Menu for Hope III

Stolen shamelessly from Chez Pim:

Every year, Food Bloggers from all over the world get together for a fundraising campaign. We call it 'Menu for Hope'. Last year, we raised $17,000 to help UNICEF.

This year, Menu for Hope III raises funds to support the UN World Food Programme, which provides hunger relief for needy people worldwide. To us Food Bloggers, food is a joy. On our blogs, we celebrate food as a delight or even an indulgence. Unfortunately, for many others who share our world do not share that privilege. For them, food is a matter of survival. This "Menu for Hope" is our small way to help.

On our Menu this year is a great list of amazing food related prizes. We hope that they will entice you to give whatever you can, and with some luck you can win unique and wonderful food gifts offered up by food bloggers from around the world.

The rule is pretty easy. For every US$10 you donate, you may claim one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. The more you give, the better your chance to win. The campaign is scheduled to run from now until Friday 22nd, 6PM PST. So get a move on!

The Prizes are listed by category. Feel free to click on any category to jump directly there. Roll your mouse over the thumbnail photos to see prize code and description. Click on a photo for more details.

Have a meal of your life..
Delicious experiences..
Feasts for the eyes: books and more..
Tasty treats..
Cooks' tools..
Drink yourself silly..

Or you can jump to the donation instructions.

Okay, that's the end of the shamelessly stolen description of the contest.

I sent out a few emails to my favorite food suppliers and my favorite local olive oil company, Joelle Olive Oil, agreed to donate one gallon of their fabulous Mission olive oil with shipping to anywhere in the U.S. (a $65 value). This is a great all purpose olive oil and is very smooth (and one of their two best sellers!).

Sadly, there were so many donations from the west coast that the person administering those prizes has closed the list for new prizes! This is great news for the fundraiser but I'm sad that this wonderful olive oil won't be included. Pim did invite Joelle Olive Oil to donate next year so I'll be sure to provide links then if Janet agrees to participate next year.


Thanks so much for your generous donation Janet! Since you can't get it from the raffle, Joelle has a booth at the Saturday Santa Barbara Farmers Market (and Sunday's up in Goleta and a few more as well I suspect but I haven't been to know for sure). I normally end up getting their blended oil as it offers some of the best of both worlds for indecisive people like me. It has the wonderfully peppery taste I love of their Manzanillo as well as some of the butter of the Mission. The next time I'm up there I might even be brave and just buy one of each in the hopes of ending my inability to pick a favorite!

(Shhh! don't tell them but when I was up this past weekend I strayed and bought olive oil from another local producer at the Farmers Market, Joelle's is SO much better!)

To further promote this oil I give you my favorite salad recipe for a great peppery olive oil:

Baby arugula (1 bag from Trader Joe's now that they have a quality supplier again or a bunch of adult arugula)
1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar (which you can also get at Trader Joe's, in fact you can get all of these ingredients from Trader Joe's except for the olive oil)
1/2 cup walnut pieces (halves are fine but harder to eat and more expensive)
1/2 cup Parmesean shavings
1 pear (Bartlett or D'Anjou are my favorites for this) thinly sliced
salt and pepper to taste
3-4 tablespoons peppery olive oil like Joelle's Manzanillo oil

Whisk vinegar, oil, salt and pepper together.
Toss together with all other ingredients and serve.

It's that easy and really tasty. The next time I make it (which is about once a week), I'll post photos.