Time to Pick Your Own Strawberries in NJ

BY  |  Monday, May 20, 2013 12:00pm  |  COMMENTS (0)

Pick Your Own Strawberries

It’s the season to pick your own strawberries and other berries! Strawberry picking begins in late May/early June and lasts till the end of June or early July. Blueberries are available mid-June and raspberries are available starting in August. Instead of buying your berries in a plastic container, take a day trip to a farm that lets you pick your own. Of course you can get delicious berries at your local farmer’s market too, but picking them is a family event.

Beside juicy berries, these farms offer a variety of family activities. Playgrounds, pony rides, picnic tables, and wagon rides are some of the things you will find to make the kids happy.

Here is a list of pick-your-own farms:

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Celebrate National Chocolate Chip Day

BY  |  Wednesday, May 15, 2013 10:30am  |  COMMENTS (0)

National Chocolate Chip DayChocolate chips—little morsels of goodness. Today is the day to celebrate them, because it’s National Chocolate Chip Day.

Of course they are most famously used in chocolate chip cookies, but they are good in so many other things. My kids think I’m the best mom ever when I make them Chocolate Chip Pancakes. And Banana Bread gets a boost when you add chocolate chips in it. Of course there’s nothing better than a good chocolate chip cookie. I like them crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, bursting with gooey chocolate chips.

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Plant it Forward—Wanted: Youth Farmers to Grow a Bumper Crop

BY  |  Tuesday, May 14, 2013 1:00pm  |  COMMENTS (0)

Youth Farmers

If you know any youngsters who are yearning for the country life, then here is their chance to get their hands dirty and grow organic produce that will benefit many people in our community.

This year Essex County 4-H’s farm program has expanded from the community garden on Miller Street to an additional new site on Orange Road and it needs youth farmers. It houses a chicken coop as well as a large garden. It is a joint partnership with the Montclair Historical Society who have provided the land and water supply.

The 4-H youth farming initiative began at a community garden in Montclair on Miller Street in 2011. Using the expertise of Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station youth farmers grew nearly 500 lb of produce that was donated to lower income residents in our community and sold at an affordable farm stand in Montclair. Check out the fun video below made by the talented Emmanuela Mujica, who also ran the Miller Street program:

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Mini Cheesecakes for Shavuot

BY  |  Tuesday, May 14, 2013 9:00am  |  COMMENTS (1)

Mini CheesecakesShavuot is a Hebrew word meaning “weeks” and refers to the Jewish festival marking the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai which will be celebrated on May 15 and 16.

Judith Jaffe, Director of Congregational Learning at Shomrei Enumah in Montclair, shares a bit about the tradition and a delicious mini-Cheesecake recipe.

Shavuot, like so many other Jewish holidays began as an ancient agricultural festival, marking the end of the spring barley harvest and the beginning of the summer wheat harvest. Shavuot was distinguished in ancient times by bringing crop offerings to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. One of the most popular customs on Shavuot is to eat dairy foods such as cheesecake, cheese, blintzes and ice cream.

At Congregation Shomrei Emunah’s Jewish Learning Center, our students baked mini cheesecakes to help celebrate this important and delicious Shavuot:

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Food Allergy Awareness Week

BY  |  Monday, May 13, 2013 11:00am  |  COMMENTS (0)

food allergy awareness

In honor of Food Allergy Awareness Week, we’ve put together a round up of our articles and resources dealing with food allergies:

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What’s for Dinner?: Rhubarb & Strawberry Compote and Good Old Rhubarb Crumble

BY  |  Monday, May 13, 2013 8:00am  |  COMMENTS (0)

rhubarb and strawberry compoteIn my last What’s for Dinner? column, I suggested some daikon radish recipes in order to deal with the surplus you may have found in your CSA box. We now find ourselves in rhubarb season, presenting us with a similar if not sharper and sweeter problem. For those of you with rhubarb coming out of your ying-yang—or more likely your veggie box—then these recipes are for you.

