The Food Blog Diary: Foodie Events - April 2012

Event Name:
No Croutons Required

Hosting Blog:
Tinned Tomatoes

Theme: Antipasto Soup or Salad (Vegetarian)

Event Start Date: now
Event Deadline: 20 April 2012

It's time for me to host No Croutons Required again and I am looking in my fridge and cupboard for inspiration. I obviously need to do a shop as there are only basic supplies in each.

What I do have a good selection of is antipasto. Peppers, sundried tomatoes, courgettes and artichokes in little jars, bathed in olive oil.

So, for this month's No Croutons Required, I would like you to have a look in your store cupboard for any antipasto you may have and think about how to incorporate it in a soup or salad that is suitable for vegetarians. It doesn't have to be the star of the show, but it does have to make an appearance for a bit of extra flavour or texture.

Details can be found here.?

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Event Name:
Double Hotel Chocolat Giveaway

Hosting Blog:
Tinned Tomatoes

Theme: Hotel Chocolat Giveaway (UK only)

Event Start Date: now
Event Deadline: 5 April 2012

If you are pleased by the thought of winning two scrumptious eggs from Hotel Chocolat, then you are going to be absolutely delighted when I tell you there are actually three luxury prizes to be won. One lucky winner will win two eggs here on Tinned Tomatoes and there is also the chance to win a Kids Easter Bunny Basket over at? Little Tums.

Details can be found here.?

Event Name:
Kids Hotel Chocolat Giveaway

Hosting Blog:
Little Tums

Theme: Kids Hotel Chocolat Giveaway (UK only)

Event Start Date: now
Event Deadline: 5 April 2012

Would you like to win an Kids Easter Egg Basket?

10 Milk Eggs & Soldiers, 8 Milk Chocolate Tiddly Chicks, A Caramel 100g Slab, A Milk Chocolate Bunny Lick.

Details can be found here.?

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Event Name:
We Should Cocoa

Hosting Blog:
Chocolate Log Blog

Theme: Cheese & Chocolate

Event Start Date: now
Event Deadline: 25 April 2012

One of the most interesting things I found from the savoury round-up, was just how well cheese paired up with chocolate - or so many of you reported! I think you can probably see what's coming. Yes, it's cheese and no it's not an April Fool.

There is a lot of scope here. If you're really keen, you could try something savoury again or be adventurous with goat's cheese in a sweeter creation. But keeping it simple with a good cheese frosting is absolutely fine. I was sort of regretting I'd already blogged about my chocolate cheesecake, but actually I'm looking forward to seeing if I can try for something a bit different - curd tart anyone?

Details can be found here

Event Name:
Bookmarked Recipes

Hosting Blog:
Tinned Tomatoes

Theme: Bookmarked recipes

Event Start Date: now
Event Deadline: 28 April 2012

Bookmarked Recipes: a monthly event to encourage food bloggers to revisit the recipes they have bookmarked from magazines, newspapers, cookbooks. websites, blogs, to try them out and post about them.

Just add any bookmarked recipe you post this month to the linky.

Details can be found here

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Event Name:
Allergy Friendly Lunchbox Love

Hosting Blog:
Allergy Free Vintage Cookery

Theme: Lunch Box Recipes

Event Start Date: now
Event Deadline: every Friday

Allergy Friendly Lunchbox love is a weekly link party that is held every Friday. Readers are invited to link up recipes that travel well in lunch boxes, and are free of some (or all) of the top 8 food allergens.

Details can be found here

Event Name:
Join Our Core - Ben & Jerry's

Hosting Website:
Ben & Jerry's

Theme: Business Start-up

Event Start Date: now
Event Deadline: 15 April 2012

Ben & Jerry?s embarks on its European search to uncover the brightest young minds that can create a business embracing the ice cream pioneer?s philosophy of giving back to the community. Successful entrants will have to pitch their business idea to a panel of industry leaders - including Ben & Jerry?s co-founder Jerry Greenfield, as well as representatives from Ashoka, VSO and the Fairtrade Foundation.

The first 100 entrants, who submit early application (before 15 March), will scoop the equivalent of a year?s supply of Ben & Jerry?s ice cream. Entrants will have until the 15th April to put themselves forward, with 25 entrepreneurial semi-finalists being invited to present their ideas to the judging panel in London in May.

The 15 finalists chosen by the panel will be taken to Africa this summer for the last stage of the program with development gurus VSO, where they will share social business ideas, live with vanilla farmers and help local development projects in their community.

Five overall winners will scoop themselves a ?10,000 cash prize and they will be featured on a Ben & Jerry?s tub.

There will also be a ?People?s Choice Award?, where the Join Our Core community will pick five winners who will each receive ?1,000 in cash.

Join our Core and Scoop for Change! (and good luck to all).

