The Sriracha grilled cheese is the newest flavor at Pop’s. Photo courtesy Pop’s Ice Cream & Soda Bar on Facebook.

Esquire magazine honored National Grilled Cheese Month in April by blogging about grilled cheeses from across the map on its Eat Like a Man blog. A former Roanoke Times online intern, Katrina Tulloch, freelanced one blog entry for Esquire about Roanoke’s finest location for grilled cheese sandwiches: Pop’s Ice Cream & Soda Bar in Grandin Village.

Specifically, Katrina wrote about the $6.50 Swiss Melt at Pop’s, which is made with Swiss cheese, artichoke hearts, horseradish and Dijon mustard. It is one of about a dozen different kinds of grilled cheese made at Pop’s.

Other grilled cheeses featured on the blog during the month were the pecorino and almond pressed sandwich from Tartine Bakery in San Francisco, the ropa vieja from Sugarcane Raw Bar & Grill in Miami, the Caprese at Cheesie’s Pub & Grub in Chicago, and the grilled cheese at Bouchon Bakery in New York City.

To round out the month, Esquire put all of the sandwiches featured for the month up to vote by Esquire.com readers. The winner was recently announced, and Pop’s came in THIRD place behind only Cheesie’s of Chicago and Roxy’s Grilled Cheese Truck in Boston. According to the bar graph on Eat Like a Man, Pop’s pulled in about 17 percent of the vote.

I know part of that is because Katrina promoted the heck out of the contest on her social media channels, which likely drove a lot of Roanokers to go on Esquire.com and vote for Pop’s. Thanks for all the love for the Roanoke food scene, Katrina. And congratulations to Pop’s! Maybe this is the place for Diners, Drive-ins and Dives?

Anybody familiar with Pop’s is probably not surprised they can hold their own against grilled cheese makers across the country. If you have never been to Pop’s, get thee to the shop in a hurry to see why people love it so much. You can read more about Pop’s on their Facebook page here.

Cupcakes from last year’s bake-off. Photo courtesy The Advancement Foundation.

In this blog post you’ll find details about the Cupcakes at the Cottage Bake-Off in Vinton, the 2013 Earth Day Celebration in Grandin Village, local seedlings for sale, a custom tea blending workshop and a schedule of food demonstrations at Blacksburg Fork and Cork.

* It’s time for the Second Annual Cupcakes at the Cottage Bake-Off, which takes place at the Charity Cottage Thrift Store in Vinton on April 27 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the same day as the Vinton Dogwood Festival Parade.

The thrift store is operated by The Advancement Foundation, a non-profit aid organization that works to eliminate poverty. Proceeds from the bake-off will go to various charities. In addition to cupcakes, the event will offer refreshments and special deals at the store.

Interested parties should register to bring at least one dozen cupcakes to the bake-off. The cupcakes will be judged at 2 p.m., just before the parade begins at 2:30 p.m. The cupcakes not tasted by the judges will be for sale to the general public at a cost of a $1 donation for each cupcake. The buyer gets to choose the charity to which he or she wants to donate the dollar.

Read more »

Image from www.biglickbeertopia.com

Attention home brewers: It’s time to perfect your latest concoction so it can be entered in the Beertopia Home Brew Competition. The winner of this year’s contest will have his or her beer brewed by Parkway Brewing Company in Salem!

This contest is connected to the Beertopia Craft Beer Festival, which takes place June 8 at the Salem Red Sox stadium in Salem. This will be the third year for the festival and the second year for the home brew competition.

The categories for the contest are light, dark, amber and specialty (no mead or cider). It is open to home brewers from anywhere in the United States and beyond. How would someone from across the pond get their beer to Virginia to enter the contest? Well, the festival organizers, Roanoke Jaycees and Star City Brewers’ Guild, will accept entries submitted through the mail in addition to those dropped off in person.

The judging will take place at Parkway Brewing Company and the winning beer will be announced at the festival, which will also feature tastings from almost 40 different breweries. To check out a full list of participating breweries, head to the festival Facebook page.

To read the official rules and register for the home brewer competition, click here. You must register by May 10. Parkway Brewing Co. reserves the right to not brew the winning beer if “it is not deemed commercially viable,” according to the festival website. In that case, the winner will still be able to hang out at the brewery and help make beer for a day. But festival spokesman Zak Moore said if the Best in Show beer is a really complex beer, Parkway might just do a small batch.

Stay tuned for more details about the festival itself.

Five Southwest Virginia wineries and one cider house took home medals from this year’s Virginia Governor’s Cup event.

The highly competitive contest among the state’s wineries is organized by the Virginia Wineries Association, the Virginia Wine Board and the Virginia Vineyards Association. Several hundred individual wines are sampled each year by a panel of expert judges.

The judges award medals of gold, silver and bronze. After this year’s winners were announced late last week, I scoured the list to see how many local wineries I could find.

The contest is still fairly well dominated by wineries in Northern and central Virginia, particularly the Charlottesville area. None of our local wineries earned gold medals, but several silver and bronze medals did come home to our corner of the state.

