I still remember the first time my family took me to a local French patisserie as a child. My parents love to tell me the story of how I stood in front of the glass case mesmerized by all the pretty sweets on display. It’s amazing how, within a single memory, the mind can recreate the scent of freshly baked baguettes or the image of sweets perfectly aligned on display.

I like to think that that memory played a pivotal role in me wanting to pursue cooking, but who knows. One of the things I remember most from that shop growing up is the array of tarts, sweet and savory, that the head chef was known for. Seeing as this is the first installment to A Taste of the Mediterranean and we’re on our way to France now, I thought we could make tarts for the first challenge.

The tarts could be sweet or savory, it’s up to you! Probably many of you (with exception of the kiwis and aussies) are wondering where you can find fresh berries like these this time of year without having to pay an arm and a leg for them.

The simple solution is to not limit yourself to summertime berries! Luckily, one of my favorite French food bloggers, Fanny from Foodbeam, is not only our lovely co-host for this month, but she also has a couple of amazing posts for some tart inspiration.

On her blog, Fanny has a milk chocolate passion fruit tart with roasted pineapples inspired by Pierre Hermé – of course in French that all rolls off the tongue as as simple as Tarte chocolat au lait et fruit de la passion, ananas rôti. How’s that for inspiration? Not only that, but Fanny also offers a beautiful step-by-step tutorial on how to make your very own pâte sucrée at home, here.

The first challenge for A Taste of the Mediterranean is to create your own tart, sweet or savory. The blogger with the winning tart will receive a $50 gift certificate to igourmet.

Submission Deadline: January 31, 2009

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For those who know me (by now that should be most of you), you’ll know that I have an slight affinity for Mediterranean food. My dream would be to travel and get to know every single region that makes up this culinary paradise, but I doubt that’ll fly with the jefe. In the meantime, I thought we could all go together. Shall we?

A Taste of the Mediterranean is a contest I’ve been putting together for the past few months. Of course this itinerary would’ve never become a reality without the help of some pretty amazing people (names to follow). The premise of this culinary excursion is to virtually travel to the different regions of the Mediterranean through food and our blogs. Hold on, it gets better. Each month a traditional dish of the region we are visiting will be presented. The goal is to then blog about your own spin on that dish for a chance to win that month’s prize.

Whether you turn regular pesto into basil, sun dried tomato & hazelnut pesto or doctor up traditional hummus with some special scotch bonnet pepper sauce, the possibilities are endless. These are two of the winning entries from a pilot of the contest launched last summer. Now some sweeter prizes have been added to the mix, courtesy of igourmet, and a awesome panel of Mediterranean bloggers are determined to make this trip the best thing in 2009.

igourmet has agreed to sponsor the contest by offering prizes from their extraordinary selection of fine foods. And of course, a trip to the Mediterranean is also not complete without friends waiting to greet you at your final destination. For this I’ve asked a few of my favorite Mediterranean bloggers to help host this delicious journey to the Mediterranean.

Mediterranean Panel

• France: Fanny from Foodbeam (January)
• Greece: Peter from Kalofagas (February)
• Italy: Francesco from The Food Traveller (March)
• Middle East: Me from Olive Juice (April)
• North Africa: Warda from 64 sq ft Kitchen (May)
• Spain: Núria from Spanish Recipes (June)
• Turkey: Cenk from Cafe Fernando (July)

Stay tuned for January’s challenge – it will be posted by tonight!

Enjoy!

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what on earth should i do with this much zucchini?

My friend Emily has a bountiful garden and every summer she is faced with the same dilemma: what to do with the abundance of fruits and veggies.  (I know, sad story, hm?) Well, this past weekend she gave me one of her zucchinis.  She gave me one not because she’s stingy – she gave me just one because this zucchini is the zucchini that dwarfs all zucchinis, vegetables and most other edible objects.  

Check it out:

I’m open to suggestions guys!  I figured there’s no better people to ask than fellow food bloggers. What would you do with it?!

Here are a few neat pictures from my trip. Later this week I’ll be posting a lot more food pictures that I took while I was abroad – stay tuned!!