The James Beard Foundation's list of restaurant and chef award semifinalists was just released and there was a strong showing from the Triangle and the entire state.

• Durham's Mateo Tapas is a semifinalist for Best New Restaurant.
• Phoebe Lawless of Scratch Bakery in Durham is a semifinalist for Outstanding Pastry Chef.
• Lantern Restaurant in Chapel Hill is a semifinalist for Outstanding Restaurant. (Owner and chef Andrea Reusing won a James Beard award for Best Chef Southeast in 2011.)
• Angus Barn in Raleigh is a semifinalist for Outstanding Wine Program.
• Sean Lilly Wilson of Durham's Fullsteam brewery and Eric Solomon of European Cellars in Charlotte are semifinalists for outstanding wine, spirits or beer professional.
• Katie Button of Curate in Asheville is a semifinalist for Rising Star Chef of the Year.
• The semifinalists for Best Chef Southeast are Ashley Christensen of Raleigh's Poole's Diner among other restaurants; Scott Crawford of Herons at the Umstead Hotel and Spa in Cary; Vivian Howard of Chef & the Farmer in Kinston; Scott Howell of Nana's in Durham, Elliot Moss of The Admiral in Asheville; and Aaron Vandemark of Panciuto in Hillsborough.

To see the list of all the semifinalist nominees, go to jamesbeard.org/awards

The semifinalist nominees will be narrowed to finalists and those will be announced March 18 at a press conference in Charleston, S.C. The winner will be announced May 6 at a gala reception in New York City.

This how the awards work: The foundation puts out a call for nominations in the fall and this year more than 44,000 entries were received. A committee narrows the entrees to a list of semifinalists in each category. Then more than 600 judges across the country -- regional restaurant critics, food and wine editors, culinary educators and past James Beard Foundation Restaurant and Chef Award winners -- vote for the five finalists and then choose a winner in each category.

The James Beard Foundation is a nonprofit that recognizes excellence in the culinary field from chefs and restaurants to journalists and cookbook authors. James Beard was a television personality and food writer who championed regional American cuisine. The foundation was created by his friends after his death in 1985.

A few local businesses are now taking orders for Thanksgiving meals and desserts.

You can order a whole cooked local turkey plus sides and desserts to feed four people or 20 dinner guests from The Q Shack at North Hills in Raleigh. Prices start at $45. For more information, call 919-786-4381 or go to theqshack.com/turkey_order.php.

Durham bakeries, Scratch and Hummingbird, also have order forms for their baked goods if you don’t want to make your own desserts.

For more information about Scratch’s menu, go to piefantasy.com or call 956-5200.

For Hummingbird, call 919-908-6942 or go HERE. (I've also attached a copy of the Hummingbird bakery order form below.)

If there are more that should be added to this list, send me a note at andrea.weigl@newsobserver.com.

And check out Greg Cox's list of Triangle restaurants serving dinner on Thanksgiving Day in Wednesday's paper.

UPDATE: Here are a few more options if you want to order Thanksgiving dinner:

• Southern Season is offering a holiday catering menu. Turkeys start at $99. Go HERE to see the menu from cheese to desserts.
• Foster's Market in Durham and Chapel Hill is offering a holiday catering menu, including a Thanksgiving meal for four people for $99. Go HERE.
• Whole Foods stores across the Triangle also are offering Thanksgiving feasts. (There are Whole Foods stores in Raleigh, Durham, Cary, Chapel Hill and North Raleigh.) You can go online to see each store's menu and order what you like.
• Weaver Street Market with locations in Carrboro, Chapel Hill and Hillsborough also is offering complete dinners with turkey or ham or vegetarian for $69 to $99. To order, go to weaverstreetorders.com.

Durham baker Katie Meddis has organized a Sweet Relief Bake Sale to help victims of Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey.

Meddis, who with her husband plan to open Rose's Meat Market and Sweet Shop in Durham, has recruited home and professional bakers and restaurant chefs to donate baked goods. The sale will be 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday at Durham's Fullsteam Brewery.

Among those donating goods are Rue Cler, Toast, Scratch, Guglhupf, Berenbaum's and The Cupcake Bar.

All the proceeds will go to the Food Bank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties in New Jersey to feed the thousands of people living in shelters.

Here's more information about the bake sale: https://www.facebook.com/events/478474022175823/

Now that I'm back at work after my maternity leave, I'm trying to catch up on the Triangle dining scene. In between interviews this week in Durham, I got to check out two spots that have opened in recent months: DaisyCakes, (photos above by Staff photographer Juli Leonard) that longtime member of the food truck scene now has a brick-and-mortar location; and Loaf, an artisan bread bakery that got its start at the Durham Farmers' Market.

Click on READ MORE to see my entire post.

I have just gotten a flurry of e-mails today about a ton of interesting events in April. So get out your calendar and mark these dates:

• 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 6 is a fundraising dinner for the Center for the Study of the American South featuring  Southern Foodways Alliance director John T. Edge and pitmaster Rodney Scott of Scott's Variety Store and Bar-B-Q in Hemingway, S.C. Other chefs who will be involved include Ben and Karen Barker of Magnolia Grill, Whitney Brown of Scratch, April McGreger of Farmer's Daughter, Sam Suchoff of the Pig, Bill Smith of Crook's Corner and cookbook author Sheri Castle. The event is at 3Cups and costs $125. Call 956-0556 962-5665 to reserve your seat. There are only 50 tickets.
• 2-6 p.m. Sunday, April 10 is the annual SEEDS Pie Social and Skill Share Auction at the SEEDS garden at 706 Gilbert St. in Durham. The suggested donation for the pie social is $10 for four slices. Pies are being donated by Toast, Watts Grocery, Scratch and more. The skill share auction allows you to bid on things or opportunities to learn interesting skills from fellow community members from reupholstering a chair to brewing beer to flying a plane. All proceeds benefit the Durham Inner-City Gardeners, a youth-driven, urban farming leadership development program. 
• The annual Piedmont Farm Tour will be 1-5 p.m. April 16 and 17. Tickets cost $25 advance, $30 on the day of the tour for a carload. For more information and to purchase tickets, go HERE.
• 6 p.m. Thursday, April 21, Herons restaurant at the Umstead Hotel and Spa in Cary is offering a winemaker dinner featuring Tommy and Amie Baudoin of Morgan Ridge Vineyards in Gold Hill, N.C. The four-course meal will cost $85. Call 447-4200 for reservations.

to read my profile of Phoebe Lawless, owner of Scratch in Durham.

Phoebe Lawless of Scratch Seasonal Artisan Baking will be at 3Cups tonight. Lawless is baking up flatbreads to be paired with Mediterranean fare and summer wines.

The cost is $18 in advance or $22 at the door. The event goes from 6-8 p.m. Call 968-8893 to RSVP.