Congratulations to the owners of the following wineries. If you are a wine aficionado, what do you think of Southwest Virginia wines?

Read more »

For the second year, organizers of the Covington Cork and Pork Festival have arranged a barbecue judging class certified by the Kansas City Barbecue Society.

This class, which lasts from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 16, will take place at Covington Baptist Church at 280 West Riverside Street in Covington. The cost is $85 per person and includes all materials, meat, and a one-year membership in the KCBS. For KCBS members, the class is $50.

To register for this class and to learn more about the festival, which is scheduled for June 28 and 29, click here.

If you’re interested, I’m sure you have lots of questions about how this works. Contest organizer Les Balgavy was kind enough to send along a list of frequently asked questions about the class. I’ll share those below.

Read more »

Over the past week, nearly 200 comments were posted by readers eager to score one of the five cookbooks I am giving away as part of the Cookbook Countdown to the New Year. I know some of you entered every day, and I appreciate your dedication.

I have used a random number generator to determine the winners of the cookbooks. And here they are:

Day 1: “Tyler Florence: Fresh.” Winner: Denise, who left comment #17, “Love Tyler! Would love this cook book!”

Day 2: “Lard: The Lost Art of Cooking with Your Grandmother’s Secret Ingredient” by the editors of GRIT magazine. Winner: Patricia, who left comment #35, “Sounds worth trying. Especially since I think I can find local lard.”

Day 3: “Cooking Italian with the Cake Boss” by Buddy Valastro. Winner: Stephanie, who left comment #23, “Sounds like a great cookbook.”

Day 4: Thomas Keller’s “Bouchon Bakery.” Winner: April, who left comment #1, “I love making goodies for people. This would be an awesome cookbook for me to do that.”

Day 5: “Cooking Season by Season” by various authors. Winner: Cindy Higgins, who left comment #34, “Sounds like a book I’d like to add to my collection!”

All of the winners will be receiving emails from me, so if your name is on this list be sure to check the email account you used when you left your comment. If I do not hear back from you within five business days, I will choose another winner. Thank you to everybody who entered to win, and Happy New Year!

Speaking of new beginnings, I want to alert everybody that you’ll be seeing a change on the Fridge Magnet blog that will probably begin today. This blog, along with the other blogs usually found in the green and red PlateUp wrapper, will be converted back to the standard Roanoke.com wrapper. That means Fridge Magnet, The Storefront by Amanda Codispoti, and The Shoptimist by Rebecca Holland will be getting the same look as all the other blogs on Roanoke.com.

This change is being made as we lead up to the launch of the newly redesigned Roanoke.com in the new year. If anybody experiences any problems with the performance of this blog after the switch, please leave a comment or send me an email at lindsey.nair@roanoke.com and let me know. Thanks!

I have saved the best for last in our Cookbook Countdown to the New Year. At least, this is the book I would most like to win out of all of the ones I’ve offered this week.

“Cooking Season by Season” by various authors is a huge, hardback book filled with 1,000 recipes that are organized by the time of year and seasonality of different ingredients. The chapters and some of the foods they feature are spring (scallions, rhubarb), early summer (fava beans, asparagus, strawberries), high summer (sweet corn, tomatoes, melons, summer berries), fall (beets, fennel, broccoli, figs), early winter (leeks, pomegranates, cabbage), and late winter (avocado, venison, rutabaga and turnips).

A few recipe examples: Spinach Sauce, Creamy Scallop Bisque, Zucchini and Potato Soup, Salmon Jungle Curry, Mussels in Fennel Broth, Blackberry Brioche with Mascarpone, and Normandy Pear Tart. The book also includes menu plans and lots of other information.

To be entered to win a copy of this book, please leave a comment on this blog entry. I will throw in a “For Dummies” grilling mitt. I’ll announce the winner on New Year’s Eve. Have a great weekend!

As the name of this cookbook implies, it comes from the master mind of Thomas Keller, founder of one of the most famous restaurants in America (if not THE most famous), The French Laundry in Napa, California.

In this huge hardback cookbook, with its suggested retail price of $50, Keller takes on the art of baking. If you are a serious baker, you will be in heaven when you open this book and see all of the glorious photographs and tantalizing recipes. They are not just for sweets — there are plenty of bread recipes in this book.

Here’s a sampling of the recipes included: Brioche, English Muffins, Sticky Buns, Lime Coconut Eclairs (and eclairs in general), Plum Tart with Almond Cream, Olive Oil Cake, and Chocolate Cherry Scones.

If your sweet tooth is activated by this blog entry and you’d like to do some baking from this book, enter to win it by leaving a comment on this blog entry. I’ll also throw in a “For Dummies” drawstring bag, which you may need to lug this book around.

I will announce the winner on New Year’s Eve.

The very same Buddy Valastro who just brought his show to the Salem Civic Center has written a new cookbook. Although he is best known as the Cake Boss from the TLC reality show, Valastro writes in this book all about cooking his native cuisine, Italian.

