It’s been a mad rush of a week.

My tomato plants are waist high. They are beginning to flower and they look healthy and happy.

Scott talked briefly about pinching off (or not pinching off) some of the branches that begin to form at the joints where the leaves connect to the main stalk. I am growing mine in pots, so I think my tomato support choices are limited. In fact I am choosing a very basic pyramid of 3 bamboo stakes per pot. Because of these limitations I am choosing to pinch my side shoots. Besides it’s a nice way to start each day. I take my tea out there and I pinch away.

I like the way it makes my fingers smell too!

I’ll be bringing Scott back next week for some real advice, about support systems. In the meantime, wasn’t there a contest or something here at SippitySup. Aren’t you curious how that came out?

Well, had a great response to our TomatoMania recipe contest. I am so honored by all the talent and love out there.

Every single entry was fantastic. I wish we had the budget to print up all 46 entries and pass them all out at the Los Angeles Garden show. But the reality is we do not! Besides what kind of contest would it be with out winners! Everybody loves a winner. And here they are! Congratulations and Thank-You all...

TomatoMania ContestI know it’s not Monday. So I should not even be uttering the word Maniac. But I just wanted to remind you TomatoManiacs to get to work on a tomato recipe.

I know you want thousands of new tomato loving foodies to discover your blog. As I stated in the tomato recipe contest announcement, I can help 6 people do just that. Because I am going to be handing out recipe cards at the Los Angeles Garden Show printed up with your recipes and your logo and/or url!

Dig back in your blog. You must have something. The only thing I ask is you not steal the recipes or the photos. Make these recipes your own, or have permission. Better yet, turn in a great recipe passed down in your family. What a great way to honor your Great Aunt Tilda!

TO ENTER: Send an e-mail to greg [AT] sippitysup [DOT] com (ONE entry per person, please!) with the following information by MIDNIGHT, Monday, April 20  PDT:

• First name
• Blog name (or hometown if you don’t have a blog)
• Blog URL (if you have a blog)
• An ORIGINAL Recipe (Word Document preferred))  300 words or less
• AN ORIGINAL photo of your tomato recipe, at least 400 px wide (preferably square)
• A one-line description of your recipe
  
• I will contact the winners for their logo and url on April 21st or 22nd
• THANKS GREG
  

Welcome back to another Maniac Monday. Scott from TomatoMania is here, and just in time. My tomatoes have already grown by leaps and bounds. I am sure yours have too.

There are some maintenace steps we need to be aware of. But I'll let Scott explain all that.

I am here to bring you news of the contest I teased about last week.

How would you like thousands of tomato loving foodies to suddenly discover your blog over one weekend? I am here to say I can help 6 talented bloggers do just that.

This contest is in conjunction with TomatoMania and the Los Angeles Garden Show. Whose theme this year is Festival of Flavors.

Scott and I will have a booth at the show. He is going to be preaching and teaching all things tomato garden. I am going to be offering tomato cooking tips. But not my cooking tips. Nope. Yours.

As you may know I am right in the middle of my tribute to mustard. As long as the hills near my house are bursting out golden-yellow from the blooms of wild mustard plants, then I am posting mustard ideas.

But it is Maniac Monday so I will divert momentarily so that all you TomatoManiacs can get your weekly fix of tomato info.

Tomorrow it’s back to the business of mustard with something everybody can love. Grilled Cheese (with mustard)!

Scott Daigre is off to another TomatoMania event and will be back with more growing tips next Monday. But I am going to use this time to tease you with a tomato contest we will soon be announcing. More on that very soon…

I also want to give you a little background about the tomato from a culinary standpoint!

Despite its firm place in European cooking the tomato has it’s origins in the Americas. It was cultivated by the Aztecs and was an important part of their diet as far back as 700AD.

It was brought back to Spain by merchant vessels. Though the British deemed the fruit “poisonous”, it quickly caught on culinarily throughout Southern Europe where growing conditions were ideal.

