an open cupboard

Wandering around the blogosphere, I often run into an interesting little tidbit and make a mental note to talk about it here. Naturally, this happens quite a bit and the little tidbits tend to add up. But my brain can only keep track of so many little morsels. Allow me to present them to you before my grey matter pulls a Control-Alt-Delete.

• Menu for Hope: The foodblogosphere is abuzz with posts about this year’s third annual Menu for Hope campaign. Menu for Hope is a very successful online campaign organized by Pim to raise money for charity. Last year’s fundraiser benefited Tsunami victims in Asia. This year’s campaign aims to raise funds for the UN World Food Programme, an organization that fights hunger worldwide. Each $10 donation buys a raffle ticket with a chance to win your choice of prizes donated by foodbloggers. Prizes are organized by geographical region, with a fooblogger volunteer organizing each region. Each representative regional foodblogger hosts a writeup of all the foodbloggers offering raffle prizes in their region. Head over to Pim’s for more information.
• Health care for restaurant workers: A professional chef, Shuna talks about the need for health care and adequate pay in the restaurant industry. I find it shocking that a person who works behind a desk, like me, receives subsidized healthcare benefits from my employer while people who work in a kitchen do not. Check out the article for a thought-provoking insider’s look at employee benefits in the restaurant industry.
• Eating Around the World: I stumbled across this site while poking around delightfulblogs.com. The tagline is “Who said that models don’t eat?” and the profile reads “I am a fashion model in Paris and New York. I write about my passion for food, gastronomy and restaurants.” But please, don’t hate her because she’s beautiful (and because she eats food cooked by Guy Savoy and Joel Robuchon more often than most of us do in a lifetime.) Aiste provides a window into a mouth-watering gastronomical world, complete with photos of beautiful dishes us non-jetsetting non-models dream of eating.
• Ebay for the home cook: Am I the last person on earth who’s only just discovered eBay? There are some lovely kitchen items up for auction on eBay, some of them reasonably priced. I recently bought a manual wooden spice grinder, a vintage wooden recipe box, and a pizza peel, all for decent prices, including shipping. I’ve got my eye on a heavy old rolling pin, and possibly a pot. If, like me, you prefer good old enamel cast iron over non-stick, eBay is one place to find these items for less than what you’d pay at one of the big chain kitchen stores.
• Habeas Brulee: This is what my blog wants to be when it grows up. My god, the photos. I obviously need to spend much more of my free time exploring the blogosphere, as this one seems to have slipped right under my radar.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 11th, 2006 at 10:14 pm and is filed under blog events, thoughts.