UPDATE:Tickets go on sale at 5 p.m. Tuesday for these events.

This was a very popular event last year so you may want to mark Tuesday on your calendar to get your reservations.

Fire in the Triangle is part of a statewide "Iron Chef"-style cooking competition. Each night of the contest, two chefs have to create three dishes using a secret ingredient revealed to them earlier in the day. Last year, the secret ingredients included blueberries, bacon and Butterball turkeys. Here's where you come in: the public gets to make reservations to eat what the chefs create and help decide the winner. The winners advance to quarterfinals, semifinals and a final where a winner is announced and then competes against the chefs who won similar competitions in Charlotte, Wilmington, Greensboro and Asheville/Blowing Rock. Bonus for Triangle diners: the statewide final will be held in Raleigh in November.

The winners of each of the regional contests win $2,000 and a red chef's jacket.

Fire in the Triangle dinners will be July 8-Aug. 19. The 16 competing chefs have not been announced yet. (That will happen June 24.) Tickets for each dinner cost $59, while tickets for regional semifinal and final rounds are $69.

The Triangle dinners are held at 1705 Prime, 1705 Millbrook Road, where Rocky Top Hospitality has an event space and catering facility.

This is the second year the contest has been held statewide. It was started eight years ago by Jimmy Crippen, the founder of Crippen's Country Inn and Restaurant in Blowing Rock. Last year's Triangle winner was chef Ryan Payne of Weathervane, the restaurant at Southern Season gourmet and housewares store in Chapel Hill.

To purchase tickets, go HERE.

For more information, go HERE.

We have two winners in the ticket giveaway for the Southern Women's Show.

Each will receive a pair of tickets for the show, which runs Friday through Sunday at the State Fairgrounds.

If you didn't win but plan to go anyway, please stop by and see me at The N&O booth near the cooking stage in the Expo Center.

I'll be at the show from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday and 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturday. I'll be chatting with folks and answering questions. Oh, and I'll have freebies for the first five blog readers each day who stop by to chat.

The winners are:

I've got two pairs of tickets to the Southern Women's show at the State Fairgrounds this weekend to give away on the blog.

Tickets are normally $10 but two lucky readers will each get a free pair.

Since time is of the essence, leave a comment or question on this post by noon Tuesday. I'll pick the winners shortly afterward and get them into the mail to the two winners.

If you don't happen to win tickets but still plan to go, stop by and see me at The N&O booth near the cooking stage in the Expo Center.

I'll be at the show from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday and 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, giving away freebies to the first five blog readers each day who stop by to chat.

The daily deal site Living Social is offering a great deal right now on discounted tickets to the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro.

You'll pay $28 for two adults and two child's combo tickets, $6 for one child's admission or $8 for one adult combo ticket. Those prices are all 50 percent off regular gate admission.

What’s On Tap

Foothills’ Sexual Chocolate Release Party

5 p.m. Friday at Foothills Brewing Company in Winston-Salem.

The first keg of this limited beer is tapped at the pub downtown and 22-ounce bottles go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday. Line begins forming when the pub closes at 2 a.m.

World Beer Festival - Raleigh ticket sale

Thursday, online at allaboutbeer.com.

The 2012 event in Moore Square Park sold out, so don’t wait long to get tickets. Festival features two sessions. General admission: $45 VIP tickets: $75

Queen City Brewers Festival

1 p.m. and 6 p.m. Saturday at Neighborhood Theatre in Charlotte.

The North Davidson district (NoDa) plays host to a celebration of Charlotte’s craft beer scene. Tickets for both sessions are sold out.

Park West 14, a new 14-screen movie theater in Morrisville, opens today with free popcorn for everyone and a free movie for the first 250 people in line.

Each fall, Durham Central Park offers a series of fundraising dinners called Meals from the Market. The schedule of those events and tickets are now available HERE.

One of those events is a small food truck rodeo called "Trucks from the Market" next Sunday, Oct. 14 from 6-8 p.m. Instead of long lines and trucks running out of food, this will be a ticketed event to make sure everyone gets a taste off every truck. So for $50, you get a taste of food from all 13 trucks, 2 Carolina Brewery beers and hopefully a lovely Sunday evening in downtown Durham.

The participating trucks include Only Burger, Pie Pushers, Triangle Raw Foods, Chick-N-Que, Mama Duke's, Sympathy for the Deli, Porchetta, KoKyu BBQ, American Meltdown, Farmhand Foods, Monuts Donuts, The Parlour and Daisy Cakes.

Here's where it gets good for one lucky Mouthful reader: the organizers have offered a pair of tickets for free as a giveaway.

So you know the drill, leave a comment below this post before noon, Thursday, Oct. 11. I will pick a winner at random and arrange for the winner to pick up tickets at the event. Good luck!

Food Lion has got a great deal this week for fans of the State Fair.

Purchase four cans of My Essentials canned vegetables and you've got yourself cheap admission to the fair on Thursday, Oct. 18, which is Hunger Relief Day.

This week the larger 15-ounce cans are on sale for 67 cents each.

That's $2.68 for four cans, which you'll be able to exchange for an $8 adult admission ticket -- plus you're doing a good deed. The Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina will be distributing food donations to needy North Carolina residents.

But the deal gets even better.

Discounted admission and ride tickets to the N.C. State Fair go on sale this morning (Wednesday, Aug. 1) at 10 a.m.  Concert tickets also will be on sale, and if you plan to go to the Oct. 16 Scotty McCreery show, you should act fast. They are expected to sell out quickly.  (His Oct. 15 show is already sold out.)

To buy go to www.ncstatefair.org. 

Advance admission tickets are $6 for adults and $2 for children. That's a savings of $2 per adult admission ticket and $1 per child’s ticket. Adult admission tickets for groups of 40 or more are $5. An 18-ticket ride sheet is $10 in advance, saving you $8 off the regular price. Children under age 6 and adults 65 and over get in free.

If you're looking for some cheap family entertainment and have baseball fans in your family, Food Lion has got a deal going on Mudcats tickets.

Show your Food Lion MVP card at the box office on select Wednesdays and get BOGO box seat tickets, which regularly sell for $10.

The remaining dates for this summer are: July 18, Aug. 1, Aug. 15 and Aug. 29.