And for the final Cookstr/Jamie Oliver Contest winner... I choose an old friend here at SippitySup. I choose Nick at imafoodblog. I admit at first I was a bit put off by his entry.

I mean have you seen his posts on Brioche?

He pits 3 master recipes against each other and prepares all 3 in his own kitchen. He then meticulously records the results and reports back over 5 separate postings! This is mighty!

But then I have one little contest and he turns in a recipe for TOAST!

Toast. I thinks he is messin' with Sup. This calls for retaliation.

And you know what the best retaliation is? I'll send him the Jamie Oliver game. I think I know how his mind works. He'll get that thing in his hot little hands and he won't be able to put it down.

He won't have time for anything else! No more Brioche. No more Beer. No more BLOGGING!  Ha!  I am sooo evil...

(watch video) My second winner really dropped a bombshell on me. It comes from a man named Jonathan who lives in Niles, Illinois. Jonathan is not a blogger. He is a food lover (of sorts). He is a food lover with a very particular passion. That passion is Julia Child.

He “collects” information, books, letters, photos. Whatever he can get his hands on about the iconic chef. He regularly surfs the web for any little tidbits he can find out about her. I knew there were Elvis fans, and plenty of the Marilyn Monroe maniacs. But Julia Child? Who knew?

Anyway, in trawling for Julia Child mentions he discovered SippitySup.

I recently wrote about my mother. I passed along my memories of how Julia Child really influenced my mother, and therefore, was an important part of my childhood.

Here is the first of the winning entries for my Jamie Oliver "What’s Cooking?" Contest made possible by Cookstr.

It is entitled Home Made Burgers and it comes from Priya at Food and Laughter. She lives and blogs from India. She is a “working mom, juggling a career with three young kids, an adorable husband, a house and a garden…”

I can’t vouch for her husband, but from what I have read she is totally adorable her own self. So I guess it makes sense she’d have an adorable husband and 3 adorable kids.

Originally, I liked this entry because I loved the universal theme of kids and, McDonalds and birthdays. I don’t even have kids and I can relate to this tale.

She may be blogging from India, but her sweet story, of a mother's love, could happen in any one of many tens-of-thousands of cities across the globe. Because it illustrates, in the simplest way, how alike we humans are. Race, Gender, Creed, Nationality, Religion, Sexuality…the DNA ain’t that different!

Still, it’s easy to get caught up in cultural idiosyncrasies. And certainly there are cultural differences. But they too often get in the way of our perceptions of one another.

I loved Priya’s story because it got past all that.  Ultimately it is a purely lucid, genuinely felt story about a mom and a son and a special day. Oh yeah, and they happen to live in India.

But the cultural aspects are an interesting aside in this story too. And this is what put her entry over the top and into the winner’s circle for me. I have a feeling there are some tangible and exciting “cultural differences” between their McDs and ours. I mean McAloo Tikki Burger, what’s that?

watch video Contest Ends Feb. 13, 2009

What would any good sweeps-week be with out some sort of contest? It is the oldest trick in the book when promoting just about anything. And it is a trick that is perfect for SippitySup.

Fortunately I have "partners in crime" on this endeavor! That’s right SippitySup is partnering with Jamie Oliver, Atari and Cookstr.

They have provided me 3 copies of Mr. Oliver’s new Nintendo DS game, What’s Cooking? In this game you can test your virtual skills in the kitchen. As well as create shopping lists. Store and share your own recipes, even try some of Jamie’s recipes. It is amazingly realistic and includes voice recognition technology for “Hands Free” cooking. I think that means you can legally cook while driving in the State of California!

These games and this contest would not be possible with out Cookstr.com. It is a “new cooking site dedicated to providing [their] users with great recipes from the best chefs and cookbook authors. All of the participating chefs and cookbook authors have their own profile pages on Cookstr where you can read about them, their restaurants, and see a selection of their great cookbooks”.

So between What's Cooking?, Cookstr and SippitySup all your cooking dreams can come true. You won’t need Google anymore!

So, now you must be wondering, “how can I win me one of these games?” Well, it’s actually surprisingly easy…