February 27th is National Strawberry Day.

What better activity than to make these luscious strawberry cake pops from Lauryn Cohen of BellaBaker.com.

If you’ve never made cake pops but think they’d fit in with family and entertaining, there’s a fool-proof appliance to make round balls of cake: the Babycakes Pop Maker.

There are several cake pops recipe books to help you become an artist. This recipe book has 175 different recipes/designs.

If you like to decorate, you’ll be set for many hours of food fun.

How about something special for National Strawberry Day (February 27th): strawberry salsa.

In addition to serving with tortilla chips, strawberry salsa is delicious over grilled chicken, fish or pork.

This recipes was adapted from TasteOfHome.com. You can customize it by adding other fruits to the strawberries. Mango, grapes, pineapple, pomegranate arils and stone fruits are a few options.

TIP: Wear disposable gloves when cutting and seeding hot chiles; then clean the cutting board and knife, wash your gloved hands and dispose of the gloves. Accidentally touching your eye with the most minute amount of capsaicin fom the chile is an experience you never want to have.
 
 
RECIPE: STRAWBERRY SALSA

Ingredients

 
Preparation

[2] Fresh strawberries make delicious salsa (photo © Good Eggs).

2. SERVE with chips or as a protein garnish.
 
Variations

Native to China and now grown throughout Southeast Asia (plus the U.S. and elsewhere), the kumquat is a tiny citrus fruit that is entirely edible, skin and all. The orange flesh is juicy, acidic and tart (some varieties have are more tart than others). The skin is fragrant and sweet.

Kumquats grow on small trees or bushes. They looking like wee, oval oranges, the size and shape of a large olive.

The word “kumquat” comes from the Cantonese kin kü, meaning golden orange. The earliest historical reference appears in China in the 12th century.

The tiny fruits were introduced to Europe in 1846 by Robert Fortune, a collector for the London Horticultural Society. Not long after, they arrived in North America, and found a happy growing ground in Florida.

People who have never tried kumquats may look at them in the produce aisle, wondering what to do with them. As a citrus fruit, they work wherever other citrus fruits are employed. You don’t peel them or juice them, but serve them halved, sliced or whole. Some opportunities:

Here are dozens of kumquat recipes from Kumquat Growers of Florida—from kumquat ice cream to kumquat tea to kumquat cranberry relish.
 
Kumquat recipes from THE NIBBLE:

 
A final idea: halved kumquats, topped with cream cheese and pepper jelly, as an hors d’oeuvre or tea time snack.
 
BUYING & STORING KUMQUATS

Look for firm, blemish-free fruit with a fresh scent. Avoid kumquats with green skins—they aren’t ripe and won’t ripen off the vine.

You can refrigerate kumquats whole for up to one month, in a plastic storage bag. Freezing is not recommended.

You may have read last week that the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee released its 2015 report. The Committee urges Americans to eat less processed meat and turn to plant-based diets for a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle.

Remember Meatless Mondays? If you’re not already observing them, here’s a nudge via a delicious recipe for net Monday. It uses tempeh, a meat substitute made from soybeans.

 
TEMPEH VS. TOFU: THE DIFFERENCES

Tempeh is a soy-based product that originated in Indonesia, where it is a staple protein. It is made by a natural culturing and a controlled fermentation process that binds soybeans into a cake form, similar to a very firm vegetarian burger patty.

Like tofu, tempeh is made from soybeans, but it is a whole soybean product with different nutritional characteristics and textural qualities. It has a higher content of protein, dietary fiber, and vitamins.

Tempeh has a firm texture and an earthy flavor, and is used worldwide as a meat substitute.

> A recipe for Asian Noodle Bowl With Tempeh is below.

 
How Do They Differ From Seitan?

Seitan is made from wheat gluten. Like tempeh, it is high in protein with a texture similar to meat,
 
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*Soy milk in turn is made from dried, ground, filtered and boiled soybeans.

This delicious recipe can be served as a main course or a first course. It makes two main courses or four first courses or wraps.

The recipe is courtesy of Lightlife, which used its organic soy tempeh.

Ingredients

For The Sweet & Sour Sauce

 
For The Tempeh Noodles

Preparation

1. PREPARE sauce; set aside.

2. PLACE the noodles in large bowl. Pour boiling water over the noodles to cover. Let stand for about 10 minutes or until softened. Rinse with cold water; squeeze to drain well.

3. CUT the noodles in half or thirds; return noodles to the bowl. Add the sesame oil; toss until evenly coated. Set the noodles aside. Meanwhile…

4. HEAT 1 tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat in medium-heavy skillet. Add half of the tempeh in a single layer. Cook for 2-3 minutes, or until golden and crisp, turning the pieces over halfway during cooking. Transfer to a medium bowl. Repeat with another tablespoon of the oil and the remaining tempeh. Pour half of the sauce over the tempeh; toss to coat and set the tempeh aside.

5. ADD the remaining teaspoon of oil to the hot skillet, along with the bell pepper, carrot, green onions and snow peas. Cook and stir about 1 minute or until crisp-tender. Transfer to the bowl with the noodles. Add the tempeh mixture; gently toss until combined.

6. SERVE: Spoon the noodle mixture into individual bowls and drizzle with the remaining sauce. Garnish with basil, cilantro, or sesame seeds.
 
Variation: Asian Noodle Wraps with Seared Tempeh

Serve the tempeh in lettuce leaf wraps.

1. PREPARE the noodle mixture as directed above.

2. SPOON about 1/2 cup of the noodle mixture onto each of 12 large leaf or iceberg lettuce leaves; fold or roll up. Serve with remaining sauce for dipping. Makes about 12 wraps or 4 servings.

For more delicious tempeh recipes, head to Lightlife.com.
 
 

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Our recent daily tips have included vegetables to cure the winter doldrums. That goes for fruits, too.

Take the Uniq fruit, wrinkled and rough with splotchy coloring and surface scarring. Its skin is wrapped very loosely over the pulp. It’s the shar-pei of fruits.

But Uniq tastes delicious: a cross of grapefruit and tangelo, a refreshing citrus taste that’s very juicy. It looks like a grapefruit’s great-grandfather (no disrespect, great-granddad). It has been sold under the brand name Ugli fruit since 1934.

And its thick, loose skin makes it much easier to peel than other citrus fruit.

It’s now in season. You can find the fruits ranging in size from a large orange to a large grapefruit, the color ranging from yellow mottled with lime green to darker green to light orange. You can smell the fragrance through the peel.

If you can’t find it locally, you can order the fruit from Melissas.com.
 
MORE FRUIT IN SEASON

Keep your eyes peeled for: