Oktoberfest

when i hear the word "oktoberfest" i usually visualize polka dancin' dudes in lederhosen eating sausages and drinking large amounts of beer. not anymore. this year i participated in the post punk kitchen october care package swap. my swap partner was brittany from VA and she really sent me a sweet basket! I received TJ maple leaf cookies, organic brown rice crispy treats, dark chocolate covered pretzels, two kinds of primal strips-(thai peanut and hickory), justin's hazlenut butter, dandies vanilla vegan marshmallows, lara bar jocolat, white chocolate chips from pangea, tj cranberry butter, chocolate covered espresso beans, and blood orange bat dots!
the hazlenut butter puts nutella to shame. plus i chuckled a little because it was called "justin's nut butter." i have such a dirty mind.
the cookies were great! i have evil s'mores plans for those dandies.
i used some of these the other day to make really great cookies that i will talk about next month for my SPECIAL THEME during VEGAN MOFO. what's the theme? c'mon--i'm all about suspense. let's just say it'll be cool, way cool. if i told you now, i might just have to kill you. and that wouldn't be vegan.
i'm not a huge candy fan--just a chocolate purist. i found these to be really great! plus they make great accents for cupcakes or dressing up fun shaped cookies.
the cranberry apple butter really jazzes up the ol' tired pb&j. i am also going to play around with it and make some bbq sauce with it.

i would never buy myself this stuff. sad, but true. i'd probably buy it piece meal, but i really don't get specialty stuff too often. largely because i'm broke, don't live super close to a TJ, and i know (this is silly because i know i'm worth it)--i'm just busy most of the time taking care of everyone else first, then i eventually get to "me". this bundle of vegan goodies really made my day. this was a ton of fun and i'll more than likely do this again.

thanks, brittany! i hope you are enjoying yours.