Tag Archives: contest

Pizza Party!: A Contest and Ode to Optimism

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pizzapartyYesterday, my boss said, “I declare today a pizza day,” and my mood instantly improved.

Even people who have fairly neutral feelings about pizza as a food item have to admit that there’s a mystical quality to the phrase “pizza party.” Think of the power those words held over you and your classmates in elementary school. In third grade, my teacher Mrs. Medwid made an announcement one day that my mom (My mom! The secrets that woman could keep…) was going to bring in pizza, and we were going to watch Return to Snowy River on videocassette for the rest of the afternoon instead of doing stupid math homework.  It was maybe one of the best things that had ever happened to me. I don’t think it was even a reward for anything in particular; I think Mrs. Medwid was just awesome and thought we deserved a pizza. I still think of that day sometimes when the world feels harsh.

Look, everybody, winter is tough. The days are short, and the cold winds blow, and a lot of people are feeling down. So let’s bring a little levity to the blog in the form of pizza party anecdotes. Send your best pizza party story to submissions@pitchknives.com by next Friday, January 30. I will post my favorites here, and the winner will receive a pizza-related prize specially devised by me. Now go eat a slice.

Food Haiku Contest!

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Half of National Poetry Month has already slipped by! Doesn’t it make sense to use these last two weeks of April to create something poetic and tasty? As motivation, we’re holding a food haiku contest. Send us your best food-themed haiku by Monday, April 28th. We’ll post our favorites on the blog, and the top haiku will score its author an awesome prize.

You remember how to write a haiku, don’t you? You definitely learned in second grade. Here’s an example:

food poetry

Photo from Smithsonian Magazine

This onion bagel
Spackles the hole in my heart
With its thick cream cheese.

If any brave individual wants to experiment with more complex poetic forms, we will definitely post those endeavors, as well, but for the purposes of the contest, we’re just looking for the ol’ 5-7-5. Send your entries to submissions@pitchknives.com. Please limit two haiku per contestant. Happy poem-writing, everybody!

School Lunch Contest! You Could Win!

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school lunchWhat’s that smell in the air? Is the crispness of fall? Or is it the trays of rectangular government-issue pizza being loaded into industrial ovens?  Few arenas of school life are as rife with drama as the cafeteria, and no one does his or her time there without coming out with a few war stories. Like the time I gagged on a hamburger, puked on myself and then plowed into a very elderly and startled-looking first grade teacher. Or the time Dave found a slimy brown mutant apple hiding inside his apple, turning all of us off fresh fruit for weeks. Or the time Maureen thought she had lost her tooth in a can of Vienna sausages and then thrown it away. (She hadn’t.)

We’re asking you to share with us your most hilarious or harrowing stories from the front lines of the lunchroom. Tales from any grade level or perspective (yes, teachers, that means you) are welcome. We’ll pick our favorites and share them on the blog next week. In addition to fame and accolades, one lucky grand prize winner will receive a special treat in the mail from us.

Submit your stories to submissions@pitchknives.com before the deadline of midnight on Saturday, September 14. Hoist high your brown bag, and let the lunch meat fly!

Baggin’ It: Lunch Packing Tips

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brownbagThe lunch tips from our Baggin’ It Challenge are in, and our winners have been declared!* In this post, we’re compiling some of the ideas we received so that our readers never again have to worry about the grim prospects lurking within that brown bag.

Some Assembly Required: Picnics are inherently fun, so take one to work with you. Tearing off hunks of baguette and putting together the perfect combo of pesto, cheese and tomato is the kind of thing that never fails to cheer me. And as an added bonus, packing your lunch piecemeal keeps the bread or crackers from getting soggy over the course of the morning. (One caveat: If you’re packing a lunch for people other than yourself, you might want to clue them in beforehand—my father once choked down a plain dry bagel before finding the container of peanut butter my mother had packed in the bottom of the bag.)

Changing Form: Just because you have leftovers, doesn’t mean you need to eat them in exactly the same way the next day. My office has a microwave, but I rarely use it. You’d be surprised how good (and different) take-out like Chinese or Indian food tastes cold. Put some cold General Tso’s Tofu atop a bed of lettuce and veggies, and you’ve got yourself an excellent salad for tomorrow’s lunch. Continue reading →

Baggin’ It: A Lunch-Packing Challenge

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brownbagWith fall in full effect, it’s the perfect time for some work/school resolutions like “I will never again eat from that taco truck that gives me indigestion,” or “I will rise above the vending machines in the school cafeteria.” But even true food enthusiasts might be confounded by how to pack a punch with a packed lunch.

My mom hated packing my lunch when I was a kid. It wasn’t that she disliked feeding us—quite the contrary, actually—but the sameness of the old sandwich/apple/cookie routine bored her. She once schemed that if she packed a thermos of boiling soup in my brother’s lunchbox that it would slowly cook a hot dog that she nestled next to it. Unfortunately, the thermos was too well insulated and my brother ended up with molten soup and a still-chill dog.

Though the experiment failed, I continue to admire the innovative spirit involved in that endeavor, and we’ve decided to celebrate it here with a little contest. We’re calling on our readers to reveal their best lunch-packing secrets. How do you build a killer sandwich? How do you liven up those leftovers? How do you tell your kid “I love you” with only a banana and a toothpick to work with?

The readers with the best brown bag tips will not only achieve instant fame by having their ideas appear here on the blog, but will also win a special PitchKnives prize! Yes! So send your stories to submissions@pitchknives.com by next Wednesday, October 3. As always, creativity and taste both matter, so go ahead…make our lunch.

Reminder: Send Us Your Best Summer Cocktail!

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cocktailsTemperatures are once again rising like a flock of seagulls on the wing. It’s important to hydrate…and why not throw in a little gin while you’re at it? We’re calling on all you gifted mixologists out there to cool our sweaty brows.

Send your signature summer cocktail recipes to submission@pitchknives.com. We’ll try the ones we like best and rate them according to taste, creativity and capacity to refresh.

It’s only right that the winners receive a token of our gratitude. What will it be? An artful swizzle stick? A crocheted beer coozie? A hand-mixed glass of Shannon’s signature cocktail, the Bee’s Knees? You’ll just have to win to find out.

Entries are due this Saturday, August 11. So get to it! Shake, stir, and please, please chill. The address for entries is, one more time, submissions@pitchknives.com.

Summer Cocktail Spectacular

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cocktailTemperatures are once again rising like a flock of seagulls on the wing. It’s important to hydrate…and why not throw in a little gin while you’re at it? We’re calling on all you gifted mixologists out there to cool our sweaty brows.

Send your signature summer cocktail recipes to submission@pitchknives.com. We’ll try the ones we like best and rate them according to taste, creativity and capacity to refresh.

It’s only right that the winners receive a token of our gratitude. What will it be? An artful swizzle stick? A crocheted beer coozie? A hand-mixed glass of Shannon’s signature cocktail, the Bee’s Knees? You’ll just have to win to find out.

So get to it! Shake, stir, and please, please chill. The address for entries is, one more time, submissions@pitchknives.com.

Independence Food: The Contest

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Independence Food!The Fourth of July is approaching fast, and we know that our PitchKnives readers can do better than just a ho-hum Frankfurter on the grill. So send us your recipes for your favorite Independence Food and tell us why you think it’s patriotic. Is it red, white and blue? Is it a favorite dish of one of our forefathers? Does it remind you of amber waves of grain? Write to us at submissions@pitchknives.com and tell us all about it. And don’t forget the photos to document your genius!

We’ll feature some of our favorite submissions here next week, so prepare yourself for the tastiest Fourth of July yet.