2nd Annual O Foods Contest for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month

I’ll get back to the prosciutto soon, but first… Last year Michelle from Bleeding Espresso and I joined with 50 other bloggers for the O Foods Contest to raise awareness about ovarian cancer, and this year we’re so happy to have Gina De Palma back and helping us with this year’s contest!

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month and you’ll have two weeks to prepare a recipe with “O Foods” (Orange, Onion, tomatO, potatO, etc.) and participate, and you can spread awareness without a recipe, too! This time Gina’s donated some SIGNED copies of 3 cookbooks – hers and Mario Batali’s as thank-you prizes! Details on how to participate below.

The crux of the O Foods Contest for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month is to spread knowledge and awareness about ovarian cancer through blog posts and Tweets (I’m @rosso on Twitter). If you’d like to make a more substantial contribution, you can make a donation via FirstGiving.com which directly benefits the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund – last year we raised $425!

If you haven’t been reading this blog long, you may not know that I, too, have had a scare about “down there” – not ovarian cancer, but related to cervical cancer and all its precursors. Afterward, I laughed about it, and wrote about what it means to visit a gynecologist in Italy (somewhat funny, a little embarrassing) but the point is, not enough people are talking about what’s going on “down there” – we need to encourage each other to make regular visits and check up on uncommon symptoms. Talking about it shouldn’t be embarrassing, it should be helpful!

Read about last year’s O Foods contest and view the O Foods recipe roundup for inspiration! O Foods Contest Roundup Part 1 and O Foods Contest Roundup Part 2.

To participate, read the contest details below, and copy the code from this point on: (View – Page Source)

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O Foods Contest for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, and for the second year in a row, Sara of Ms Adventures in Italy and Michelle of Bleeding Espresso are hosting the O Foods Contest to raise awareness of this important health issue.

There are TWO WAYS to take part in the O Foods Contest:

ONE: 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); include this entire text box in the post; and send your post url along with a photo (100 x 100) to ofoods[at]gmail[dot]com by 11:59 pm (Italy time) on Monday, September 28, 2009.

PRIZES for recipe posts:

• 1st: Signed copy of Dolce Italiano: Desserts from the Babbo Kitchen by Gina DePalma, Executive Pastry Chef of Babbo Ristorante in NYC, who is currently battling ovarian cancer, inspired this event, and will be choosing her favorite recipe for this prize;

• 2nd: Signed copy of Molto Italiano: 327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at Home by Mario Batali (winner chosen by Sara);

• 3rd: Signed copy of Vino Italiano: The Regional Italian Wines of Italy by Joseph Bastianich (winner chosen by Michelle).

OR

TWO: 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 and send your post url to ofoods[at]gmail[dot]com by 11:59 pm (Italy time) on Monday, September 28, 2009.

Awareness posts PRIZE:

• One winner chosen at random will receive a Teal Toes tote bag filled with ovarian cancer awareness goodies that you can spread around amongst your friends and family.

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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 symptoms of ovarian cancer are often vague and subtle, making it difficult to diagnose, but include bloating, pelvic and/or abdominal pain, difficulty eating or feeling full quickly; and urinary symptoms (urgency or frequency).
• 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 help spread the word about ovarian cancer.
Together we can make enough noise to kill this silent killer.