“Cooking Italian with the Cake Boss” is a 360-page hardback book filled with glossy food images and tasty-looking recipes. Those recipes include Sausage and Pepper Sandwich, Minestrone, Marinara Sauce, Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli, Perfect Italian Chicken Cutlet, Osso Buco and Nina’s Ricotta Cheesecake.

What I like about this book is that the recipes aren’t fancy and complicated. While there are some unusual and sophisticated ingredients and techniques, this book is for the most part filled with recipes for Italian menu staples.

Want to win this book? If so, leave a comment on this blog entry. The winner will also get a “For Dummies” insulated coffee cup. I will announce a winner on New Year’s Eve.

The name of this cookbook says it all. Yes, it is all about cooking with lard, or “The lost art of cooking with your grandmother’s secret ingredient.” My grandmother used lard sometimes and her food sure was good.

The word “lard” may not sound appetizing to some folks, but the recipes in this book will make your mouth water. They include Country Fried Chicken, Hamburger in Cheese Popovers, British Pasties, Beef Wellington, Butterscotch Rolls and Southern Gingerbread with Apricot Cream Filling.

This cookbook was compiled by the editors of GRIT magazine, and as an added bonus it includes a certificate for a free subscription to the magazine!

If you are interested in winning this cookbook, please leave a comment on this blog entry. I’m going to include a “For Dummies” apron. I will announce the winner on New Year’s Eve.

Oh, and by the way … MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Today’s cookbook giveaway features “Tyler Florence: Fresh.” This is a 240-page hardback cookbook from the bestselling author, chef and TV star. It is dedicated to the belief that fresh, unprocessed foods are the healthiest foods you and your family can eat.

In this cookbook, educational essays about “hero ingredients” such as beets, anchovies, clams and quail eggs are interposed with interesting recipes for dishes such as Grilled Artichokes with Anchovy Mayo and Cucumber-Lemon Salsa; Butternut Squash Tortellini with Lentils, Yogurt and Sumac; and Scallops with Melon, Chile and Mint. It also describes “hero techniques” such as making confit vegetables and quickly pickling foods.

To enter to win this book, leave a comment on this blog entry. I will also throw in a “For Dummies” grilling mitt. I’ll announce the winner on New Year’s Eve.

It is a tradition here on the Fridge Magnet blog to give away gifts during the week between Christmas and the New Year. I call it the Cookbook Countdown to the New Year. This year, I have more than cookbooks to give away. I also have some “For Dummies” schwag from the folks who bring us the popular yellow-and-black self-teaching books. You know, like “Cooking for Dummies,” “Woodworking for Dummies,” “Ventriloquist Dummies for Dummies.”

OK, I made that last one up. But you get the picture. The schwag I have includes grilling mitts, an insulated coffee mug and a drawstring bag.

This year, I’m tweaking the giveaway dates a little bit. The prize blog entries will begin on Monday, Dec. 24 and run through Friday. I’ll be back on New Year’s Eve to resume our conversations about food, and I’ll be checking comments through the week next week, although not as frequently on Monday through Wednesday. So if your comment does not get approved and show up right away, don’t worry.

I’ve saved some of the very best cookbooks I’ve gotten over the past few months for this giveaway. They include:

“Lard: The Lost Art of Cooking with Your Grandmother’s Secret Ingredient” from the editors of GRIT Magazine
“Thomas Keller Bouchon Bakery” by Sebastien Rouxel
“Cooking Italian with the Cake Boss” by Buddy Valastro
“Fresh” by Tyler Florence
“Cooking Season by Season: 1000 Recipes to Cook through the Year” by various authors

To be eligible to win one of these cookbooks, check the blog every day next week and leave a comment on the blog entry. I will announce all of the random winners on New Year’s Eve. Good luck to you all, and have a VERY HAPPY HOLIDAY!

Penny Webster baked her first wedding cake as a senior at Floyd County High School, when her only training in cakemaking had come from a course in home economics.

Fortunately, the 53-year-old native of Copper Hill has learned much more over the years.

“I’ve probably baked 500 wedding cakes since then,” she said.

All that hard work and experience have earned Webster an exciting early Christmas gift: two tickets to see Buddy Valastro, aka the “Cake Boss,” at the Salem Civic Center this Sunday, as well as a meet-and-greet with the reality television star after the show.

Webster won the prize in our autumn cupcake contest because her design was deemed the best of the finalists by Valastro himself. The cupcake, which looks like a tiny wooden barrel stuffed with autumn leaves, was the miniature version of a wedding cake she was making in October, when she heard about the contest.

“The amount of detail shown in this cupcake is second to none,” Valastro said of Webster’s entry. “Job well done!”

To continue reading about Webster’s win, click here.

I hope you enjoy this slideshow of Webster’s cupcake and 11 honorable mention cupcakes.

Photo submitted by Shaye Thomas of Troutville.

We’re still running our autumn cupcake contest with a chance to win tickets to see the Cake Boss, Buddy Valastro, at the Salem Civic Center on Dec. 9. We’ve already received some wonderful entries, including these fall leaf cupcakes made by Shaye Thomas of Troutville.

A photo of Shaye’s cupcakes and the others submitted for the contest will be sent to Valastro, who will choose the winner. Here are the rules and the deadline for the contest. You still have this week and this coming weekend to do the baking.

