Sweet Eats :: From one foodie to another

A dear friend of mine, Leona is a true foodie and an amazing home cook. Her dinner parties are legendary...hubbie & I would reminisce about her 4-5 course dinners for days. Leona & I are Francophiles and can talk for hours about food, travelling, France, foodie moments while travelling in France...and more food! We often swap travelling tips and recipes and she is passionate about Australian Gourmet Traveller magazine...I think she has been subscribing since the late 1990's! This is a very gourmet mag, and I was amazed how she'd whip up weeknight meals from it! While we have a current subscription to the magazine (a Christmas gift), I actually spend most of my time drooling over it, instead of cooking from it!

A few months ago though, Leona got her dream opportunity to work overseas, when she was offered a job at the Basel headquarters of her Sydney office. So along with her hubbie, she packed up her life in Sydney & sent it to Switzerland!

Even though it was sad to see her leave, before she left we decided we'd send food parcels to each other. And this week, I was the lucky recipient of the goodies above. Thankfully, our strict quarantine service didn't need to remove anything! Inside were some Pierre Marcolini (amazing-looking stores both Tiff & I have been too intimidated to go into, at least in Paris!) and Godiva choccies she bought in Brussels; a little jar of Bonne Maman cherry jam from France; some Lackerli-Huus Basler Leckerli (sweet biscuits from Basel) packaged in a little cone; a packet of marzipan; marzipan carrots (perfect for decorating a carrot cake!) and a little bunny cookie cutter to go with it; some dried cranberries (apparently, widely available in Basel); and finally, a gorgeous little tin of Oliviers & Co lemon-flavoured extra virgin olive oil...a brand you can't get in Australia! To top it off, a Swiss handmade card of Basel's marketplace. Thank you so much Leona!


Here were the goodies I sent off to her last month in time for her birthday. I tried to make it Aussie-themed & to include things that she couldn't get in Switzerland (or were too expensive!), but got a little sidetracked! Inside was the July issue of AGT (a very timely French issue); Vegemite (of course!); macadamia nuts and pine nuts; Herbie's Spices vanilla beans, Morrocan tagine spice mix, and za'atar; A Taste of the Bush Tasmanian pepper & lemon myrtle tea; saffron; demerera sugar (apparently, the Swiss don't have much variety in the sugar dept!), lavender strawberry jam; Maggie Beer blood plum paste; lemon sherbets (Leona loves lemons!); Golden Boronia cappucino nougat and a cookie cutter of Australia. I also threw in a couple of biscuit recipes...and along for the ride was one of our rescued softies, Chloe. Her dream is to be a food stylist & she loves lemon tart!

Both of us made a deal not to be precious about our food...so I hope you've started digging in Leona...I'm already dreaming up your next package!! N