FarmVille: Support the victims of Hurricane Sandy by donating now

In an effort to show support for those impacted by Hurricane Sandy, FarmVille developer Zynga has partnered with Direct Relief International to allow players a chance to donate their real money to help those in need. This comes via another installment of the "give one get one" feature that we've seen time and time again over the past few months, as players can purchase items to send to their friends, with 100% of the purchase price going to Direct Relief International.

To be specific, players can now send a Skyline Unicorn to their friends for $1 each. You can access this feature by clicking on the appropriate icon on the right side of the screen, or by clicking on the picture of this unicorn within the store. From there, you can choose one of six neighbors to send a Skyline Unicorn to, or you can close the window and open it again in order to refresh the selection of available neighbors.

If you send at least one Skyline Unicorn to a friend, you'll receive an exclusive Skyline Tree for yourself. Remember, Zynga will donate all of the purchase price from each and every Skyline Unicorn purchased through this event, so feel free to send more than one to neighbors, until you've reached the amount of money that you would personally like to donate. Just make sure to donate fast, as your chance to do so via this event likely won't be available for long.

FarmVille 2: Three southwestern recipes add spice to your farm

Along with the series of limited edition Southwestern Spice items that have been released in FarmVille 2 this week comes a trio of new recipes that can be prepared in your farm's Crafting Kitchen. There are new recipes relating to both of the new trees, along with the new crop, and we're here with a look at how these can be crafted, and whether they're ultimately worth the resources in the end.

First things first, the Spicy Queso dish is created using four Cheeses and 10 Habanero Peppers each. Habanero Peppers can each be sold for only 21 coins, and since Cheese can be earned for free from animals on your farm, the fact that the a single Spicy Queso can be sold for 1,680 coins is definitely exciting.

The next two recipes deal with the two Southwestern Spice trees that cost Farm Bucks to purchase. That being the case, you'll need to either invest the Farm Bucks in these trees yourself to earn their "fruits" or will need to have friends that purchase them and then hope to receive these foods when you visit and tend their farms. The first recipe is the Desert Fresca, which is produced using eight Yucca Fruits and two Sugar each. Sugar itself can be earned by asking your friends to send it to you, and a single Desert Fresca can be sold for 1,850 coins.

Finally, the third of these new recipes is the Pinion Bread, which requires 10 Pinions and two Flour to create. Even though Flour itself requires Wheat to craft, a single Wheat can only be sold for 90 coins, so using the Wheat in this final product is much more cost effective. This is especially true if you're simply interested in purchasing every single tree in FarmVille 2, so you'll have dozens of Pinion around either way. A single Pinion Bread can be sold for 2,310 coins.

Again, if you don't want to purchase these trees, you can visit your neighbors and hope to get lucky, but otherwise, you just might have to skip out on these final two recipes altogether. If additional recipes launch that use these items, we'll make sure to let you know.