Wow! You guys really like cheese, huh? I can’t say that I blame you! 
Between all of the comments and tweets, we ended up with 78 entries! I entered them all into a spreadsheet (comments first, then tweets) and used random.org to choose a winner.
#64 is Elizabeth who said her favorite holiday appetizers are goat cheese tartlets, because they’r easy to make and you can make them different every time so they never get boring. Sounds delicious!
Elizabeth, send me an email with your info and I’ll have your entertaining kit shipped off to you! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
For the rest of you who expressed interest in buying the cheeseboard, I was able to track it down. It’s actually on clearance for just about $20 at
HSN. It’s a really nice board and that price can’t be beat! I haven’t looked into shipping, but if you need any last minute Christmas gifts, it might be a nice option.
Hey everyone. No new recipe today, sorry! Things have been a little crazier than expected at work this week and I’ve been too exhausted to cook – let alone write! I have one recipe that I made recently that I’m really excited about posting though, so I’ll try to get that up tomorrow.
Anyway, I’m sure you’re wondering how you can win $100, right? It’s easy! A few food bloggers are working with Springpad to host “Springsgiving.” We were each asked to submit a Thanksgiving menu There’s a lot of great recipes -and you get to “vote” on your favorites by springing them! Every time you spring a recipe, you’ll be entered to win $100!! (And the blogger with the most springs wins $300!).
What are you waiting for? Get Springing!
Note: In order to spring recipes you will need to create an account. But as I’ve said before its a really cool site and is a great way to keep track of and organize recipes that you find on various blogs. I can’t make any promises as to what they’ll do in the future, but based on past performance I have no hesitations in recommending registering with them. No spam at all!
Maple-Laced Butternut Squash Soup is a great Fall appetizer
Potato and Parsnip Latkes make a great, unexpected Thanksgiving side dish!
If you’re only cooking for a few people, consider an alternate to turkey. May I suggest duck breast?
Now that the Foodbuzz Festival is over, I’ve been given the go-ahead to share my winning cioppino recipe with you all. I’m really excited that I can finally post this dish – as I’ve mentioned before, I thought it was amazing (and from the feedback that I got at the festival, a lot of other people thought to too!). It’s also crazy easy to make. I was honestly worried about how I was going to fill the time in my 35 minute demo, because this essentially just requires dumping everything in the pot and letting it do its thing. Because it’s so fast, easy and elegant, it would be the perfect thing to make for weeknight entertaining. [....]
Thank you all for your support in trying to get my cioppino into the top 3 Bertolli Menu Items so I can share it at the Foodbuzz Festival later this week. Voting is now over and the final results are being tallied, but it’s looking pretty good! 
I promised you that I would share my other entry – the one that wasn’t chosen to be on the menu – and thought that today would be a good day to share. Following my theme of “not Italian,” I decided to make some meatballs with a Middle Eastern flare. These tender lamb meatballs are flavored with a touch of cinnamon and simmered in a cumin-scented sauce. I served the over a bed of spaghetti squash and wilted spinach and topped them with some sauteed onion. I really liked how this looked just like traditional spaghetti and meatballs, but tasted nothing like it! I also thought that adding the cumin to the sauce was a nice way to transform jarred sauce into something a little more special. As with the cioppino, I thought that this was a strong entry, but I agree with the judges that the cioppino was slightly better. Shawn preferred this dish. [....]
I got some super exciting news today – thanks to Bertolli Sauces, we’re On The Menu at the Foodbuzz Blogger Festival next month!!
When Foodbuzz announced last month that there would be a few sponsorship opportunities to cover the cost of travel and accommodations for the Festival and that the first would be offered by Bertolli Sauces, I knew that I had to submit an entry. I was excited but I never thought that I would actually be chosen! Entrants were asked to develop to 2-course menu using to different Bertolli Sauces products – I wanted to do something different since I figured they would be flooded with Italian recipes, but it didn’t take me long to come up with my menu.
Since the Festival is being held in San Francisco, I thought it would be fun to start my menu with something representative of the city. I don’t know what says San Francisco more than sourdough and cioppino! But I didn’t want to make just any old cioppino – it needed to be different! So I used Bertolli Sauce’s Fire Roasted Tomato and fish stock as my base, and added lots of garlic, celery, onion, and other traditional cioppino flavors. The to make it even more different, I gave it a Spanish spin by adding saffron, shrimp, and mussels. The final dish has a markedly Spanish flavor that’s slightly spicy and a wonderful aroma that ignites your senses the moment you bring the fork to your mouth. Sourdough was the perfect tool for sopping up all of the extra broth. We ate every last bit and I’ve been itching to make more ever since.
From the minute I tasted the final Menu Item, I knew that it was a winner. This was SO GOOD and it’s killing me that I’m not allowed to share the actual recipe with you all (yet). But here’s the deal: Foodbuzz and Bertolli Sauces tested my recipe and I made it into the Top Eight. That means I won the sponsorship and get to go to the Festival for free (whoo!) and that this dish is On The Menu. BUT only THREE of us get to actually demo and serve our Menu Items at the Festival. This menu item is fabulous, and I really want to share it with my fellow bloggers. This is where I need your help: The top three recipes will be chosen by a vote from the Foodbuzz Community. So, can I count on your vote? Pretty please?
Voting starts tomorrow, Friday, October 23rd and runs through November 2nd. I’ll post the final details when I receive them.
Don’t you want some of this??
(In case you were wondering, only my appetizer was chosen as a Menu Item. My entree was Lamb Meatballs in a Cumin-Scented Sauce over Spaghetti Squash and Wilted Spinach. It was also amazing – Shawn actually said he liked it better than the cioppino but I disagree – and I’ll be posting that recipe to the blog soon.)