>> Bake and decorate the cupcake yourself or with friends and family members. Use an autumn theme (this could include leaves, Halloween, Thanksgiving, football season, etc. Feel free to be creative.)

>> Take a photo of the cupcake that shows all the elements of your design.

>> Write a brief description about how you decorated your cupcake, including any special or unusual steps you took.

>> Email the picture and description, along with your name, hometown and daytime telephone number (for verification purposes), to lindsey.nair@roanoke.com or mail the materials to The Roanoke Times, c/o Lindsey Nair, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, VA, 24010.

>> The deadline to enter is 5 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 12. The winner will be notified by the week of Nov. 26. Even if your cupcake does not win, we may publish your picture in The Roanoke Times.

Today’s Front Burner column is about Buddy Valastro, star of the TLC reality shows “Cake Boss” and “The Next Great Baker.” On Dec. 9, Valastro is coming to the Salem Civic Center to share stories and cake decorating tips with the audience. A few lucky audience members will go home with a Cake Boss cake.

Tickets are $35.75, $45.75 and $85, but you could win a pair of tickets by entering our fall cupcake contest! Decorate a cupcake with an autumn theme, then send us a picture. We’ll show the images to Valastro, who will pick the final winner. I know some very talented bakers read the Fridge Magnet blog and I hope you will enter to win. If nothing else, this could be a fun weekend activity for you and your children or grandchildren.

To enter to win, you must:

>> Bake and decorate the cupcake yourself or with friends and family members.

>> Take a photo of the cupcake that shows all the elements of your design.

>> Write a brief description about how you decorated your cupcake, including any special or unusual steps you took.

>> Email the picture and description, along with your name, hometown and daytime telephone number (for verification purposes), to lindsey.nair@roanoke.com or mail the materials to The Roanoke Times, c/o Lindsey Nair, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, VA, 24010.

To keep reading rules and tips, click “Read more.”

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Did you vote in the Best of Holiday Shopping poll we recently wrapped up on Roanoke.com? If so, we’d like to offer you a chance to win a FREE LUNCH with your favorite blogger.

They say there’s no such thing as a free lunch, but in this case all you have to do to be entered to win is leave a comment on the “Best of” blog (click here) and tell us what restaurant you voted as your favorite place to eat after you’ve been shopping. If you leave a comment and you are chosen, you’ll win lunch for yourself and up to two friends at a Roanoke or New River Valley restaurant with a Roanoke.com blogger of your choice.

Don’t worry, if you win and you’d rather go to lunch with Rebecca Holland, Kevin Myatt, Aaron McFarling or any of our other bloggers, I will not hold it against you. Enter now!

Photo by Dwayne Yancey l The Roanoke Times

I don’t know about you guys, but I could use a laugh. And I sure did laugh when my colleague, Dwayne Yancey, showed me this photo he took outside the Texas Tavern in downtown Roanoke about midnight on Friday.

Apparently, someone rode their horse downtown for the evening and stopped at the TT for a bite to eat. As long as the TT has been open, maybe this isn’t the first time someone tied up a horse out front. I’ve heard a few other co-workers say they think they’ve seen this horse downtown before.

I hate to steal Dan Casey’s “caption this” contest idea, but this picture sure does provide a lot of opportunity for goofy jokes. So whoever leaves the funniest comment (in my opinion) on this blog entry wins a copy of “Big Ranch, Big City Cookbook” by Louis Lambert.

I apologize in advance to my friends at the Texas Tavern, which is sure to be the butt of some of these jokes. Paybacks to me will probably come in the form of snarky comments about The Roanoke Times, since this horse is tied up right next to one of our newspaper boxes.

AP file photo

Autumn has arrived and I am getting inundated with lots of emails about wonderful food- and drink-related events coming up within the next month.

Here’s a quick-and-dirty list to help you plan your next fun outing:

Sept. 29: The Sinkland Farms Pumpkin Festival gets underway this weekend in Christiansburg. It is open on Saturdays and Sundays through Oct. 28, with evening hours for the corn maze. The festival also includes TONS of food, hayrides, a pumpkin patch, corn cannons, barnyard animals, face painting and a whole lot more. For all the details, including exact hours and ticket prices, click here.

Also Sept. 29: The Roanoke City Farmers Market is holding its Harvest Festival from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It will include apple butter making; antique tractors; cloggers- Kountry Kickers (10 to 11 a.m.) and Floyd Ward Dancers (1 to 2 p.m.); Haley Toyota kids area-pony rides, pumpkin painting, face painting, coloring wall, barrel fishing and more games with prizes; old-fashioned sodas and kettle korn; and the bands Rosco P and Coal Train (11 a.m. to 1 p.m.) and Grass Monkey (2 to 4 p.m.).

