Well, it seems that the food bloggers have been busy and most all of the parcels are winging their way across Europe. All of you have confirmed that your parcels have been sent off, or given the date when they will be sent. Now the race is on to see who will receive their parcel first!
Below is an alphabetical list of all our participating blogs (and what an international lot we are!) I will be updating this post as I receive notification that a parcel has been sent off or has arrived. If you have already sent your parcel but this is not reflected on the list below, please leave me a comment telling me when you posted the parcel and I'll update. As the parcels start arriving, I will also be updating this list with links to your parcel posts. And did I mention I'm really looking forward to receiving my very own parcel?!
UPDATE 3 AUGUST - And the winner is.... Michael from News Splash who is the first person to receive his parcel! His box of goodies arrived this morning from Sweden - can't wait to hear what's in it!
UPDATE 4 AUGUST - And the first parcel to be blogged about is... Jenni's which was received and blogged by Meeta in Germany. In other news...
...my parcel from Gemma in Spain was waiting for me on my desk this morning OK, I feel like an idiot now. Saw a posting box from Europe in my in tray and assumed it was my EBBP parcel. But as they say, assume makes an ass of u and me. When I picked it up to take it home, it turned out to be a gift from a friend in France. So sorry - my parcel is still somewhere out there in the clutches of the postal services :-(
... Alexandra has received and blogged her parcel from Steve in England.
UPDATE 5 AUGUST Things are rolling along nicely now with a steady stream of parcels arriving. Let's see what was in the latest mailbag...
... Petra has received and blogged her parcel from Xochitl in England.
... Pam has received and blogged her parcel from... ME! That would be Cooksister in England :-)
... Karin has received and blogged her parcel from Petra in Germany. If we ask very nicely, pleeeeeeze can we have some more detail Karin?!
UPDATE 7 AUGUST Sorry about the lack of update yesterday, but we were braaing/barbecuing for the third time in 3 days :o) So here's what's been happening with the parcels:
... Steve has received and blogged his parcel from Gizalla in Hungary - lots of paprika to spice things up and then some cocktail ideas to cool things down.
... and in a nice touch of symmetry, the next e-mail I received was from Gizalla to say that she has received and blogged her parcel from Gerda in Austria. Mmmm, Mozart chocolate liqueur!
... clearly sisters think alike because when Deborah let me know that she had received and blogged her parcel from Karin in Austria, the contents included another bottle of the Mozart liqueur! ;-)
... and this morning when I arrived at work, my parcel from Gemma in Spain was waiting for me on my chair. And yes, this time I checked the postmark and it really is from Spain, not another false alarm like last week!!
... Bonnie has received her parcel from Petra, but like me, she's being strong and waiting till she gets home tonight to open - that way we can photograph the process of opening the parcel ;-)
... Anne has received her parcel from Meeta in Germany - but like me and Bonnie she is being patient and waiting to post until she can carefully open the box and photograph it at home. So much self-control! ;-)
... Andrew has received his parcel from Italy, but by the time he got to the post office, it was... closed!! So we'll have to wait a little longer to have our curiosity satisfied.
UPDATE 8 AUG We've passed the halfway mark now - only 10 parcels remain unaccounted for, which means that 15 have already found their new homes. So keep those e-mails rolling in!
... Anne has now blogged her parcel from Meeta in Germany - I gotta get me some of that almond chilli chocolate!
... Lillian has received and blogged her parcel from Bonnie in England. Amongst her goodies was a jar of gooseberry jam and Bonnie suggests using it as a filling for... Bakewell tarts! Lillian will be spoilt for choice, seeing as Andrew recently hosted a Save the Bakewell day :-)
... And speaking of Andrew, he has now blogged his parcel from Chiara in Italy - and there are some great Mediterranean treats in the parcel - go and check it out.
... Another paragon of self-control, Bonnie, managed to wait till she got home before ripping into her parcel - but now she's blogged her box of treats from Petra. I'm particularly impressed with the homemade cassis liqueur...!
... The very first parcel to arrive has been blogged- hurrah! Michael has blogged his parcel from Kristina in Sweden and is threatening to do a follow-up post as well - watch this space for details.
UPDATE 9 AUG Ah well, no EBBP would be complete without some post office/courier-related drama. This morning one of the participants let me know that DHL tried to deliver the parcel but the recipient is "not known at that address". So of course I checked the address with the recipient - who assured me that DHL have delivered parcels to him at that self same address in the past!! Go figure. But after some fancy footwork and panicky e-mails, it looks as if it may be sorted out. Hold thumbs. In other news...
... Xochitl has received her parcel from Pamela in Switzerland and hopes to post a write-up later in the week.
... Gerda has received and blogged her parcel from Anne in Sweden - and it appears that dried strawberries are hot news in Sweden as this is the second parcel to contain them! But I'm particularly intrested in the chocolate coated sunflower seeds, not to mention the lavender biscotti...
