POTATO CANAPES WITH A CHEESY TOPPING…O Foods for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month

“The potato, like man, was not meant to dwell alone.”

Shila Hibben

Read a post by Michelle @ Bleeding Espresso about Gina DePalma, 2008 Bon Appetit award-winner for best Pastry Chef. Life is becoming just so unpredictable. A few months ago, Michelle found that Gina was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and was undergoing a whirlwind of treatment. So a few of the girls (from the Dolce Italiano contest held last year) got together to do something for Gina.

In honor of Gina DePalma, author of Dolce Italiano: Desserts from the Babbo Kitchen and Executive Pastry Chef of Babbo Ristorante in NYC, who was recently diagnosed with ovarian cancer, Sara of Ms Adventures in Italy, Jenn of The Leftover Queen, and Michelle of Bleeding Espresso, announced…

Made these potato canapes the other day. Had read an interesting post of how to make potato crisps, fatless, in the microwave recipe some time ago. Tried my hand at them for the want of nothing better to do one morning; they were delicious. Like the olden days, the hub rejoiced as he crunched a mouthful. I went on to clear out the fridge, despairing at the small portions of cheese etc in little containers, & then the beautiful sage arrived. One thing led to another…& in my attempt to use up all the leftovers , these pretty canapes were born. They made for a handsome bite & were delicately flavoured with a blend of cheese & sage. Feel free to substitute the cottage cheese for any other soft cheese or cream cheese. Everything tastes good on potato!

Potatoes – as many as you like (I used 2 & got about 35-40 crisps)

Oil – 1-2 tsps

Sea salt & freshly ground pepper

Cottage cheese : 100 gms, grated

Cheddar – 50 gms, grated

Low fat cream – 2 tsps

Salt to taste

Freshly ground pepper

Finely sliced sage leaves

O Foods for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. In honor of Gina DePalma, author of Dolce Italiano: Desserts from the Babbo Kitchen and Executive Pastry Chef of Babbo Ristorante in NYC, who was recently diagnosed with ovarian cancer, Sara of Ms Adventures in Italy, Jenn of The Leftover Queen, and Michelle of Bleeding Espresso are asking you to donate to the:

Ovarian Cancer Research Fund (via FirstGiving.org)

and then, out of the goodness of your hearts and to be eligible for the O Foods for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month Contest, please do the following:

1. Post a recipe to your blog using a food that starts or ends with the letter O (e.g., oatmeal, orange, okra, octopus, olive, onion, potato, tomato) and include this entire text box in the post;

OR

2. If you’re not into the recipe thing, simply post this entire text box in a post on your blog to help spread the word about the event and Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month.

AND

3. Then send your post url [along with a photo (100 x 100) if you’ve made a recipe] to ofoods[at]gmail[dot]com by 11:59 pm (Italy time) on September 30, 2008.

We will post a roundup and announce prize winners on October 3.

Prizes:

• 1 Recipe Prize for best “O food” concoction: $50 gift certificate to Amazon;
• 1 Awareness Prize for only publicizing event: Copy of Dolce Italiano cookbook.

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From the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund:

• Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynecologic cancers in the United States and is the fifth leading cause of cancer death among U.S. women; a woman’s lifetime risk of ovarian cancer is 1 in 67.
• The American Cancer Society estimates that 21,650 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the U.S. in 2008 and about 15,520 women will die from the disease.
• The symptoms of ovarian cancer are often vague and subtle, making it difficult to diagnose. There is no effective screening test for ovarian cancer but there are tests which can detect ovarian cancer when patients are at high risk or have early symptoms.
• In spite of this patients are usually diagnosed in advanced stages and only 45% survive longer than five years. Only 19% of cases are caught before the cancer has spread beyond the ovary to the pelvic region.
• When ovarian cancer is detected and treated early on, the five-year survival rate is greater than 92%.

Please donate to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund

and help spread the word!