Oct. 5: The Blacksburg Partnership and The Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center announce the 2^nd annual Blacksburg Brew Do Beer Dinner at Preston’s Restaurant. The menu with beverage pairings:

Cider| Prosciutto Wrapped Cantaloupe, Granny Smith Apple with Cheddar
Lager | Spiced Lump Crab Cake with Mixed Greens and Fresh Herbs, Light Citrus Vinaigrette
India Pale Ale | Deviled Eggs, Pickle Relish with Cornichon, Green Olive and Pimento with Paprika
Amber | Grilled Game Sausage with Oktoberfest Braised Sauerkraut and Spicy Brown Mustard Rye Crostini
Porter | Sliced Porter Marinated Roasted Beef Tenderloin with Butternut Squash Hash and Caramelized Shallots
Stout & Fruit | Artisan Cheese and House Made Truffles

Tickets for the Blacksburg Brew Do Beer Dinner are $49 per person plus tax and gratuity. Space is limited. Call Preston’s Restaurant at 540-231-0120 for reservations or purchase tickets online at www.blacksburgbrewdo.com/food/beerdinner/.

To see more events, click “Read more.”

Read more »

You might have noticed we’re taking votes for the best places to shop and pamper yourself around the holidays. The voting period runs through Sept. 30 and the results will be published in The Roanoke Times on Sunday, Nov. 11.

There are eight categories for voting: Bargain Hunting, Local Roots, For Shopping Warriors, Hitting The Road, Holiday Pampering, Where Do You Buy?, Holiday Entertaining, and Holiday Decor. We appreciate everybody’s vote and are offering a chance to win some awesome prizes. So far, voters have won season passes to Broadway in Roanoke, a $200 MAC cosmetics kit and a set of tickets to the Dec. 30 NFL match-up between the Washington Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys.

This week is the last week to vote. There are two possible prizes for voters who give us their email addresses, and one of them is geared toward foodies. The first prize consists of a set of Pyrex dishes, some McCormick spices and a copy of “Flavors of Home,” the Roanoke Times cookbook that is no longer for sale to the general public. The second prize is ANOTHER pair of tickets to the Dec. 30 Redskins-Cowboys game.

So go and vote today! Don’t miss your chance to win those prizes and make a difference for some local business owners! CLICK HERE to get started.

Congratulations to blog reader Rena, the random winner of two tickets to the Al Pollard Memorial Gala at the Roanoke Country Club tomorrow night.

Rena and her guest are sure to enjoy lots of good food and music at the event.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the contest. Rena, I look forward to meeting you in person at the gala tomorrow.

Al Pollard. Courtesy photo.

This Friday will be the date of the 7th Annual Al Pollard Memorial Gala, an event sponsored by the foundation that celebrates the legacy of one of Roanoke’s favorite restaurateurs. I have two gala tickets to give away to one lucky reader who wants to experience an evening of great food, music and dancing.

The Al Pollard Memorial Foundation raises money to endow scholarships for students at the Culinary Institute at Virginia Western Community College. That would have been an important cause for Pollard, who helped create Corned Beef & Co., Frankie Rowland’s Steakhouse and 419 West. Pollard passed away suddenly in 2006, and since then the foundation has provided financial assistance to dozens of students.

The gala takes place this year at the Roanoke Country Club beginning at 6 p.m. The big event of the evening will be the Kroger-sponsored Chef Challenge, which will pair local chefs with culinary students to prepare dishes for the crowd to sample. There will be a People’s Choice Award. The event also includes music, dancing, a cash bar and a silent auction.

To purchase tickets to this event, click here. If you are interested in winning a pair of tickets to the event, please leave a comment on this blog entry and tell me your favorite menu item at Corned Beef & Company, Frankie Rowland’s or 419 West. Please do not simply state the name of the menu item. Tell me why you like it.

You have until NOON on Thursday to enter this contest, and I’ll announce the random winner by 5 p.m. on Thursday. Good luck to everyone. I will be at the gala myself so I look forward to meeting the winner!

If you love sweet potato pie, you need to head over to the Claude Moore Education Complex in Roanoke this Saturday evening for the second annual Sweet Potato Pie Contest to benefit the Harrison Museum of African-American Culture. The event is presented by the museum and the Roanoke Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Beginning at 6 p.m., chefs from around the Roanoke valley will judge pies submitted by local contestants. Tickets cost $10 per person and, if the contest is planned the same as it was last year, guests will be able to sample some of the pies.

Last year’s winners were: first place People’s Choice winner, Petunia Barlow; second place, Barbara James; third place, Nancy Wilson; judges’ choice winner, Shirley Buchanan. Buchanan shared her winning recipe last year on WDBJ7′s Weekend Diner. The video does not appear to be available anymore, but the recipe is still there.

This event is open to all ages. The Claude Moore facility is at 109 N. Henry Street, Roanoke, VA. For more information, contact Helen Dean at (540) 362-5169 .

www.tomatofestival.wordpress.com

Looking for something fun for the entire family on Saturday? If so, head over to Shawsville for the annual Eastmont Tomato Festival, which takes place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. This is a great homespun event featuring live music, vendors, tomato-laden foods such as pizza and tomato sandwiches, and local fair-style contests.

