Smokin' Pete's at Fare Start Chef Spectular June 25

Eric teaching students at FareStart how to sew a pig stuffed pig.

We are thrilled to participate in this year's Guest Chef Spectacular put on by FareStart. It's an amazing event where all the guest chefs of the last year put out 800 "tastes" for participants roaming around gorging themselves on delightfully prepared bites.

It's also a fundraiser for this very important and awesome non-profit started in our town, but now being duplicated all over the country. We had a blast last September teaching students how to smoke a whole hog. Now we get to join some of the best chefs in Seattle for this special night.

If you haven't bought tickets, do it! You get to eat til you bust for a great cause! That's a win-win in my book.

Here is the flyer. For tickets click here.

Virtual Bake Sale For a Good Cause This Thursday

I met some awesome food bloggers in September at IFBC, one of whom was Alice Bush who was a table mate at a dinner at Re:Public. We we wined and dined until midnight and had fun with a host from Urbanspoon, who organized the evening of sending out hoards of food bloggers in groups of 8-12 to restaurants all over Seattle and the Eastside.

So when blogger Alice Bush approached me about donating to an on-line bake sale to raise funds for a friend that was in desperate need of a costly operation, I didn't hesitate. For one, I love bake sales, and also because food bloggers are one of my tribes, my community. People talk a lot about the loss of community, that neighbors don't know each other, and I agree that it's a problem, but we also have new communities, virtual neighbors who gather and host things like virtual bake sales.

I've put up my book for the auction. There are lots of actual baked goods on the auction too. The auction runs all day Thursday, December 12th from 8am to 9pm, then items will be mailed out in time for the holidays. How easy is that? To read about her friend, and view the list of auction items, go to Alice's blog, A Mama, Baby & Shar-pei in the Kitchen.