Fresh Sheet: Bertolli Olive Oil hosting recipe contest

Bertolli Olive Oil is hosting a recipe contest to celebrate the brand’s 150th anniversary.

Taste of Tradition contestants are asked to submit their favorite family or original recipe with Bertolli Olive Oil or Bertolli Vinegar or both for a chance to win a culinary trip for two to Tuscany.

Categories are: appetizers, mains, sides, soups/salads and desserts. Recipes – along with video or photo – should be submitted to BertolliOliveOil.Tumblr.com by July 31.

Five category winners will receive a KitchenAid mixer, year’s supply of olive oil and a signed copy of Fabio Viviani’s latest cookbook, “Fabio’s American Home Kitchen.” The grand-prize winner, selected from the five category winners, will also receive the Italy trip with a helicopter ride, hands-on cooking class and truffle hunt.

Hunger hotline

The United States Department of Agriculture funds a toll-free hotline to make it easier for struggling families to access food from private and governmental resources.

The National Hunger Hotline connects callers with emergency food providers in their communities, government assistance, nutritional assistance programs and other services. During summer, the hotline also provides information about meal sites where children can get free meals through the USDA Summer Food Service Program.

One in seven – or 14.3 percent of – Washington residents live in households that can’t always afford enough food, according to the USDA.

The hotline can be reached at (866) 3-HUNGRY or  (877) 8-HAMBRE  (for Spanish) from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through  Friday. 

Smooth sailing

The new “Betty Crocker Smoothies” cookbook (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $16.99) offers more than 100 recipes. Look inside today’s Spokesman-Review Food section for a few of them.