Folks will compete for such titles as grower of the funniest-looking tomato, Heirloom Tomato Queen, Cherry Tomato Baby and Tomato Prince and Princess. There’s also a tomato-eating contest, so I hope someone shows up with a lot of antacids.

This is a picture of the 2010 Cherry Tomato Baby. I’ve shared this picture on the blog in the past, but it’s just so darn cute that I can’t resist using it again.

For all the details about the festival, including the full calendar, head over to their Word Press page here.

Tiffany Croson of Roanoke County is surrounded by her family as she holds her prize check with Food Lion store manager Teddy Boston. Photo courtesy of Food Lion.

When Tiffany Croson and her family moved into their Boxley Hills home three years ago, the kitchen was “stuck in the 70s,” she said.

But not anymore. On Monday morning, Croson was awarded a $25,000 grand prize check in Food Lion‘s Kitchen Makeover Sweepstakes. Croson entered the contest about Mother’s Day, submitting her name and MVP card number online. Since then, she has been entered to win every time she used her card to purchase a MyEssentials product at Food Lion. MyEssentials is the chain’s new store brand.

Croson said she’s been shopping at her usual Food Lion store at 6619 Williamson Road about twice a week, but she had forgotten about the contest until a letter came in the mail in early June. When she opened the letter, she was ecstatic.

Croson

“I screamed,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it. I screamed and screamed, then I started calling people and screamed in their ears.”

Tiffany Croson and her husband, Marcus Croson, had replaced the harvest gold-colored appliances in their 70s kitchen and installed new laminate countertops. But now, she said she’s going to make all the updates she had dreamed of making, including installing a ceramic tile floor, granite countertops, a hood/vent above the stove and a bigger refrigerator. She also plans to have a wall torn out and an island added, which will be great for her family of six.

Croson, a part-time employee at The Park at Oak Grove, is taking classes to become a registered nurse. She and her husband have four children ages 20 months through 14 years. Her kids joined her at Food Lion this morning when she accepted her check, as did her parents, her sister and her nephew.

“I’m still taking it all in,” she said.

Food Lion spokesman Benny Smith said the contest was promoted in Raleigh, N.C., Norfolk, Richmond, Harrisonburg, Charlottesville, Bluefield, W.Va., Charleston/Huntington, W.Va., Chattanooga, Tenn., and Roanoke and Lynchburg. The first prize winner, Susan Barbry of Sanford, NC, will receive $10,000.

Photo courtesy of Krispy Kreme.

Krispy Kreme is celebrating 75 years in business with continued events throughout the year. This Friday, July 13, marks the 75th anniversary of the exact day they first introduced their doughnuts in Winston-Salem, NC in 1937.

In honor of the date, on Friday they’ll be offering one dozen original glazed doughnuts for just 75 cents with the purchase of one dozen original glazed. Sounds like a good time to surprise your co-workers and get a good deal!

They will also be selling three varieties of their new birthday doughnuts through August 19. These are original glazed doughnuts topped with chocolate, strawberry or white icing, rainbow sprinkles and an icing rosette.

Also through August 19, you have a chance to enter the Hat Hat Hooray contest. By sending in a picture of yourself wearing a paper Krispy Kreme hat anywhere in the world, you are entered to win a trip to any Krispy Kreme shop in the world. The hats can be picked up at any KK store. For specific contest rules and regulations, click here.

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Local Colors and the Roanoke Parks and Recreation department are bringing back Taste of Culture, a lunchtime festival in downtown Roanoke that highlights a different culture each month.

Read more »

In this blog entry, you will find news about:

- A temporary farmers market set up at the Kirk Family YMCA
- A local boy in the running for an Apple iPad (VOTE for him! He’s in the lead already!)
- LOA Area Agency on Aging’s annual fundraiser for Meals on Wheels, “Let’s Do Lunch.”
- The Southwest Virginia Wine Festival in Abingdon.
- Big Lick Beertopia: A Celebration of Craft Beer.

* City Market at the Y has begun. This is a satellite farmers market that will be set up every Thursday in June between 4 and 7 p.m. next to the Kirk Family YMCA at the corner of 5th Street and Luck Avenue in downtown Roanoke. Produce, baked goods, wild-caught fish and grass-fed beef will be among the items for sale.

Credit cards will be accepted, as will EBT cards for SNAP benefits. Thanks to grants from Carilion Clinic and Foundation for the Roanoke Valley, those SNAP dollars will be doubled at the market up to $50.

* O’Charley’s has announced the winners of its “Greatest Grads Contest.” One dozen winners were selected in the Midwest and Southeast, including one Vinton student. That student, James Jennings, will receive a celebration party at our local O’Charley’s and a chance to win an Apple iPad.
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Salad Nicoise, one of the many ways to enjoy eggs. Photo courtesy of the Virginia Egg Council.

We are nearing the end of National Egg Month, but who needs a special month to remind them to buy, cook and eat such a staple? Instead, this should be an excuse to celebrate eggs and make some of our favorite dishes with eggs as an ingredient. Mmmm… omelets, frittata, eggs Benedict, bread pudding, meatloaf, cake … the possibilities are endless!

