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Help Stamp Out Hunger This Weekend

YumSugar — Thu, 08 May 2008 09:00:29 -0700

This Saturday, May 10, the US Postal Service is running their 16th Annual Stamp Out Hunger campaign. During the day long drive, they'll gather food in over 10,000 cities, in each of the 50 United States.

To participate, all you have to do is leave a bag of non-perishable food - canned veggies, meats, soup, cereal, pasta, and rice - near your mailbox. Be sure to put it out before the postal carrier arrives. They'll take it back to the post office where it will then be delivered to a local food bank, pantry or shelter.

However, citizens living in New York City and Chicago are encouraged to take their food to a local post office branch because the mail carriers won't be able to easily transport all the donations they receive.

To find out if your community is participating, call your nearest post office.

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PartySugar Behind The Bash: Wine.Dine.Donate

partysugar — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 13:13:18 -0700

Coinciding with National Hunger Awareness day, Epicurious (the website for Bon Appetit & Gourmet magazines) hosted five charity dinners in five different cities. I was lucky enough to get an invitation to the San Francisco dinner at Farallon restaurant Friday night. All of the money raised from the event went to an amazing organization, America's Second Harvest, a food bank network that provides food to low income people in the United States. Oftentimes the fact that there are more than 9 million hungry children here in our country gets overlooked, so it was wonderful to be a part of such an important charity event. The coolest thing about wine.dine.donate is that even if you can't attend the big city event, you can hold a dinner party at your home to support the cause. I'm thinking about turning my next dinner party into a soirée that benefits the cause, but until then I'll be dreaming about the delectable dishes I ate the other night. The dinner was absolutely delicious, the deconstructed fried soft shell crab BLT, the fresh oysters, and the crispy veal breast with soft boiled egg and polenta were my favorite dishes. Just writing it makes my mouth water!

To take a look at an entire gallery of the event, including the sweet rhubarb empanada dessert created by Emily Luchetti, read more

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Kellogg's Donates Michael Phelps Cereal Boxes to Food Bank

YumSugar — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:00:22 -0700

Unwanted publicity from former spokesperson Michael Phelps has forced cereal giant Kellogg's to think outside the box.

Last August, Kellogg's debuted its limited-edition Corn Flakes cereal boxes with the gold medalist on the cover. But when a photo of the Olympian smoking marijuana out of a bong surfaced, Phelps - and, some say, in turn, Kellogg's - were swimming in controversy. Ultimately, the cereal maker decided not to renew a contract with Phelps. One question remained, however. What would be done with all the cereal boxes graced by the champion?

As it should happen, one company's trash is another organization's treasure: Roughly 3,800 pounds of the the boxes were donated to the San Francisco Food Bank two weeks ago.

With the economy in shambles and more people in need than ever, the Food Bank was all too happy to take the boxes off the company's hands. As for cereal, says San Francisco Food Bank executive director Paul Ash: "It's become very hard to get ahold of."

Now that the boxes are no longer on supermarket shelves, they'll probably be collector's items - ones that can only be found at the food bank. Even if I do think the so-called scandal was blown out of proportion, I'm happy to hear that the leftover cereal will further a good cause. Are you surprised to hear of the outcome?

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Menu For Hope 4 - Donate to Win Great Prizes!

YumSugar — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 10:06:17 -0800

This year is the fourth year that food bloggers around the world have gotten together to raise money to support the UN World Food Programme. The event is called Menu For Hope and last year they raised nearly $63,000.

Organized by Chez Pim, the raffle event runs for 10 days - now until Dec. 21 - and this year all money collected will go to the UNWFP's school lunch program in Lesotho, Africa.

So how do you donate and why would you want to?

Well, besides the warm fuzzy feeling you'll have inside, donating money will actually give you the chance to win a bunch of awesome prizes. Food bloggers around the world have come up with great prizes for you to choose from. Each raffle ticket costs $10, and you choose which prize you'd like to try and take home. The prizes cover the complete foodie gamut: cookbooks, meals out, kitchen gadgets and everything in between.

Here are some of the prizes I'd like to win:

EU31: A personal tour of elBulli kitchen laboratory with Ferran Adria
UE19: NYC Pizza Tour for 2 from SliceNY
UW10: Dinner for 2 with wine pairing and a private tour of Manresa biodynamic garden with the chef, David Kinch from Chez Pim
UW03: Your choice of three cookbooks from Ten Speed Press, from the Bunrab
UC06: Four Indian cookbooks with spice tin, spices, Indian teas, and assorted dals from Tigers and Strawberries
UW26: $100 Gift Certificate to Chuao Chocolatier from Candy Blog
AP07: A bag of the world's hottest chillies, homegrown in Nagaland, India from Rambling Spoon
EU17: Kitchen Aid stand mixer with ice cream attachment + David's latest cookbook from David Lebovitz

This is just a small sampling from a huge list of prizes. Be sure to check it out and donate to win! Visit Chez Pim for a full list of prizes and details on how to enter.

