad?

I'm off to get some work done and finish laundry! Already got my run/walk in for the day and am happy to report I'm consistently doing run portions well under 9 minute pace with no pain :) :) SOOOOOO happy!