Details can be found here

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Event Name:
Family Friendly Fridays

Hosting Blog:
Fabulicious Food

Theme: Family Meals

Event Start Date: now
Event Deadline: every Friday

Event Name:I am finally starting to get this house in order! You may have noticed that for the past few weeks, I have been posting a Family Friendly Recipe each Friday and today I am opening this up as a new blog event here on Fabulicious Food! I?ve added all my previous posts to get us started. I may be the only one entering, but I hope not!

Details can be found here

Event Name:
Invite a Blogger to your Table

Hosting Blog:
More Than Burnt Toast

Theme: Try a recipe with a blogger friend

Event Start Date: now
Event Deadline: ongoing

Your assignment, if you choose to accept it, is to "Invite a Blogger to Your Table"! This is a fun event and an outlet for us each to challenge ourselves and create stronger bonds within the blogging community. Nothing is more intimate, or more effective at creating friendships than cooking and sharing meals together, even it is virtually. But hey, if you live in the same area as another blogger what's to stop you from gathering in your own kitchen for this challenge.

Choose a dish to prepare and invite 1(one) blogger to create that dish with you. You can source your recipe from a cookbook, magazine, blog or any other source. Your dish can be sweet or savoury; easy or complicated.

Decide upon a date that you can both mutually post your recipe within a 4 week time frame.

Details can be found here

Event Name:
Gutsy Cooks

Hosting Blog:
Sweetbites

Theme: The Illustrated Kitchen Bible by Victoria Blashford-Snell

Event Start Date: now
Event Deadline: 31 December 2013

A weekly cook-a-long for those that want to be Gutsy! in the kitchen cooking from The Illustrated Kitchen Bible by Victoria Blashford-Snell.

Every week a menu is posted and Gutsy cooks choose to cook 1, 2 or all dishes posted in the menu. Then you blog about your experience every Sunday night. Come and cook along with this fun group - be Gutsy!

Details can be found here

Event Name:
Daring Bakers & Daring Cooks

Hosting Blog:
The Daring Kitchen

Theme: Check website on reveal date.

Daring Bakers Reveal Date: 27th April 2012
Daring Cooks Reveal Date: 14th April 2012

The Daring Kitchen is the home of The Daring Bakers and The Daring Cooks. The premise of both groups is to create one recipe each month, given to us by a monthly host. We all create the same exact recipe and then post about it on our personal blogs on a designated date.

Details can be found here

Event Name:
Presto Pasta Nights

Hosting Blog:

Week One: Once Upon A Feast (PPN # 258, April 6)
Week Two: So So Simple Life (PPN #259, ?April 13)
Week Three: Would you like to host? Check the sidebar for details.
Week Four:? Would you like to host? Check the sidebar for details.

Theme: Pasta

Event Start Date: now
Event Deadline: : every Thursday for inclusion on the Friday roundup

Every week food bloggers around the world photograph and write about their latest pasta creation? if it?s for breakfast, lunch or dinner; served hot or cold; spicy or sweet; from appetizers to mains to desserts, you?ll find it in the roundup published every Friday with links and photos to all the posts.

Details can be found here
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Event Name:
Cake of the Week

Hosting Blog:
Casa Costello

Theme: Cake

Event Start Date: now
Event Deadline: every week (use the linky)

Calling all cake fanatics and baking lovelies! How do you fancy showing off your creations each week?

I post each Sunday evening my Cake of the Week and invite you to do the same.
Add your blog post link to the linky underneath my Cake of the Week post and lets admire each other?s creations.

You do not need to be a professional cake decorator ? it doesn?t even have to be a decorated cake ? just one that you have posted about that week.

Details can be found here

Event Name:
Weekend Herb Blogging

Hosting Blog:
Cook Almost Anything

Theme: Herbs, Fruit, Flowers, Plants or Vegetables

Event Start Date: now
Event Deadline: every Friday

Hosting Blog: Would you like to host? Haalo is also looking for hosts. Check out the sidebar for details.

Each week food bloggers around the world post recipes about cooking with herbs and unusal vegetables or interesting ways to use vegetables, and on the weekend, we publish a Recap with links to all the posts.

Details can be found here

Event Name:
Taste & Create

Hosting Blog:
Taste & Create

Theme: Trying recipes from a given blog

Event Sign Up Date: 8th of the month
Event Deadline: 24th of the month

Taste&Create was started as a food event by Nicole from For the Love of Food. It?s whole purpose was, and has been, to create a community of bloggers who test each others? recipes and share links. It has also been to help new and not so well known bloggers get their foot in the door of the foodie community.

Sign up and you will be given a blog to work with. Just post one of their recipes to join in.

Details can be found here

Event Name:
Wellness Weekends

Hosting Blog:
Diet, Dessert & Dogs

Theme: Healthy Vegan Recipes

Event Start Date: 8:00 PM EST Thursdays
Event Deadline: 12:00 midnight EST Mondays

What: whole foods, no refined flours/sugars, vegan recipes posted
within the previous week.
--There's a linky on my blog that people can link up. Five entries
are featured the following week.

