When I was in elementary school, I had a pen pal in the United Kingdom. The details are a bit fuzzy on how I got my pen pal or for how long we kept in contact, but I used to love reading her letters and comparing how different life was here in the States. That’s probably where my love for all things UK came from. For some reason or another, we stopped writing to each other, but I never got over how fun it was to receive something in the mail. I think my pen pal contributed to my obsession for Amazon as well. 
I stumbled upon the Lean Green Bean last month and was pleasantly surprised to hear that they had a pen pal system in place for foodies just like me! They have over 1,000 foodies and bloggers alike from around the globe that send foodie packages once a month to an assigned pen pal. Every month you get a new pal, so it is a great way to network and make friends, not to mention try out the food fare from around the nation.
This month, I was to send a foodie package that contained all the local goodies in and around my town to Jessica at The Enlightened Kitchen and I was to receive a package from new foodie friend, Lynn from Spotsylivania, VA. I had never heard of Spotsylvania before, so I looked it up. According to its county page, in addition to its beautiful rural landscapes, Spotsylvaniais is known as the “Crossroads of the Civil War” and is home to many historical resources including the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields National Military Park. I, personally, would love to visit the Historical Courthouse and Old Jail in the Spotsylvania Courthouse area.
Here is the foodie package I received from Lynn. 
She also attached a sweet letter and a recipe for Cake Mix Cookies. She included a few of the ingredients to make the cookies, so I gave it a go! They sounded delicious and reminded me of the post I made last week of the deep dark chocolate cookies I found on Pinterest because of the way the confectioner sugar cracks when it bakes.
I also decided to add the gourmet Virginia Diner peanuts she included in my foodie package to give a bit more crunch. I just pulsed 1/2 cup in the food processor and added it to the batter.
They were so yummy! And they tied in perfectly with the vanilla cinnamon coffee Lynn sent as well!
Cake Mix Cookies
Ingredients:
1 box vanilla cake mix
1 8oz. Cool Whip or other preferred whipped topping
1 egg
confectioner sugar
Directions:
Mix all ingredients together except the sugar in a large bowl. Using a mini-ice cream scoop or small spoon, roll out a ball of batter about 1/2 of an inch. Drop it into the confectioner sugar and coat well.
Place on baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.
Overall, Foodie Pen Pals was a great experience this month and I can’t wait to try it again in September! If you are interested in participating, please check out Lindsay’s blog, Lean Green Bean. You won’t be disappointed!