... Karin has expanded her post on her parcel from Petra in Germany - after special requests from me and her sister ;-) Thanks Karin!
... Caroline has received and blogged her parcel from Alexandra in Sweden - and I have to say that it is the first EBBP parcel that I'm aware of that came with a warning!! Sadly, Caroline's dogs were just as enthusiastic about the parcel as she was and managed to grab their share of the action - go and read all about it.
... And I have finally got round to blogging my wonderful parcel from Gemma in Spain - it's a movable tapas feast!
UPDATE 10 AUG Well, only six five outstanding parcels as of this morning! And that includes two parcels that are at the post office, awaiting the recipients' return from their holidays, and one parcel that DHL swore they were delivering yesterday afternoon. So really, only three two are still missing in action. Holding thumbs that they arrive.
... Jenni has received her parcel from Daniel in Hungary - but Daniel forgot to include a note explaining the goodies! And as Jenni says "mastering Hungarian is not amongst my many achievements" - so here's hoping Daniel will contact her soon to explain all!
... Chiara received her parcel yesterday from Caroline in Ireland - but will be on holiday until the 20th, so she'll blog it when she gets back.
... Petra has received and blogged her parcel from Andrew in England.
UPDATE 11 AUGUST Well, the DHL debacle continues unabated. When the sender enquired, they said the address he had given them didn't exist. Then, when the recipient called to enquire, they said had never attempted to deliver to him and that they had no parcel for anyone of that name. Then in a subsequent call they told him that they had tried to deliver to him but in fact they had no address, only a name. Erm... thereby directly contradicting their previous call. Then they promised the receiver that they would deliver on Monday - but an hour later they called the sender to say they had tried to deliver this afternoon but the "premises are closed". All this while the recipient was at work, together with his colleagues, at exactly those premises. I weep. So no progress there, I'm afraid. And one parcel is still completely unaccounted for, lost in the postal systems of Western Europe...
... but the good news is that Cindy has received her parcel from Johanna in England. Hurrah! Now we just have to wait for Cindy to blog about her goodies!
UPDATE 13 AUGUST Not much to report today - just that Jenni has blogged her parcel from Daniel in Hungary and WOW it's a goodie. I'm particularly jealous of the bottle of Tokaji Aszu dessert wine ;-)
UPDATE 14 AUGUST So the miracle has come to pass... the mammoth battle with DHL is over and Daniel has FINALLY received his parcel from Michael in England. No doubt we will soon be reading about their lawsuit against DHL, followed shortly by a post on the goodies in the parcel... ;-) And Michael has also written a second post about his parcel from Sweden, and the star of the show this time is cloudberry jam!
UPDATE 15 AUGUST Well what do you know - Daniel has been true to his word and written a long, detailed and generally very unhappy post about his experiences with DHL and the EBBP parcel - unfortunately it's in Hungarian, but I'm sure Bablefish or similar can give you the gist of what he's saying. Up next (we hope!) will be an account of what he got in his parcel!
... And Xochitl has blogged her parcel from Pam in Switzerland - hurrah! Some really good stuff here - I mean, polenta with truffles?? I gotta get to Switzerland :o)
... And Johanna is back in town and this morning she received her parcel from Lilian in Ireland. Can't wait for the write-up, Johanna!
UPDATE 17 AUGUST Things are quietening down here at EBBP HQ - just the last few parcels still have to be blogged about, and only one is still in the post (as we discovered after much research!!). The latest news includes...
... Daniel has blogged his parcel from Michael in England - you know the parcel that was sooooo good DHL didn't want to give it up?? ;-) Unfortunately the post is in Hungarian, so I have had to rely the pictures (some fab looking wine in there!) - but Daniel, please please tell us whether the cheese actually survived its ordeal?
... Cindy has blogged her parcel from Johanna in England and I have to say she's a lucky girl! Not only did she get some of Johanna's homemade lamponaceto jam made with raspberries - but she also got a bar of Zotter chocolate!! Mmmm.
... And Kristina has discovered that her parcel was sent by her Secret Santa... but for some mysterious reason it never left the post office. Her Secret Santa found the parcel, a week after it was posted, still at the local post office!! Grrrr. But it has now been reposted and should be with her shortly (if you can believe anything the post office says!!).
... And Johanna has blogged her parcel from Lilian in Ireland. I have to say - it's a goodie. Johanna tortures us by mentioning how she is making short work of the maple walnut fudge... Go and check out the rest of the goodies!
UPDATE 20 AUGUST Nearly there- just the last few stragglers now - we are only missing two parcel posts (the receipeints are on holiday) and then we're done! Kristina has received her parcel (despite the French post office's attempts at sabotage!!) from Cindy and has already blogged it. And I have to say that the wait was worth it - Carambars, tinned cassoulet... Lucky lady!
