Mark your calendars for The Kids Food Festival, an annual event that teaches kids and their parents the art of healthy eating in a fun, non-preachy way.

Given the growth of Americans’ girth, we can never have enough opportunities to re-enforce how to make balanced food choices and create good lifelong eating habits.

When kids are immersed in enjoyable activities, they absorb information more effectively. Families will cook, laugh and taste their way to making balanced food choices!

Festivities include hands-on cooking classes in collaboration with the James Beard Foundation, family-friendly entertainment and activities, and lots of tastings. It’s a great outing.
 
 
WHEN & WHERE

Head to the World Trade Center the weekend of May 12th and 13th.

May 13th is Mother’s Day; what would please Mom more than a lively way for the family to learn better food choices?

Get your forks ready for a weekend full of flavorful fun!

General admission is free; hands-on cooking classes are $25.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT KIDSFOODFESTIVAL.COM.

The Kids Food Festival supports the American Heart Association and their initiatives to improve kids’ health.
 
 
WANT TO VOLUNTEER?

The Kids Food Festival is seeking volunteers and interns for culinary and administrative assignments.

Opportunities include assisting chefs during cooking demonstrations, assisting children during hands-on cooking classes, prep work, general event production and more.

Email VolunteerOutreach@KidsFoodFestival.com.

[2] Hugh Jackman’s Laughing Man Coffee (photo courtesy Green Mountain).

[3] Green Mountain’s Kenya Highlands single origin coffee (photo courtesy Green Mountain).

[4] and [5] Javamelts flavored sugar tablets, individually wrapped for easy portability, in 24-packs or this gift box (photos courtesy Javamelts).

It’s “coffee week” at THE NIBBLE. We have a new coffee brewer, new K-cups, new flavored sugars, and delight in all of them.
 
 
1. KEURIG K-ELITE SINGLE SERVE COFFEE BREWER

Our brother, who doesn’t drink coffee and needs it only for an occasional visitor, watched me make a cup with my Keurig single-cup brewer.

“Should I get one of these,” he, who serves guests instant coffee, asked?

Sold! Or actually, given: I gave him my two-year-old Keurig and traded up to the latest model, the Keurig K-Elite (photo #1).

It has all the features of the last model, with new options such as a Strong Brew setting and an extra brew size, 12 ounces, for travel mugs.

You can adjust the temperature to make the water hotter; and on the other end of the spectrum, there’s an Iced Setting for people who want to direct-brew iced coffee. It brews to a strength that doesn’t get diluted when you add ice.

We spent many years grinding and brewing our own beans, even though we only drank one or two cups of coffee. With all the K-cup options available today, we’re Keurig converts!

Check out the details and buy it online.
 
 
2. LAUGHING MAN COFFEE

Actor Hugh Jackman likes coffee, and also likes social missions. As co-founder of Laughing Man Coffee (photo #2), his mission to deliver premium coffee and give back to the farmers who produce it.

The Fair Trade-certified brand was founded in 2011 following a trip to Ethiopia where Jackman met a young coffee farmer named Dukale. Inspired by his perseverance and optimism in what is a hard life, Jackman moved to help improve the lives of coffee farmers.

He developed the Laughing Man brand with Keurig Green Mountain, and contributes 100% of his profits to the Laughing Man Foundation, an organization that supports coffee farming communities with programs that abet healthcare, education and housing for coffee farmers and their families.

The coffee is available bagged and in K-cups, which are in recyclable plastic. All four varieties are made from premium 100% Fair Trade Certified arabica coffee that is carefully harvested by hand.

 
Now it’s your turn, to make every cup you drink contribute to social good. Get Laughing Man at Keurig.com, and consider buying some as gifts for your Hugh Jackman-loving friends.

Who doesn’t love Hugh Jackman?

The line is certified kosher by OU.
 
 
3. GREEN MOUNTAIN SINGLE ORIGIN KENYA HIGHLANDS COFFEE

We’ve been enjoying a box of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Single Origin Kenya Highlands Coffee (photo #3), which we received to sample.

Kenyan coffee is often described as bold, big and juicy, with excellent acidity. Some tasters find notes of blackcurrant, or call it winey (both excellent flavors).

Green Mountain’s Single Origin cooperatives and farms employ progressive farm management principles, and have a direct supply chain relationship with Green Mountain Coffee (i.e., no middlemen cutting into the farmers’ profits).

The coffee is also Fair Trade Certified, meaning that small farmers are paid a fair price for their beans, enabling them to invest in the quality of their coffee and quality of life for their families and communities.

It’s the most socially-conscious way to buy Kenyan coffee: While the volcanic-soil highlands yield some of the best coffee in the world, Kenya’s coffee farmers are among the poorest (source).

You can find the Kenya Highlands coffee on Amazon and Costco Online.

If you like flavored coffee, you can carry it with you at all times—in the form of Javamelts, individually-wrapped flavored sugar cubes (actually, they’re rectangles—photos #4 and #5).

They’re an innovative and convenient new way to flavor and sweeten coffee (or tea), in four flavors:

 
A Javamelt turns any plain cup of coffee into flavored, sweetened coffee with just a few more calories than a level teaspoon of table sugar: 20 calories apiece.

They’re gluten-free, dairy free, and very giftable to anyone who likes flavored coffee. We’re giving them as party favors for Mother’s Day.

You can buy samplers, assorted flavors and gift boxes (photo #5), at Javamelts.com.

With coloring more like a Gala apple than a bell pepper, the Enjoya pepper has a rosy red striping over a canary yellow background.