Deviled eggs are at the top of the list, to be sure. I’ve never brought home leftover deviled eggs from a potluck; they are delicious, not to mention easy and inexpensive. I’m a deviled egg purist in the sense that I prefer the standard Southern preparation with mustard, mayonnaise, pickle relish and seasonings, but you can do a whole lot more. In fact, this year’s Virginia Egg Council sponsored contest at the state fair will be the “Tasty Little Devils” deviled egg contest. See the end of this entry for rules (and three new egg recipes!).

Have you perfected the art of hard boiling eggs? Even if you have, I figured it might be interesting to take a look at the Virginia Egg Council’s recommended method:

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The Roanoke Times l File photo

I finally received the list of winners from this past weekend’s Virginia State Championship Chili Cookoff in downtown Roanoke. Better late than never, so here goes:

OVERALL

1st Place – Advances to world cookoff
Cowgirl Chili
Jackie Koltz
$1,000 and trophy

2nd Place
Jim’s Work In Progress
Jim Parker
$250 and trophy

3rd Place
Greenwood Chili
Matt Bush
$100 and trophy
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Stuffing of the pie holes. (Seattle Municipal Archives/Flickr)

Whenever I hear about an eating contest, I cannot help but think of the pie-eating contest scene in the movie “Stand By Me”, which concludes with… well, this blog is supposed to be about stimulating your appetite, not suppressing it. But if you really want to know or revisit that particular scene, click here.

Eating contests can fall into two categories: The kind where contestants end up eating an absurd amount of food in order to win the prize or the kind where the type of food is a challenge in itself (i.e. raw habanero peppers), so the contestants don’t eat until they bust but it’s still a difficult and uncomfortable task.

It is probably a rite of passage for any teenage boy to be involved, at some point, in an eating contest — even if it is an unofficial one which takes place at the school cafeteria table. Or should I say ESPECIALLY if it takes place at a school cafeteria table? I am here to admit that while I have never in my life been a teenage boy, even I took part in a pseudo eating contest, challenging myself in front of my friends to jam as many marshmallows into my mouth as possible.

It wasn’t very entertaining for my friends or myself.

While many eating contests have no real purpose, some are competitive sport or part of fundraising efforts. Big Lick BBQ (formerly Henry’s Memphis BBQ) is having an eating contest on May 26 to benefit OMNI (Orphan Medical Network International). Prizes will be awarded for eating the most slaw, potato salad or mixed beans (your choice of which side dish); for eating the most pulled pork sandwiches; and for eating the most ribs. Sounds messy, huh?

I’ll post the rules and other information for entering the contest at the bottom of this entry. Who among you is man or woman enough to go through a pile of ribs like Bugs Bunny goes through corn on the cob? Or risk the painful result of pouring whole beans down your gullet? I know you’re out there!

I’ll finish with a poll: How many of you enjoy watching or participating in food-eating contests? How many are disgusted by them?

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A note from Mary Renwick, event planning and marketing coordinator for The Advancement Foundation:

The Cinco De Mayo Cupcakes at the Cottage Bake-Off will be held at The Charity Cottage Thrift Store at 301 S. Pollard Street in Vinton on Saturday, May 5th, 2012 from 12:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.  This event will include live entertainment, face painting, crafts, cupcakes for sale, cupcake judging, and discount shopping opportunities in the Charity Cottage Thrift Store!

If you think you can win the title of Cupcake Master, please register a dozen of your cupcakes in our Bake-Off! Cupcakes entered in contest need to have Cinco de Mayo theme (margarita, jalapeno, cinnamon, hot Mexican chocolate, etc.). To enter, you must register by April 23, 2012. Contact us at charitycottage@gmail.com or (540) 345-1292 for more information.

All proceeds benefit The Charity Cottage Thrift Store. The Charity Cottage Thrift Store was established by the local non-profit aid organization, The Advancement Foundation, to benefit the communities of the Roanoke Valley. The Advancement Foundation works to eliminate poverty through strategic support, and so has developed The Charity Cottage Thrift Store to provide “earned income” funding for multiple local health and human services nonprofits, while also providing skills training and community service opportunities for the underprivileged and disabled. The Charity Cottage Thrift Store also works to actively engage community leaders, civic organizations, local schools and churches in various ways in order to involve the entire community in the social change movement.

For further questions please do not hesitate to call 540-345-1292 or send an email to charitycottage@gmail.com.

Roadkill connoiseur Tom Blackford. Courtesy photo.

Here’s a quirky little collection of food news items to wrap up the week:

* A Christiansburg man was recently honored to be chosen as a judge for the West Virginia Roadkill Cook-Off. Although I personally would call that a dubious honor, Ed Blackford did get to check out some very unusual grub and will surely be telling the tale for many years. There is a Q&A with Blackford and some photos from the event over on The Burgs website. Check it out! Have any of you ever eaten roadkill? I believe my father may have picked up a freshly car-struck deer on the side of the road in Colorado one time. I’ll have to verify that story since time tends to embellish memories.