UPDATE 25 AUGUST And the penultimate parcel write-up has been posted! Chiara is back from her holiday and has blogged (both in Italian and English!) about her wonderful parcel from Caroline in Ireland. Caroline really went to town and included such wonderful flavours as dukka and avocado oil. Mmmmm, lucky Chiara!
UPDATE 26 AUGUST It's official - 100% of the parcels for EBBP#5 have been received and blogged! This became official this morning when Gemma let me know that she'd blogged her parcel from Deborah in Berlin, which was waiting for her when she got back from her holiday. Her parcel contains all sorts of representatives of lovely red summer berry fruits - dogo and read all about it!
Here is the complete list of participants:
- Anne's Food (Sweden) - parcel sent 1 August, parcel received from Germany
- BCN Mon Amour (Spain) - parcel sent 31 July, parcel received from Germany
- BiblioCook (Ireland) - parcel sent 1 August, parcel received from Sweden
- Catching Points (Sweden) - parcel sent 1 August, parcel received from the UK
- Cindy's Kitchen (France) - parcel sent 1 August, parcel received from the UK
- Chili und Ciabatta (Germany) - parcel sent 31 July, parcel received from England
- Clivia's Cuisine (Sweden) - parcel sent 14 August, parcel received from France
- Cooksister! (England) - parcel sent 31 July, parcel received from Spain
- Daydream Delicious (England) - parcel sent 31 July, parcel received from Germany
- Dinner for One (Austria) - parcel sent 31 July, parcel received from Sweden
- First, take one onion (England) - parcel sent 2 August, parcel received from Hungary
- Ifantabulous (Ireland) - parcel sent 8 Aug, parcel received from England
- Kochen fur Schlampen (Germany) - parcel sent 1 August, parcel received from Austria
- La Cuoca Petulante (Italy) - parcel sent 1 August, parcel received from Ireland
- News Splash (England) - parcel sent 31 July, parcel received from Sweden
- Posie's Place (Switzerland) - parcel sent 31 July, parcel received from England
- Something for the weekend (Austria) - parcel sent 31 July, parcel received from Germany
- SpittoonExtra (England) - parcel sent 1 August, parcel received from Italy
- The Passionate Cook (England) - parcel sent 31 July, parcel received from Ireland.
- What's for lunch, honey? (Germany) - parcel sent 31 July, parcel received from England
- Xochitl Cooks (England) - parcel sent 2 August, parcel received from Switzerland
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Jeanne - glad to see there are so many participants for the EBBP, incl. new ones! Cannot wait to read about all the parcels when they reach their destinations, and I am really looking forward to participating myself again in one of the next rounds!
Posted by: Pille | August 03, 2006 at 08:44 AM
Ooops, sorry - parcel posted Monday 31st!
Posted by: jenni | August 03, 2006 at 10:29 AM
Hi Pille
Yes - do join in next time! I had actually forgotten how much fun it is!
Hi Jenni
Not to worry - thanks for letting me know!
Posted by: Jeanne | August 04, 2006 at 03:12 PM
Your food bloggy is making me so hungry!!
Smooch,
The Tart
; )
Posted by: Cheap Tarts | August 05, 2006 at 09:57 PM
yeah, sister actually do think alike! karin and i have not talked before we sent off the parcels, but it turns out we both sent mozart liquor, homemade apricot jam and linzer tarts!!!
this is very spooky. after we wrapped our gifts we sent eachother pictures of the content and we both where pretty "shocked" about our almost equal taste. maybe it's just because we are sisters and had the same upbringing in rural austria!
Posted by: gerda | August 07, 2006 at 12:03 PM
gosh, i was absolutely the last person to send the parcel away! great job in organising EBBP jeanne, thanks a million!!
Posted by: Lil | August 10, 2006 at 11:46 AM
Show me yours, I'll show you mine :)
http://blog.lebensunfaehig.org/foodfreak/archives/475-EBBP5-Summer-on-Thames.html
Thanks, Andrew! Thanks, Jeanne!
Posted by: Foodfreak | August 10, 2006 at 02:50 PM
Hi Tart
Aaaah, we aim to please! Glad you enjoyed yuor visit - and we're calorie-free!;-)
Hi Gerda
That's even better, now that I know you didn't confer!! But as you say - you grew up in the same place in the same way, so it's natural that there will be similarities in your tastes (and what great tastes they are!!)
Hi Lil
Yes - but at least there was a reason for it - not just rampant tardiness!! ;-) Look forward to reading about it when it arrives...
Hi Petra
Yaaaaay! Now I can list your parcel as "no longer missing in action"!! Can't wait to head over and see what you got!
Posted by: Jeanne | August 10, 2006 at 04:03 PM
Phew! Delighted to hear that my parcel got through to Chiara. I was starting to wonder if it had got lost in transit!
Posted by: Caroline@Bibliocook | August 10, 2006 at 05:20 PM