Anyone Hungry?

Really, that was just a rhetorical question. I'm not sharing. Well, actually, I am sharing, but not the food pictured below. That food is what I won from Parking At Home's Pay It Forward contest! It arrived yesterday, and I'm so excited!

I'll admit that there are a few items that I'm a little unsure of what they are, but I've sent the images to a friend of mine who's mom will know and can give me cooking instructions that aren't in a language that doesn't share characters with English. Were I not headed to Cirque du Soleil tonight and then out to dinner with some friends, I'd be eating one of these tonight!

It looks like the Mother Lode, doesn't it?

When I spread it all out on the floor (with Meow's help, of course), I realized that it really is the Mother Lode. And yes, I'm anal retentive enough to unpack it and organize it. It didn't do this just for the picture. I'm aware that I have isues.

This is some roasted corn tea and some green tea with roasted brown rice. I've never tried either (green tea, yes, but not with the roasted brown rice). The friend I sent the pictures to said the corn tea tastes vaguely like popcorn. Basically, I'm all in on that one!


Next came the Cups of Instant Rice Noodle Soup. I'm imagining it like the Lipton Cup 'o Soups, but man these are huge! Two meals at least, I'm thinking!

This is the first of my mystery items. There is no English translation anywhere on this, although it appears to my untrained eye to be some sort of breakfast item. If I figure out how to cook it.

We move on to my lifetime supply of nori! The good news is that nori never goes bad. If you've had it for awhile and it gets a little soft, just pop it in the microwave, and it'll crisp right up. These are the whole sheets great for making all kinds of sushi (and snacking).

The lifetime supply also comes in mini-snacking size. This is 24 packages of precut nori. I think I need to have a sushi party someday soon!

This is another soup, anchovy flavored. And yes, I do like anchovies. Salty, but yummy. The cooking may be a slight challenge, but I'll figure it out. This is a front runner for dinner tomorrow.

More mystery items with no English translation. They appear to by ramen noodles, however. I just have to figure out how to cook these, too!



And lastly, who can complete a meal without some candy? Really.... I'm still trying to figure out how I have yet to dive into these. My only excuse is that I was exhausted last night when I got home after work and the wake and watching my friends' kids (we brought them home from the wake because they were SO done -- including the younger one jumping up to grab his grandpa's beard) that I forgot I had them and just went to bed.


So now that I have my treasured Mother Lode, it's my turn to run another Pay It Forward contest. This one starts once the post goes up. I'll run it until Wednesday around 4pm (CST) next week and post the winner that night, the 23rd I think.

My prize is again a mystery, but hopefully it will be somewhere in the league of the Mother Lode, although I don't think I can be quite that cool.

Rules:

1) If you are entering, that means you are committing to run a Pay It Forward contest on your own blog once you receive your prize. Don't disappoint me!

2) To enter, comment below between now and Wednesday July 24 at 4pm CST. Your comment should include guesses on what my mystery items are and how I should cook and eat them. Hopefully I'll have the real answer from my friend's mom by then!

3) Enter only once, and please have a blog so that you can carry on the torch.

4) I'll use a random number generator on Wednesday to pick the winner and post. I'll also email the winner, so be sure you reply by Saturday the 26th so I can get your prize out to you.

Good luck! And THANK YOU again to Parking At Home!