East Valley kitchens get holiday help from EVIT!

Why create more work when you're already up to your elbows in dressing and cranberries? EVIT's culinary students are baking for the holidays - order by this Wednesday to make your holiday easier! Besides dinner rolls, there are pies (apple, apple cranberry and pumpkin) and a phenomenal array of holidays breads: pumpkin, cranberry orange, banana walnut, spiced apple and dark chocolate (totally incredible). This year, they're even doing iced brownies and pumpkin pie bars!  

Here's a link: http://evitculinary.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=56&Itemid=172&lang=en

Wow! This calendar sizzles!

 Just 200 copies of the first-ever Getting Our Just Desserts calendar featuring 13 of Arizona's top women chefs will be available exclusively at this year's Getting Our Just Desserts tasting event on Nov. 10, from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Art Institute of Phoenix, 2233 W. Dunlap Ave.

"People who purchase the calendar will have an opportunity to meet and chat with every chef featured," says Jill Smith, director of Arizona's Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP), which presents the annual event. 

"More than that, if they get an autograph at the appropriate spot on each chef's photo, they'll receive a ticket to enter a drawing for a full set of Wolf barbecue tools."

In other words, collect 13 autographs, receive 13 tickets for that drawing, an excellent return on your $25 calendar investment, which you may count as a donation to C-CAP.

Sponsors of Getting Our Just Desserts 2012 include Wolf/SubZero, Boyd's Coffee, Chef Works, Total Source, the Art Institutes, Horizon Media, JustMyTicket.com, Embellish Events & Design, and US Foods.

Tickets, which remain at an incredibly low $35 for the main tasting event and all workshops are now available through www.blacktie-arizona.com/rsvp, event code: justdesserts12.

For additional information about Getting Our Just Desserts, please go to www.facebook.com/pages/Getting-Our-Just-Desserts/.

By the way, these most recent photos are outtakes from the calendar's two photo shoots. Lead photographer was Bryan; chefs include Dana Rohr (Taste Buds), Julie Fiedler (POSH), Amy Binkley (Binkley's), Sherrye Chapin (Sherrye's Kitchen), Nicole DeKryter (Cartwright's Sonoran Ranch House), Therese Hills (My Sweet Blessings Bakery), Susan Kolman (Classic Cooking Academy), Faith Wipperman-Woodruff (Roka Akor), Beatrice "Bee" Bullock (Buzz N Beez Good Food Truck), and Tonya Saidi (Mamma Toledo's Fruit Pies).  Many thanks to Wolf/Subzero for the use of their glamorous model kitchens.

Farm to table not just a slogan

This coming Sunday's New York Times Magazine will be devoted to food…at home, at the market, in restaurants and on the farm.

Here's a sneak preview of the piece Mark Bittman has in this presentation.  He wrote about California's Central Valley, and in a very brief feature concisely presents some of the most critical issues we face in food production.

You may have to copy, clip and paste this link if the live link isn't working, but mousing over the (live) link below should get you through to the full content of the story.  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/magazine/californias-central-valley-land-of-a-billion-vegetables.html?hp