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.

Triangle chefs can now apply to compete in this year’s Fire in the Triangle cooking competition.

The single-elimination, Iron-Chef style competition will be held at 1705 Prime in North Raleigh from July 8-Aug. 19. Chefs have to apply by June 1 to being among the competitors. The chefs who will be competing will be announced June 24. For the application, go to goo.gl/MSdwh.

Fire in the Triangle is one of six culinary competitions held across the state and organized by the state agriculture department’s Got To Be N.C. campaign. The winners of each regional competition will compete in a final cook-off in Raleigh in November.

The public will not be able to make reservations to dine at one of the Triangle competition’s meals until mid-June. For more information and to eventually book a reservation, go to competitiondining.com.

Sugarland bakery is celebrating its fifth birthday with a celebrity cupcake bake-off at its Raleigh location in Cameron Village

From 7-9 p.m. Wednesday, the public can watch celebrities paired with the bakery's pastry chefs have to create a cupcake based on a surprise theme. The winner will get $1,000 donated to the charity of their choice. The celebrities include WRAL anchor Debra Morgan, WQDR 94.7 morning deejay Mike Wheless, UNC football coach Larry Fedora and former "The Biggest Loser" competitors Ed Brantley and Heba Salama.

The event will kick off a month-long celebration featuring specials at the bakery's locations in Chapel Hill and Raleigh.

Plus, the bakery is sponsoring a month-long competition among local charities to win $500. Each charity will have an unique hash tag during March for their supporters to use on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook when sharing a photo of themselves at Sugarland with a sweet treat. The organization with the most posts that both tag Sugarland (@sugarlandnc) and include their organization's given hash tag will win.

To register a charity for the March competition, please contact Hannah Walker at hannah@sugarlandchapelhill.com.

For information about the bakery, go to sugarlandchapelhill.com.

One of the highlights of the upcoming Triangle Restaurant Week will be the three-course dinner at Southern Season's Weathervane restaurant.

Between Jan. 21-27, dozens restaurants from Raleigh to Chapel Hill will offer two-course lunches for $10 and three-course dinners for $20 to $30.

Chef Ryan Payne won the statewide Competition Dining contest, where chefs compete against each other in a secret ingredient cook-off. Payne won the Fire in the Triangle contest and then won the state finals last fall. This week's menu will feature his winning dishes.

• First course: bourbon-spiked sweet potato bisque with pulled pork shoulder and pickled peppers or sweet potato ravioli with confit pork jowl and Pepsi-sage brown butter and balsamic-Pepsi syrup.
• Second course: sweet potato-glazed pork belly with braised collards, sweet potato grits and duck sweet potatoes or Korean barbecue pork shoulder with blue cheese grit cake, confit tomatoes and crispy jowl bacon.
• Dessert: sweet potato Twinkie with sweet potato butter cream, sweet potato ice cream and praline brittle or pork fat funnel cake with buttermilk cake, Pepsi-apple ice cream and candied pork jowl.

The meal costs $30 and an additional $15 for wine pairings. To make a reservation, call 919-929-9466.

For more information about Triangle Restaurant Week: trirestaurantweek.com

Dimples BBQ Sauce, the creation of Wake Forest couple Rich and Jan Campana, placed first in the tomato mild contest at the National BBQ Festival's 2012 best of the best barbecue sauce competition in Douglas, GA.

The sauce also won reserve grand champion.

Jan Campana explained that she and her husband moved to the Triangle eight years ago from California and became immersed in North Carolina's barbecue culture. Her husband joined a competition barbecue team and started testing sauce recipes. After lots of positive feedback, Jan Campana, then a stay-at-home mom, decided to try to turn their sauce recipe into a business. Two years ago, Dimples BBQ Sauce was launched.

A 16-ounce jar costs $5 online at dimplesbbqsauce.com. The website also lists local retailers that carry the sauce.

We're giving away a jar of Dimples BBQ sauce, thanks to Jan and Rich Campana. To enter to win, leave a comment below this post before noon, Friday, Jan. 25. I'll choose a winner at random and the Campanas will send you the sauce. Good luck.

