Piquant

USO2GO Comforts of Home AVON care packages for troops

SHOW THE TROOPS YOU CARE

SEND COMFORTS OF HOME

For only $10.00, you can sponsor an Avon Cares USO2GO Kit, which the USO will deliver to isolated troops deployed abroad.

This is a wonderful opportunity to express your gratitude to our brave service men and women.

The Avon Cares USO2GO Kit includes five full-size toiletry products. You can also send a personal message of encouragement with each kit.

Additionally, Avon Products, Inc. will donate $4.00 of your $10.00 to the USO to help provide emergency relief programs, family assistance activities, entertainment tours and more.

There is no limit to the number of kits you can send, so support the people who support you the men and women of the U.S. armed forces.

Kit includes:

* 1 On Duty Unscented Roll-On Anti-Perspirant Deodorant; 1.7 fl. oz.
* 1 Skin So Soft Original Moisturizing Shower Gel; 5 fl. oz.
* 1 Moisture Therapy Intensive Treatment Lip Ointment SPF 15; .5 fl. oz.
* 1 Moisture Therapy Intensive Hand Cream; 4.2 fl. oz.
* 1 Moisture Therapy Soothing Oatmeal Body Lotion; 13.5 fl. oz.

To order yours, please contact marymacraewarren(at)yahoo(dot)com

Farm to Fork local NC fundraiser set May 23

Join a remarkable group of NC Piedmont and cooks for an evening of food, live music, and fun!

W.C. Breeze Family Farm
Extension and Research Center
4909 Walnut Grove Church Road
Hurdle Mills, Orange County
(A few miles north of Hillsborough)

Organized by Slow Food Triangle, Center for Environmental Farming Systems, and Orange County.

www.slowfoodtriangle.org

www.cefs.ncsu.edu

orange.ces.ncsu.edu

Proceeds will benefit the PLANT at Breeze Farm Enterprise Incubator, an innovative and important sustainable agriculture program in Orange County, and the Center for Environmental Farming Systems.

Last year,  more than $10,000  was raised.

Tickets are available now and must be purchased in advance at www.farmtoforknc.com.

$50 for members of Slow Food, CEFS, and Friends of Breeze Farm.

$60 for non-members.

Mark your calendars for the 11th annual event to benefit City Harvest, New York Taste, November 2, at Skylight, 275 Hudson Street.

New York culinary editor Gillian Duffy and more than 40 of the city’s finest restaurants will be on hand at this culinary affair where guests will sample fare from renowned chefs, mixologists and wineries.

Participants at this year’s event will include Alain Allegretti, Dan Barber,Cesare Casella, Odette Fada, John Fraser, Craig Hopson, Morimoto and many more.

Tickets to the fundraiser may be bought online.

Limited Tickets Available

General Admission: $175
7–9PM – Access to main event tastings

VIP: $250
Includes VIP preview hour (6–7PM),
VIP lounge access and an exclusive gift bag.

Eat well and nurture Mother Earth with il Buco

Go to lunch at il Buco, eat well and protect your Mother - earth mother, that is.

For one week, Tuesday, April 21 to Saturday, April 25,   il Buco (47 Bond Street) is taking 15% off lunch only for all guests.  The restaurant will donate all of the discount to International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world's oldest and largest global environmental network.

All proceeds will benefit the IUCN's work protecting the Amazon Rainforest, known as the Lung of the Earth.

For example, guests who spend $100 on lunch will pay only $85 and il Buco will donate $15.

Owner Donna Lennard and friend and professional adviser Alberto Avalle, visionaries behind il Buco, support the sustainable agriculture movement.  They are dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of sustainable practices which can be applied to almost every facet of life on Earth.

Lunch hours for the tiny, charming and antique-filled restaurant are Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 4 p.m. 

cigarBQ is for lovers

The folks in Sonoma County are herfin' stogies, quaffing Russian River wines and dishing up California cuisine to raise money for the local Y at cigarBQ, May 14-16. 

They'd love to have you join the fun. 

Executive director Hans Dippel gives E.D.M. the details:

And cigarBQ® is for lovers…

Wine lovers, food lovers, music lovers, fun lovers, and cigar lovers.

We began in 1998 with about 75 attendees, 10 wineries, 1 cigar company, and 2 breweries. This year, we expect another sold out event. We have more than tripled our local and national sponsorships.

Most importantly, we have donated thousands of dollars to local charities with funds raised from ticket sales, and the generosity of all of the suppliers that sponsor the event.

cigarBQ® is a most memorable day filled with friends, fun, frolic, and fantastic.

Those who have been to cigarBQ® know, and we’ll see you there. Those who have yet to experience the event, man, you are in for an incredible time.

Village Voice Choice Eats sold out

If you don't have tickets, start crying in your napkins now.

The second annual Village Voice Choice Eats tasting event is now officially sold out.  The event,  Tuesday, March 31, 2009 at the 69th Regiment Armory in Manhattan, features only restaurants reviewed by celebrated resident food critics, Robert Sietsema from his column “Counter Culture” and Sarah DiGregorio from her weekly column “Fork in the Road.”

Ticketless New Yorkers will be missing over 50 restaurants and over 25 nations represented under one roof for only one night. New York Magazine proclaimed it “…a global cheap-eats summit. No self-respecting New York gastronaut should consider doing anything else that night."

Choice Eats benefits Slow Food NYC, who hosts the event.  The non-profit, member-supported organization is dedicated to counteracting the industrialization of our food supply.

A portion of ticket sales goes to their new program, Harvest Time, promoting good food and nutrition education, including hands-on food preparation and communal dining, edible school gardens, and student operated farm stands offering local farm-fresh produce at three schools in East Harlem and Williamsburg, neighborhoods identified  by the City's Health Department as food deserts, with high rates of food related diseases like obesity and diabetes.