Say it with me: perfectly garlic-simmered pasilla peppers stuffed with sweet roasted garlic, garlic-crusted pulled pork, jack cheese and queso fresco – on a benevolent bed of handmade porcini-garlic-cream raviolis.

That’s a mighty recipe-could-be for the 2010 Gilroy Garlic Festival Cookoff, which just began accepting entries. I’ve already started spending the grand prize, a grand in cash, on kitchen tools; second and third get $750 and $500.

Winnetka, Calif.’s Andrew Barth won last year with spicy garlic butter cookies with garlic goat cheese and honey. Submissions to qualify for the eight-finalist showdown are due May 1. Original recipes must include a minimum of six cloves of garlic or three teaspoons chopped or minced. More at www.gilroygarlicfestival.com or 408-842-1625. And for you pirate types out there, once something is published it is also copyrighted, so no point nibbling on my idea.

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The Peruvian-style veggie tamale wrapped in banana leaves and the curried-potato-and-pea samosa came from a surprising place: a farmers market in Seaside. More suprising still, this wasn’t the hyped-and-postponed TGIF market at the City Center, this was a sudden 3-8pm Monday market at Fremont Boulevard’s University Plaza by Joe Aliotti, the guy behind the Salinas markets. Beyond produce, it enjoyed more meats than the Monterey markets, in addition to the crafts, bounce house and international foods where my ace scored the samosa. (See story, p. 11.)

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There’s a reason an average of 700 show for the Italian Catholic Federation-sponsored dinners at San Carlos Cathedral every Friday during Lent: It’s only $12 for fresh seafood from Monterey Fish Company – this Friday it’s fillet of petrale sole – plus pasta worthy of the homeland, salad, endless bread and coffee.

Of course, that’s not the only reason. Conversation is Italian-lively and far-ranging, happy kids canvas the campus (children 7-10 are half off, under 6 are free) and proceeds aid the SCC. Doors open at 4:45pm; take-out starts at 5pm; sit-down gets going at 5:30pm. 375-3666.

Across town, Carmel Mission’s Junipero Serra School is doing their own 6-9pm Friday, Feb. 26, eat-in or take out ($10/adult, $5/child 5-12, free/child under 5), 624-8322.

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First his clams made me happy. Now his fresh café is making the Grade. David Frappeia, late of the defunct-albeit-delightful Melange in Pacific Grove – where his sauces rivaled San Francisco’s best – and the Grill at Ryan Ranch, has what he wants again in sunny Chamisal’s new open-to-the-public Courtside Café (649-1135 x17) off Laureles Grade: his own kitchen.

I saw him at the AT&T Pro-Am weekend’s Clambake for a Cure, where he served baked littleneck clams on the half shell with diced toasted almonds (almost better than bacon), Italian parsley and lemon burré blanc – and said how good it was to be back in control. It’ll be interesting to see what he does in an atypical spot like that, adjacent to Chammy tennis courts, with a casual clubhouse-fireside lodge feel to the room and decks outside and above. Plus, as a triathlete, he’s in tune with an active pace of existence.

He authored an ambitious menu of wine flights at Melange; now he’s looking to do weekend wine dinners and feature local vinos. First up is Pessagno’s 2006 Pinot Noir. (There are also a handful of beers on tap.) The menu, meanwhile, still does club-style classics like sandwiches and nuggets, only now it’s a 6-inch grilled (and sustainable) sand dab sandwich with housemade tartar ($7.50) and nuggets ($4.50) from free range chickens. I’m thinking the all-natural soups ($3.95-$5.95), grilled ribeye Caesar ($12.50) and fresh Dungeness crab Louis ($16.95) will find some fans.

It’s open 10am-9pm weekdays (till 6pm weekends); access to the gyms, sauna, pool and courts, meanwhile, is $20, $10 with a member. Nice way to work up an appetite.

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A most nourishing local website sprouts at www.edibleparadise.com, where the Monterey Bay Certified Farmers Market family packs all sorts of sustenance onto one plate.

Just a peek reveals February’s “featured produce” is root vegetables, so chef Andrew Cohen rolls out recipes for baby beets glazed with orange, braised greens with shiitake mushrooms topped with baked fennel, and caramelized Tokyo turnips. Patti Bond weighs in with ways to make microgreen magic (“Ounce for ounce,” she writes, “microgreens provide more nutrients than any other natural food”), including spicy Asian pea shoot stir-fry. There’s also a list of market highlights for the month – sweet potatoes, shallots and mizuna mustard among them – and my favorite bite, Cohen’s pro prep tips for artichokes (and more recipes, like artichoke sourdough bisque), especially for ’choke fiends like me.

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PigWizard is prepping pork sausage with bacon, chanterelles, marsala and thyme for the Big Sur Chanterelle Festival and Cook-off; of course, with 14 other chefs, his spells are but the beginning. In my anticipation I skewed the dates in Edible last week – it is this Friday-Sunday Feb. 26-28, with the cookoff 1pm Saturday ($45) and packages like a Friday reception-Saturday cook-off $75, though the Saturday walk-talk-lunch is sold out, 667-0800, www.tastebigsur.com… Help the heroes at Ag Against Hunger by playing roulette, craps and Texas hold ’em Friday, Feb. 26, at D’Arrigo Cooler in Salinas. Strolling dinner, no host bar, silent auction, $65, 754-0716… And dat’s dat.