In Wednesday's paper, I will have a story about the annual holiday cookie contest at Duke University's development office. I promised to share the winning recipes.

So far, I have the Best Overall Cookie Recipe: Mint Meringues (photo at left taken by staff photographer Takaaki Iwabu.) This is a holiday play of those classic airy meringue cookies. Enjoy! Congrats to winner Lisa Worster. 

Mint Meringues

2 egg whites

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

6-8 drops green food coloring

6 ounces semisweet chocolate pieces

PREHEAT oven to 200 degrees.

BEAT egg whites until foaming with an electric mixer. Mixing at high speed, gradually add sugar about one tablespoon at a time. Beat well after each addition, until whites hold stiff glossy peaks.

ADD extract and food coloring. Beat until blended. Fold in chocolate pieces. Drop by rounded teaspoon onto well-buttered baking sheet. Bake for one hour until dry and set. Cool.

A few notes from Lisa:

1. This recipe doubles easily.
2. The cookies do not spread when baked so you can put them close together on the baking sheet.
3. You can substitute any time of type of chip; mini chocolate chips work well as do other sizes and flavors. Adjust the extract and coloring to complement the chip.

UPDATE: The recipe for Almond Mice and Sugar Cookies are attached below. Baker Jane Heuser won most creative with this entry, while Kristin Hathorne won for best presentation.

Documents:

If you make the same old cookies for Christmas every year, N&O food writer Andrea Weigl has got some recipe inspiration for you today -- provided with the help of N&O readers.

Head over HERE to see the six winning recipes in our inaugural holiday cookie contest.

The grand prize winner is a New Zealand Holly Cookie, a spiced sugar cookie sandwiched together with raspberry jam.

Other winners include: Sweet Carolina Biscotti, Andes Mint Cookie, Cream Wafers, World Peace Cookies and Buckeyes.

I don't know about you, but I've got a kitchen date with my daughter this weekend to try my hand at some of these.

Raleigh's Catering Works is a finalist for a recipe contest from US Foods.

Catering Works' founder and president Jill Santa Lucia developed a "Mini Baklava Cheesecake" (photo at left) for the recipe contest called "Next Top Product."

The three chefs whose dishes receive the highest number of votes will prepare their dishes at the US Foods Fall Food Lovers Forum in Chicago next month. The winning recipe will debut as a US Foods' Chef's Line product next year.

The winner will receive $20,000 in cash and prizes.

To win, Catering Works need the public's help. The public can vote once a day between now and Sept. 7. Currently, they were among the top vote getters with more than 6,000 votes. To vote and see all the finalists, go to facebook.com/usfoods.

Roth Brewing Co. is hosting its annual wings festival from noon-4 p.m. Sept. 8 and tickets are now available.

The North Raleigh brewery will have between 15 and 20 vendors selling wings, including Gorman Street Pub, Hooters and Fox and Hound Bar & Grill. Judges will name first, second and third place winners, as well as an honorable mention for the best wings.

The brewery also will release its Forgotten Hollow Cinnamon Porter during the event. And there will be live music by such rockabilly bands as The Straight 8s and the Rusted Rails. The brewery is located at 5907 Triangle Dr.

Tickets cost $20 and can be purchased online at rothbrewing.com/wingsfest/.
 

If you think your wings recipe is a winner, today is the last day to sign up and compete in Ray Price Harley-Davidson's annual wings cook-off. To enter, go HERE.

The competition is next Saturday, July 14. If you just want to go eat wings, you can enjoy all-you-can-eat wings for a $5 donation.

The cooking starts at 9 a.m. Live music by Spaceship Days with Adam Lee Decker starts at 11 a.m. The wings will be served and judged at noon. Proceeds will be donated to Duke Children's Miracle Network. The event also will include a blood drive for Rex Blood Services.

The dealership is at 1126 S. Saunders St. For more information, call 919-832-2261 or go to rayprice-hd.com.