On Sunday, Celebrity Dairy is hosting a special picnic-style wine dinner pairing foods prepared by Bonne Soirée chef Chip Vaughan and wines distributed by Rosenthal Wine Merchants in New York.

The Carrboro Greenspace Film Series kicks off its slate of food documentaries Sunday. 

Greg Cox reviews the new lower-priced, downtown Jibarra in this story. He gives it 3 1/2 stars.

In his Quick Bites column, he takes a sip at a new member of Raleigh's bar scene, Foundation. 

Tomorrow is Julia Child's birthday. She would have been 97. 

One way to celebrate is to spend next Thursday evening at A Southern Season's cooking school. Starting at 6 p.m., the cooking school staff will cook a Julia Child-themed menu, including ratatouille, sole meuniere and a jam peek-a-boo tart made with puff pastry.

Cindy Karas will be cooking up items from the farmers and artisan food producers at tomorrow's Wake Forest Farmer's Market.

Free samples will be available so you can shop and eat at the same time. 

Each Friday, I offer a recipe to tackle during the weekend. Today's recipe is versatile shrimp salad recipe that my husband requests and I love during the heat of summer. This shrimp salad can be served over mesclun greens as an entree for two or on skewers with sugar snap peas as an appetizer or for a picnic lunch. This recipe comes from "The Silver Palate Cookbook," by Julee Rosso and Shelia Lukins.

The Angus Barn is hosting two complimentary wine tastings Sunday afternoon.

The first is at 3:30 p.m. and the second at 5:00 pm. Limited seating is available so reservations are required. Call 787-3505 to reserve your spot.

Local food blogger Dean McCord has an interesting post about the upcoming Raleigh Restaurant Week. Restaurant weeks are designed to get folks in the door for a three-course meal at a amazing price. Here the cost ranges from $20 to $30.

But McCord questions which Raleigh restaurants are offering a bargain and which ones aren't.

Several readers have asked for the recipe for Preserved Figs with Star Anise and Bay because this picture ran in the paper with our canning story last month. So I thought I would share it now that figs are in season. 

Here is a link to our story with more detailed instructions on how to can. 

If you didn't know, I agreed to judge the 2009 Critter Cook-off at the N.C. Museum of Natural Science's annual Bugfest. The festivities are Saturday, Sept. 12. The cook-off is two days earlier. They just named the chefs who will be cooking up critters for me to taste.