Details can be found here

Event Name:
Cook.Eat.Delicious - Desserts

Hosting Blog:
Sun, Moon & Potatoes

Theme: Picnic Desserts

Event Start Date: now
Event Deadline: 30 April 2012

I have a very sweet tooth. My thinking is that you can never have enough of desserts. It could be in any form... cakes, chocolate, cookies or brownies, custards, fruits, ice creams, muffins, pies and tarts. If you think the same too, then you are at the right place.

All this talk about desserts is making my mouth water! So I better go on to the details of the event.....?

Life without Desserts is no life at all! Desserts create smiles, laughter, and sweet aromas?that fill the house with deliciousness. So for this month,?I am going with 'Picnic Desserts' as my theme.

Details can be found here

Event Name:
Showcase

Hosting Blog:
Divya's Culinary Journey

Theme: What's in Your Lunchbox

Event Start Date: now
Event Deadline: 30 April 2012

This is?going to be a monthly event with different theme each month.The event will be running from 1st to 30/31st of each month. Showcase?means to exhibit or to ?display. Here you will exhibit / display your work as?per the theme of the month.. As this is a food blog the theme will be?food and culinary related. This month Show us what is in your lunch box??Yes!! Take a picture of your lunch box and share it with us along with a write up of?what is in the box. ( giving the recipe is optional) You can also write?some fun facts about packing lunch. Get creative and Make it Fun!!
Details can be found here

Event Name:
AlphaBakes

Hosting Blog:
The More Than Occasional Baker

Theme: The Letter 'B'

Event Start Date: now
Event Deadline: 25 April 2012

Welcome to?AlphaBakes, a new blogging challenge which will be hosted on alternate months by?Ros?from?The More Than Occasional Baker?and?Caroline?from?Caroline Makes. This will be a monthly challenge where the aim is to bake with an ingredient that starts with the random alphabet letter chosen for that month.?In case the idea is not clear, I'll give you some examples.....
'A' can be apples, apricots or Anzac cookies
'B' can be banana, bread or a bumblebee cake
'C' can be coconut, cheesecake or a chocolate caramel cupcake
?.... the possibilities are endless!

The letter for April is "B" and will run from 1st April to 25th April.?

Details can be found here

Event Name:
Healthy Diet

Hosting Blog:
Zesty Palette

Theme: Vegetarian Sides

Event Start Date: now
Event Deadline: 30 April 2012

I am happy to be guest hosting?Priya's?"Healthy Diet - Vegetarian Side Dishes" event. Thanks Priya for letting me host the event. My family needs side dishes for everything from rice to dosa to roti and so on and I am always in to make it healthy because that is the whole point of home cooking. So friends, link up your healthy vegetarian side dishes.Details can be found here

Event Name:
Frugal Food Fridays

Hosting Blog:
Utterly Scrummy Food for Families

Theme: Frugal Food Fridays

Event Start Date: now
Event Deadline: 30 April 2012

So what's it all about? Well, Frugal Food Fridays are all about saving some money whilst still enjoying great food.?

To take part all you have to do is blog about a food related money saving idea and add your post to the round up Linky. How easy is that?!

Details can be found here

Event Name:
Bake Fest

Hosting Blog:
Sumee's Clinary Bites

Theme: Baking

Event Start Date: now
Event Deadline: 30 April 2012

This fest of baking is what we will be talking about all this month through this?event?. I am guest hosting Vardhini's Bake Fest event on my space. I have been her blog follower since I started blogging. I love her creativity in converting many dishes to make it healthier. And how can I forget her step by step clicks. They make it so easier to remember the recipes. So when I saw her announcement for guest hosting, I jumped at the oppurtunity. I am glad she lend me an ear, errr... an event.Details can be found here

Event Name:
Random Recipes

Hosting Blog:
Belleau Kitchen

Theme: Baking

Event Start Date: now
Event Deadline: 30 April 2012

. so to celebrate my second year as a food blogger and the fact that with Easter on the horizon it's all about sweet things, i'd like you all to bake me something lovely... now don't forget that it still needs to be a random recipe, so I expect you to either choose from a book dedicated to baking or randomly pick from the baking section of a book that has itself been randomly selected...

Details can be found here

Event Name:
Bloggers Scream for Ice Cream

Hosting Blog:
Kavey Eats

Theme: Sorbets, Granitas, Shaved Ice Desserts, Slushies and Spoom

Event Start Date: now
Event Deadline: 28 April 2012

It?s time to set the theme for the third Bloggers Scream For Ice Cream challenge, and once again I?ve gone for a wide one, giving us lots and lots of scope for creative ideas.

The theme for April is Sorbets, Granitas, Shaved Ice Desserts, Slushies and Spoom!
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Details can be found here

to be continued ........

Check back for lots more competitions, giveaways and challenges. I always have more to add as the month progresses.

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