They are a new bell pepper cultivar. In 2013, Wilfred van den Berg, a Dutch grower, found this beautiful mutant variety pepper on a plant in his greenhouse.

He partnered with a group of other greenhouse growers to develop the strain and produce enough volume of the quality to sell commercially.

Melissa’s, purveyor of the most special produce on earth, has imported these lovelies from The Netherlands.
 
 
HOW TO USE ENJOYA BELL PEPPERS

Enjoya peppers are pleasantly sweet, very crunchy, crisp and a bit juicy.

The variety is denser than other peppers, each one weighing a hefty three-quarters of a pound.

Enjoya bell peppers. Yes, you will enjoya them (photos courtesy Melissas.com).

Orden them online from Melissa’s or phone 1.800.588.0151.
 
 
BELL PEPPER HISTORY

Peppers (Capsicum annuum), both sweet and hot, are native to Central and South America.

They are members of the Nightshade family, which also includes eggplant, potatoes and tomatoes—all native to the Americas.

Peppers have been cultivated for more than 9,000 years. The earliest fossils to date are from southwestern Ecuador, dating to about 6,100 years ago (source).

Christopher Columbus found peppers of different varieties growing in the West Indies, where he famously landed in 1492. Seeds were sent back to Spain in 1493, and from there peppers spread to Europe and Asia.

The bell pepper, also known as sweet pepper and in the U.K., capsicum, is the only cultivar in the Capsicum annum genus that has no capsaicin, the heat-causing chemical compound.

Bell peppers are plump and somewhat bell-shaped, with either three or four lobes. Green and purple peppers have a slightly bitter flavor, while the red, orange and yellow varieties are sweeter.

Artisan growers of the fruits* grow even more colors, including brown, lavender and white…and now, with the Enjoya, striped!

Who knows when the next beautiful mutant color may pop up in a greenhouse.

Today, China is the world’s largest bell pepper producer, followed by Mexico, Turkey, Indonesia and the United States (source).
 
 
FOOD TRIVIA

Pepper gets its name from the Greek word for pepper, pipéri. However, that word refers to the black peppercorns from India, Piper nigrum, not the Capsicum annuum chiles of the New World.

The erroneous attribution descends from Christopher Columbus, who, upon first tasting hot chiles, equated them to the spicy black peppercorns he knew.
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*Yes, peppers are fruits: Their seeds are carried inside.

[2] Tricolor olive Martini garnish.

Save the peels after you juice citrus fruits, put them in freezer bags, and you’ll have an instant cocktail garnish for savory or sweet drinks.

We especially like this tricolor peel presentation (we actually eat the peels, too—a tasty nibble).

 
The cocktail in photo #1 is a Pisco Yuzo Apéritif, developed for Earth Day. It has an international theme: pisco from Peru, Lillet from France and yuzu juice from Japan.

Combine them in a 2:1:1/4 ratio.
 
 
BONUS TIP: OLIVE MARTINI GARNISH

For all who love multiple olives in their Martinis, here’s another tip from The Skylark (photo #2).

They call it “a redhead, a blonde and a brunette walk into a cocktail.”

This is not gender-related comment. All humanity comprises redheads, blondes and brunettes.

Tartine is the French word for an open-faced sandwich with a rich spread or fancy topping.

The word actually refers to a slice of bread. Tartine is the French diminutive of the Old French and Middle English tarte, derived from the Late Latin torta, a type of bread*.

We have a childhood recollection of a variety of tartines served in the ladies’ lunch rooms our grandmother frequented. Eaten with a knife and fork, they were a favorite in those more gracious times.

But beyond encountering the occasional open-face roast beef or turkey sandwich smothered with gravy, open face sandwiches are no longer in fashion in the U.S.

Slapping another slice of bread on top of the ingredients for a conventional sandwich (thank you, Earl Of Sandwich) is more American: faster and more convenient to eat. Who needs elegance?

Tartines remain a traditional sandwich type in the Nordic countries: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Poland, Russia and Scandinavia, where they are eaten at breakfast, lunch, dinner or as a snack.

Inspired by this recipe from Vermont Creamery, we suggest weekend brunch of Egg Tartines, with seasonal asparagus and pea shoots.
 
 
RECIPE: POACHED EGG TARTINE

Ingredients For 4 Tartines

 
For The Asparagus

 
For The Herbed Crème Fraîchee

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Prepare a bowl of ice water and set aside.

2. TOSS asparagus with oil and salt and spread out in a single layer on the baking sheet. Roast until tender, about 10 minutes.

3. PLACE the eggs in a medium saucepan and cover with cool water. Place pan over high heat and bring to a boil. Cover, remove the pan from the heat, and it let sit exactly 5 minutes. Transfer eggs to the ice water and allow to chill for 10 minutes.

[2] We’re big fans of Vermont Creamery’s luxurious crème fraîche. Here’s more about crème fraîche (pronounced krem fresh).

[3] You’re familiar with pea pods, which hold the round peas in side. The pods grow off stems; the stems and tendrils are just delicious as the peas. They can be eaten cooked or raw in a salad or as a garnish (photo courtesy Starling Farm).

5. TOAST the bread. While it is toasting…

6. COMBINE the crème fraîche, thyme, chives, parsley, lemon zest, and pepper in a medium bowl. Spread it generously over the toasted bread, then top each slice with asparagus, pea shoots, and a soft-boiled egg.

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*Both tarte/tart and torta have evolved to mean other foods in English.

†If you can’t find crème fraîche, you can make your own or substitute Greek yogurt.