I love to bake and cook, so when Marla on 2peas created her Secret Betty swap last year, I had to join in! Since then, there have been a few more Betty Swaps with Betty Swap 4 recently being wrapped up.
I didn't participate in 2 and 3, so I was anxious to participate in Betty Swap 4. The theme of this Betty swap was home state recipes. We had to send a cookbook from our home state, 3 kitchen items, a spring item and the special ingredients needed to make a local recipe. I chose Chocolate Haupia Pie for my state recipe. We were also required to send an item that represents our state.
Above is a picture from Rachel's gallery, which I stole (THANKS, Rachel!!!) because I didn't have time to take a good picture before I mailed it off. Actually, I think I was too anxious to send it!!! ~LOL~
I sent Rachel a can of coconut milk and chocolate for the pie. Since the package was sent right before Easter, I sent a bunny cookie cutter, an Easter egg themed cookie cutter/press set and a bunny cake pan.
Her kitchen is decorated with the colors maroon and olive green; and, she also loves Hello Kitty. So, for the spring item requirement, I sent her the perfect thing: a Hello Kitty wind chime set that was painted maroon! Unfortunately, you can't see it in the picture because it's still in the box!
For my state item, I chose to send some guava jam to my pal along with a chipboard album of the word "ohana". If you're familiar with the movie "Lilo and Stitch", you'll know that ohana means FAMILY. I thought about decorating it for her but then decided to leave it up to her so she could do it in her own fabulous style! Rachel is married with three handsome boys, and I figured she could definitely make use of this album for family pics! I hope she always remembers her swap pal in Hawaii whenever she looks at it.
In the package, I also included a few Hello Kitty items inlcluding a card I made for her. I fell in love with a few of the Hello Kitty Sizzlits dies that just came out recently and was excited to have the opportunity to use one of them to make a card for Rachel. I'll post pics of other cards using the dies in the future!
Now, on to the goodies that Rachel sent me! WOW, where do I even begin? She knows I love things with strawberries on them. Ever since I was a little girl, I have always loved anything that has a picture of a strawberry on it.
The recipe Rachel selected was Key Lime Pie. I was so happy to see a bottle of authentic key lime juice in my Betty Swap package! I know enough about key lime pies to know that no other lime will do. It's called "Key Lime Pie" for a reason! ~LOL~ She also managed to pack a pie crust in there so well that it arrived uncracked! Also included was a can of sweetened condensed milk.
Other goodies include: two cookbooks, a lime juicer, lime/lemon keeper, measuring cups, an adorable vintage pie plate with a strawberry recipe on it, strawberry pin, vintage towel embroidered with strawberries, fun, bright green cleaning gloves, strawberry scented lip gloss, magnets and a grocery shopping list. My absolute favorite items were the strawberry wooden plaque, strawberry salt and pepper shakers and the strawberry potholder! HOW CUTE are they ?!?!?! She also made me a cute card with strawberry patterned paper. I kept pulling goodie after goodie out of the box. Rachel was a great and fun pal! (THANKS AGAIN, RACHEL !!!)
BTW, I did get a chance to make the pie on Easter and it got RAVE reviews. Even finicky Miss Mikayla fell in love with it and has been bugging me to make more! I'm so glad Rachel sent me a large bottle of the key lime juice! I did take pictures of the pie but, unfortunately, I deleted them by accident! I will be making more pies in the near future and will post the recipe and pics when I do!
Posts