I love rhubarb, but as it needs cooking before eating, it tends to accumulate in my fridge. Rhubarb pie—the go-to option—requires some planning, so I have two simple rhubarb recipes to share with you:

The first, a Rhubarb and Strawberry Compote recipe, is a favorite in our house as these two fruits are just meant to go together. The second is simple short cut to crumble-heaven, a recipe for Rhubarb Crumble.

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Celebrate Mother’s Day Like an Iron Chef—Cat Cora

BY  |  Friday, May 10, 2013 11:00am  |  COMMENTS (0)

Cat CoraMaybe you’ve seen Iron Chef Cat Cora on TV, donning her chef’s jacket and battling it out in Kitchen Stadium. Or perhaps you’ve nibbled on some Greek meze at her popular Walt Disney World dining spot, Kouzzina. She also has a new iPad app, is a cookbook author, has her own line of cookware, and started a philanthropic charity, Chef’s for Humanity.

Oh, and she and her partner are also the proud parents of four boys, ages 9 and under.

As the mom of only one boy 9 and under, with not even close to an Iron Chef’s capabilities (I’m more like the tin chef, although I do make a mean brownie), I was starting to feel more than a little inadequate when I met the charming chef last week as she received the Resident Mom of the Year award at Manhattan’s Residence Inn by Marriott.

But the down-to-earth chef puts her job as Mom first: “There’s no higher accomplishment than being a mom,” says Cora. “I truly believe that moms are unsung heroes.”

And to make a mom’s job just a bit easier as Mother’s Day approaches, Cora shared her tips for healthy family meals to make at home or on the road, and Iron Chef tips for even novice cooks.

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Kids Milk and Cookie Baking Competition: And the Winners Are….

BY  |  Monday, May 06, 2013 1:00pm  |  COMMENTS (2)

Yesterday, Take Back the Kitchen’s first annual Kids Milk and Cookie Baking Competition took place at MontclairTV34 studio. Sponsored by King Arthur Flour Company and Five Acre Farms, who donated milk, the event was designed to include kids who are often excluded from bake sales because of allergies and sensitivities: vegan, gluten free and whole wheat categories. It also raised funds for Toni’s Soup Kitchen with the recipe submissions.

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What’s for Dinner?: Two Ways to Enjoy Daikon Radishes

BY  |  Sunday, Apr 28, 2013 8:00am  |  COMMENTS (3)

Daikon

A friend of mine went away for spring break and let me have her CSA share in her absence. A CSA, Community Supported Agriculture: a system whereby you sign up for a box of vegetables from local farmers and growers, has been around for a while especially around Baristaville.

I love the surprise of opening the box and figuring exactly what fresh produce is in there and then planning what to cook with it. It’s a bit like the “quickfire” round in Top Chef: “you have 25 minutes to make something with these four ingredients…”

While I always know what to do with predictable produce such as kale, broccoli, squash or potatoes, I’m occasionally flummoxed by the sometimes random contents that you find in a veggie box. In this particular case it was a daikon, a long white radish. At first I thought it was a squash or a parsnip but it turned out to be a daikon. I know—I’d never heard of one either.

So last week’s challenge was figuring out how to get the kids to eat said daikons so they would not end up in the compost bin.

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Meet the Author in Montclair: Casey Barber, Classic Snacks Made from Scratch

BY  |  Wednesday, Apr 24, 2013 8:00am  |  COMMENTS (0)

Classic Snacks Made from Scratch: 70 Homemade Versions of Your Favorite Brand-Name TreatsCasey Barber, author of Classic Snacks Made from Scratch: 70 Homemade Versions of Your Favorite Brand-Name Treats, will be at Watchung Booksellers on Saturday, April 27.

Classic Snacks Made From Scratch is a collection of your childhood favorite treats, but without the unpronounceable chemical additives. Casey shared her recipe for Homemade Animal Crackers with Barista Kids here.

Casey will be sharing samples of two family favorites—homemade Goldfish crackers and Twinkies—at the signing.

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