Taste Test: Cheesecake Factory Cheesecakes

YumSugar — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 07:50:57 -0700

I must admit: I'm not the world's biggest fan of cheesecake, it's always seemed a bit too rich. But I'm obsessed with red velvet cake, and was intrigued when I first heard about red velvet cheesecake. I put it on my list of things to make and before I could get to it, The Cheesecake Factory came out with a version and sent one our way - along with a couple others. Was it the perfect hybrid of Southern red velvet and smooth cheesecake decadence? How was the cheesecake on a whole? Find out when you read more

Come Together With Cat Cora's Barbecued Beans

partysugar — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:50:30 -0700

To coincide with Hunger Action Month, Macy's has launched a new campaign, entitled Come Together, that urges people to host a dinner party. However, when guests ask the inevitable, "what should I bring?" the answer is nothing. The money that guests would spend on the requisite bottle of wine should be donated to the cause. Although Macy's has created a special website where you can make and send invites and put together a menu, we've partnered with Iron Chef Cat Cora to bring you an exclusive party idea! Cat's menu consists of barbecue classics like brisket sandwiches and coleslaw, so I recommend inviting a big group of people over on a Sunday for a football-viewing party. Cheer on your favorite team while enjoying a delicious, informal meal. To get you started, we've got Cat's variation of baked beans. She combines three types of beans with barbecue sauce and a touch of cinnamon. The resulting beans are my new favorite: they're slightly sweet and depending on the sauce you use, sticky and spicy. The addition of garbanzo beans is genius. To use Cat's recipe to host a Come Together party, read more.

Barbecued Pit Beans
From Cat Cora

Ingredients

2 (15 1/2-ounce) cans chickpeas
2 (15 1/2-ounce) cans kidney beans
2 (15 1/2-ounce) cans pinto beans
2 cups good-quality barbecue sauce, without a smoky flavor
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 scallions, white and tender green parts, thinly sliced

Directions

In a saucepan, combine all of the beans, including their liquid, and the barbecue sauce. Place over medium heat, and stir until the mixture comes to a simmer.
Add the cinnamon and simmer, uncovered, for about 30 minutes, or until the liquid has reduced to a sauce consistency.
Remove from the heat and spoon the beans into a warmed serving bowl. Garnish with the scallions and serve immediately.

Serves 8.

Print recipe with images | without images

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Ming's Tips For Hosting - and Enjoying! - Your Own Party

YumSugar — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:00:58 -0700

Last week, I caught up with East-West cooking authority Ming Tsai. He hosted an event at Macy's to encourage home cooks to get involved in their Come Together campaign, a fundraising effort that aims to feed 10 million people suffering from hunger. The concept: host a dinner party, but in lieu of accepting gifts, ask guests to make a donation.

Chef Ming is a huge supporter of the idea. "Not every corporation's doing this, especially during these economic times," he says. In addition to dishing on his pantry essentials, he also shared tips on throwing a worry-free dinner party at your place. Want to stress less at your own soirées? Then keep reading.

World's Largest Cupcake Attempt Is a Sweet Success

YumSugar — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:30:04 -0700

Another one to add to the list of highly unconventional cupcakes: This 1,224-pound behemoth of a baked good, which just knocked out a recent record contender for the title of world's largest cupcake.

The prodigious pastry, which composed of triple vanilla cake batter and topped with pink frosting, was more than eight times the size of the previous record holder in girth. It stood 4 feet tall and spanned 11 feet around, and was created by Manchester, NH-based GourmetGiftBaskets.com. It required 800 eggs, 200 pounds each of sugar and flour, five days of preparation, and 12 hours of baking time.
Slices of the cupcake were served over the weekend at the Woodward Avenue Dream Cruise Classic Car Show in Detroit, MI, in exchange for donations to breast cancer foundation Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Even though the cupcake contained an estimated 2 million calories, I wouldn't have been able to pass up this once-in-a-lifetime indulgence. Does the cupcake look appetizing to you?

Photo Courtesy of Charles Whitman

The Making of a Food Festival: A Behind-the-Scenes Look

YumSugar — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 09:00:20 -0700

This country sees scores of large-scale culinary events and food festivals each week, and from Taste of the Nation to Slow Food Nation, Party and I are always there. But while a culinary extravaganza merely requires several hours of our time, it takes months or sometimes years to bring all the elements of a production together.

During SF Chefs. Food. Wine., I walked the tents with Dominic Phillips, the namesake of Dominic Phillips Event Marketing and the brainchild producer behind the soirée, to get an idea of all the unseen work that goes into such a large event. Get his surprising strategies for a successful big bash after the jump

Treat Yourself to Ice Cream Tonight

partysugar — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 07:50:12 -0700

Baskin-Robbins's annual 31-cent scoop night is happening this evening from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. To get in on the deal, all you have to do is head to your local Baskin-Robbins for a small, single-scoop ice cream cone. The event was created to honor the National Volunteer Fire Council National Junior Firefighter Program, and Baskin-Robbins will be donating $100,000 to the organization. At select stores, ice cream eaters can contribute by making their own donation the cause. Cheap ice cream for a good cause: What's not to love?

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