Did you hear about Earth Hour, which happened last week? Everyone was supposed to turn out all their lights for one hour on March 29 in an effort to bring attention to global warming, and reduce their energy consumption a little. This is your chance to do a cooking version of Earth Hour, and join a blog event that can be fun and good for the planet.

Really, it doesn't even have to be about Earth Hour. This could be really fun. The blog event is called "Lights Out, Knives Out". The premise is that you turn off all non essential appliances, equipment, and lights to cook a meal, and to do this at least once a month. You can still cook with the oven/stove, of course, and anything you think is necessary.

The point is to prepare the meal using as little energy as necessary, then to share your experience with everyone else. You can get all the details here. It sounds like a lot of fun: cooking by candlelight and preparing food by hand.
It would be an adventure for those of us who are dependent on the food processor!

[Via Is My Blog Burning]

Well, Easter is almost here. Sure it's a little early this year, but everyone seems to be getting into the spirit of things. If you're into cakes and decorating you may be planning on doing an Easter themed cake. Well you can put that cake to good use and enter it into a blog event this month for just such confections.

A Slice of Cherry pie is collecting entries for Easter cakes. Just make your cake, post about it, and send the info to the host by March 31 at 9AM. You can get all the details here.

They'll do a nice Easter-y round up and choose a winner. So make up your most creative Easter cakes and share!

[Via Is My Blog Burning]

There are a lot of holiday's happening this month. One of the things that can connect them all is bread. It sure does seem like a universal food.

If your holiday has a special bread, or if you're using bread to celebrate a holiday in any way, you might want to share with everyone else. The folks over at Wild Yeast are hosting a blog event this month celebrating holiday breads.

All you need to do is bake bread for your holiday, post it by April 1st, and send your information to the host. Full instructions are posted on the Wild Yeast blog.

So have fun, celebrate a holiday, and bake some bread!

[Via Is My Blog Burning]

Sam at Becks and Posh and MonkeyGland at Jam Faced are jointly hosting a big English bloggers party for St. Georges Day - the patron Saint of England.

They invite all cooks to rustle up a pudding in celebration - an English pud of course nothing Welsh, Irish or Scottish thank you very much. Distinctly English.

As Sam writes the English pud is a supreme rendition of all that is great about English cooking - so no piss taking over our love of curries and other takeways!

The post, if you have a blog, should be made on the 23rd April which is your actual St George's Day. The entry should really include a photograph. And a little research into the background is always welcome. "Do whatever is fun for you. And make it DELICIOUS! We don't want to propogate any further bad opinions about English food, do we now?"

Craig from South Africa writes “I am hosting an international dinner next month, and I am looking for regional dishes from different countries for each course. The dinner is specifically to raise funds for The John Whiffen Trust, which is committed to providing communication and leadership training to both physically and mentally disabled people in Southern Africa.”  

Details are on Notes from the Cape but the entree is to be American, the starter Asian, main course South African, Dessert Italian and the cheeses French.

So get your thinking caps on and send Craig by email or post suggestions on your blog - the very best in your countries cuisine to make this fund raising event a success. Suggestions should be posted on your blog or sent to Craig by the 13th of February.

Introducing Foodography - a new photography challenge.

After much debate and the odd stamping of foot, the delightful Sam of Becks and Posh and Andrew of Spittoon/ SpittoonExtra/ Slashfood have hammered out details of Foodography a new and terribly exciting photography challenge for 2006; a regular event based solely around food and drink. The aim is to stretch our creativity and, through practice and comments, hopefully improve all our photography over the year.  

A theme will be set at the beginning of each month and continue for six weeks. Andrew and Sam will select a theme on alternate rounds with an overlap on each to alleviate any 'pressure' to meet a monthly deadline. The first round is to run from January 1st to around the 12th February, the second from the 1st February to around the 12th March. We have plenty of ideas for themes which will hopefully encourage lateral thought and creativity but welcome suggestions too.