* On a MUCH, MUCH more appetizing note, First & Sixth, the American-style restaurant that recently opened inside the former Patrick Henry Hotel on Jefferson Street in Roanoke, will have its official grand opening ceremony tomorrow (Friday, Nov. 4) at 5 p.m. I understand there will be live music and more at the festivities, so stop by and check it out. Maybe grab a cocktail in the Penny Deux Lounge or have yourself a nice dinner to end the work week while you’re there.

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A couple of readers have recently emailed me to share recipes they say are definitely worth trying. I thought I would take a little time today to pass along the love. I’ve also got the winning recipes from the Everybody Loves Chocolate contest at the Virginia state fair. Sadly, none of our local winners placed in the top three, but I hope they can still relish the knowledge that they made it to the final round.

First up, reader Debbie says if you like spaghetti squash, you must try this Spaghetti Squash Gratin. I can remember my mom planting spaghetti squash one time and the plant ran all the way to the road. So if you planted it, you probably wished at some point this summer that you had some new recipes. Well, now you do!

As an added bonus, Debbie said she also tried and enjoyed these Apple Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies.

Keep reading….

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Uncrate.com

Today is one of those days when I need to clean out the “refrigerator” and offer a bunch of leftovers for consumption. But like a lot of actual leftovers, some of this food news is pretty darn good.

New addition: Oktoberfest beer tasting at Wine Gourmet
Wine Gourmet, located at 3524 Electric Road, Roanoke (Promenade Park), is hosting a special beer tasting this Friday, Sept. 30, from 5 to 8 p.m.
Aaron Layman, the beer buyer for Wine Gourmet, said local distributors will be on site sampling out more than 10 German beers and craft beers. Brats and beer bread will also be available, and it’s all FREE!
If you have any questions, you can contact the shop at 400-8466.

Local boy does well
A Roanoke native, Daniel Mowles, works as executive chef at the Roger Smith Hotel in New York, NY. According to his uncle, Roanoke resident Jeff Fletcher, “Daniel was born and reared in Roanoke and is now in NYC by way of the Cordon Bleu in London with stops in Roanoke at Metro! and in Miami Beach along the way.”
Fletcher sent me an email with a link to a recent New York Times article about a special dinner prepared by Mowles and featuring Civil War-era foods. Check out the article here.

Chocolate contest winners to go to state fair
Three locals who won the Everybody Loves Chocolate contest at the Salem Fair will now advance to the Virginia State Fair level of competition. The Everybody Loves Chocolate contest is sponsored by the Virginia Egg Council. The state competition is Oct. 1. The local winners and their concoctions are:
* Kerrington Dowdy, Salem — Chocolate Lover’s Favorite Cake
* Catherine Wortman, Bedford — Chocolate Sour Cream Pound Cake
* Kaileigh Dowdy, Salem — Really Rocky Road Brownies
Kerrington and Kaileigh Dowdy appear to be related. I will update you on how they do at the state fair and work on getting those recipes. Good luck, folks!

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Correction 9:48 a.m.: The name of the sorority that helped with the contest is Delta Sigma Theta. My apologies for the error.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the first round of competition in the Sweet Potato Pie Bake-Off for the Harrison Museum of African American Culture. Well, the final round took place on Saturday at the Henry Street Festival in Roanoke, and I’ve got news about the winners. But first, a little background.

During the first round, 14 contestants were whittled down to six by a panel of judges made up of local chefs. The remaining six were each told to bring enough samples of their pie to the festival to feed 200 guests. That seems like a lot, but the samples were about 1-inch squared, according to coordinator Helen Dean.

Guests at the festival voted to pick the three People’s Choice winners. Also at the festival, organizers revealed which pie the chef/judges liked the best, and that person won the Judges’ Choice trophy.

In the photo above, the winners were: first place People’s Choice winner, Petunia Barlow (in blue); second place, Barbara James (in orange); third place, Nancy Wilson (in tan jacket); judges’ choice winner, Shirley Buchanan (holding trophy). The women are surrounded by fellow contestants and representatives of the museum and Delta Sigma Beta Theta, which partnered with the museum to coordinate the contest.

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Folks from the Harrison Museum of African American Culture sent along a couple of pictures from Saturday evening’s Sweet Potato Pie Bake-Off at the Claude Moore Educational Complex. This was round one of the competition, where local chefs judged and narrowed down the pool of contestants from 15 bakers to six. The six finalists will compete at the 22nd Annual Henry Street Heritage Festival on Saturday, Sept. 17.

Here are the judges and a couple of committee members:

Judges, left to right. Front Row: Sonny Pendleton (La'Cove Restaurant), Gloria Manns (committee), Penny Ahuero (Viva La Cupcake), Alex Eliades (Bread Craft), Charles Hooper (Crock 'n' Roll); Second row: Jerome Bonds Jr. (Norah's Cafe), Charles Price (committee)

And here are the lucky finalists:

Order in photo (left to right): Front row, Petunia Barlow, Shirley M. Buchanan; Second Row: Gloria Manns (Committee), Dr. Nancy W. Wilson, Barbara N. James, Jen King (represented by Ben Westin), Brenda McClay-Shifflett; Third row, Charles A. Price (Committee)