PORTLAND

Italian Street Festival set for Saturday and Sunday

Feast on traditional Italian fare at the 87th annual Italian Street Festival this weekend.

The festival, which celebrates the Feasts of the Assumption and St. Rocco, will be held from 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday and 4 to 9 p.m. Sunday at St. Peter’s Church, 72 Federal St.

In addition to classic Italian food, there will be desserts, music and games.

 

Rising Tide Brewing to hold grand opening celebration

Rising Tide Brewing Co. will hold a grand opening celebration at its new, expanded location at 103 Fox St. from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday.

There will be live music from the Potato Pickers, gelato from Maple’s Organics, cashews from Grandy Oats and, of course, samples of beer. Growler fills also will be available.

For more information, call 370-2337.

 

Two free wine tastings on tap within a week

There are a couple of free wine tastings in the city within a week.

Rosemont Market, 580 Brighton Ave., will hold a tasting from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Friday, featuring “crisp whites, lively rose and a barbecue-friendly red or two.”

Old Port Wine, 223 Commercial St., is hosting a “Beach Blanket Bingo Wine Tasting” from 4 to 7:30 p.m. Aug. 15. For more information, call 772-9463.

DiMillo’s chef will compete in national seafood cook-off

Melissa Bouchard, executive chef at DiMillo’s on the Water, will represent Maine in the Great American Seafood Cook Off in New Orleans on Saturday.

Bouchard will compete against 16 other chefs from around the country.

The cook-off showcases cooking with domestic and sustainable seafood. Judges will include Vicki Wellington, vice president and publisher of Food Network magazine, and Sam Rauch, assistant administrator for fisheries at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Last year’s winner was Jim Smith, executive chef at the Alabama governor’s mansion, who prepared a dish featuring Gulf shrimp and blue crab. For more information, go to greatamericanseafoodcookoff.com.

SCARBOROUGH

Pie and cupcake contests will benefit March of Dimes

Help out the March of Dimes by entering a pie or cupcake contest at the Kitchen & Cork, in the Cabela’s shopping plaza at 400 Expedition Drive. On Sept. 16, the March of Dimes will hold a fundraising event called “Touch a Truck” at Cabela’s at Gateway Shoppes from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. As part of that event, the Kitchen & Cork and King Arthur Flour are sponsoring a baking contest from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The pie contest is open to anyone age 16 or older, home cooks only. The three pie categories are Best Fruit Pie, Best Cream Pie and Best Alternative Pie.

The cupcake contest is open to anyone age 9 or older. The cupcake categories are Best Decorated Cupcake (adult and youth) and Best Tasting Flavor Cupcake (adult and youth).

Two pies or a dozen cupcakes are required for each entry. Some of the treats will be judged, and the rest will be sold to raise money for March of Dimes.

Each pie or cupcake entry must be accompanied by an entry form, and each entry form requires a $5 fee that also will be donated to the March of Dimes.

Deadline for submitting entry forms is Aug. 31.

The winners of the contests will be announced at 2 p.m.

First prize in each category is a $75 gift card for King Arthur Flour and an Emile Henry deep-dish pie plate worth $45. Second prize is a $50 King Arthur gift card, and third prize is a $25 gift card.

To see detailed rules of the contests or download entry forms, go to kitchenandcork.com

SOUTH PORTLAND

Event will show preparation of food on mid-1800s ships

Learn how food was prepared during the 19th-century shipbuilding heyday of South Portland at a cooking demonstration from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Cushing Point Museum in Bug Light Park.

Susan McLellan Plaisted, owner of Heart to Hearth Cookery, a food history business in Bucks County, Pa., will demonstrate cooking methods and talk about the types of food that were popular on wooden sailing ships in the mid-1800s during the program “Food Under the Sails – A Demonstration of Foodways at Sea.”

The event is free. It will be an ongoing demonstration, so visitors are welcome at any point during the three-hour time period.

To reach the museum, take Broadway east to the ocean, turn left onto Breakwater Drive, then right onto Madison Street. Madison leads right into the park. GPS users can enter 1 Madison St. for directions.

For more information, call 767-7299, or visit sphistory.org.