PORTLAND

Wine tasting at Caiola’s supports Youth Alternatives

Taste 20 wines of southern France for $20 Sunday at the third annual “20/20 Charity Wine Tasting,” a benefit for Youth Alternatives Ingraham.

The tasting will be held at Caiola’s, 58 Pine St., from 4 to 7 p.m. No reservations are necessary.

The featured wines, which will be paired with lighter fare, are from the Rhone, Provence and Lanqueduc regions.

 

Urban farm event will offer lunching and learning

Have lunch and learn about the Boyd Street Urban Farm at the Boyd Street Bash Saturday hosted by Cultivating Community. The event will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Organizers are looking for volunteers willing to lead a youth activity, such as face painting, vegetable flag making and seed-ball forming. Contact Molly at mollyhking@gmail.com.

 

Hood invites cooks to enter regional dairy cook-off

HP Hood is accepting recipe submissions for this year’s New England Dairy Cook-Off, which will be held Oct. 30 right here in Portland.

Last year, Katherine Stetson of Bath, N.H., took home the $10,000 grand prize for her Apple Butter Aebleskivers with Maple Chantilly.

Hood will select five semifinalists from each of the six New England states to compete head-to-head at the cook-off, which will be held at the Ocean Gateway terminal. Billy Costa, host of New England Cable News’ (NECN) “TV Diner,” will once again emcee the finals, and highlights from the cook-off will be broadcast on “TV Diner” at a later date.

The recipes will be divided into five categories: breakfast/brunch; soups/chowders; appetizers/side dishes; lunch/dinner (entree); and dessert. Each recipe must include at least one of the following Hood products: sour Cream, milk, Simply Smart milk, cream, Country Creamer, cottage cheese, buttermilk, eggnog or Calorie Countdown.

To enter, log onto HoodCookOff.com and submit a recipe by Sept. 30.

A panel of celebrity judges, including Hood’s own celebrity chef, Rick Tarantino, will select the winning dishes based on taste appeal, presentation/appearance and creativity/originality.

Each of the 30 semifinalists selected to attend the cook-off will receive a prize of $100.

One finalist will be selected from each category to compete for the $10,000 grand prize. Those finalists who do not win the grand prize will each receive $500.

FREEPORT

Sample restaurant fare at L.L. Bean Food Festival

Talk about cheap eats: The tasting event at the L.L. Bean Food Festival Saturday will set you back just $5.

From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., sample crab cakes, lobster rolls, desserts and other dishes from at least 10 restaurants.

Then, at 2 p.m., there will be an Iron Chef-style competition featuring chefs from the Harraseeket Inn, the 1912 Cafe and the Azure Cafe.

Watching the chefs will probably make you hungry, so head over to the whoopie pie-eating contest at 3 p.m.

The festival, which benefits Freeport Community Services. will be held at L.L. Bean’s Discovery Park, 95 Main St.

All of the events except for the tasting are free.