xxx Esther

PS The company delivering the organic box in Amsterdam is ‘De Krat‘, and in London I liked Abel&Cole.
PPS Cabbage recipe suggestions are very welcome!

My kids don’t need any prodding when it comes to eating fruit. They LOVE it! But when I made up these little apple cars after school yesterday, they went absolutely crazy for them. After gobbling them up, they insisted they make their own… so it ended up being a fun activity which took up a large portion of the afternoon. My kids were so impressed when they realised the cars actually go — the wheels (grapes) actually turn! Fun!

(This was another idea I spotted on Pinterest. I’m telling you — that site is soooo great!)

x Courtney

xxx Esther

xxx Esther

Shira is a mom who owns and operates a small cafe in my neighborhood.  Not only does she make delicious and healthy things like quinoa chocolate chip cookies, lentil and feta salads and hearty organic ten vegetable soups…but she also has a dark side.  Shira is a self proclaimed candy-addict and master chocolatier (and it’s true – I have seen her sneak a twizzler or two when her kids weren’t looking!).  Recently she rolled out these solid chocolate birthday candles that I thought were fabulous.  Such a simple idea to jazz up a plain frosted cake or a cupcake and she can customize the candle to whatever shape you need.  We all love to lick the frosting off our birthday cakes right?…so how much does it rock that we can now eat the candle!  New Yorkers should check out her website Goodie Girl for cute and easy ideas to jazz up a party.

The other day I cut open a pomegranate for a salad I was making, and my six-year-old gasped.  Apparently he’s never seen a pomegranate before and he was so intrigued! Before long there was a feeding frenzy of three children ripping apart the pomegranate trying to pick the seeds — all three kids loved them. We then pressed the seeds in a sieve and made juice… which they also loved. Who knew? Apparently pomegranates are really good for you, filled with vitamin C and loads of antioxidant properties. I think I’ll be buying more pomegranates from now on.  Does anyone have a great recipe which includes them? I was thinking of making ice lollies from the juice! I’ll let you know how that goes…

-Courtney

As a keen baker I’ve been reading about cake pops for a while, starting on one of my favourite blogs, Bakerella.  But tended to find it a bit of an American phenomenon with tricky to find ingredients over on this side of the pond (most recipes call for ‘candy melts’ to cover the balls which are something I’d never heard of before).  However we seem to be catching up — I have recently seen quite a few recipe books for Cake Pops, like this one by the Bakerella queen herself or this one which I recently had a flick through.  As for ingredients, candy melts are in fact easily available online, even Amazon sells them or good old Cakes, Cookies & Crafts, who also sell the white lollipop sticks for them.

I have given up cake for lent (boo!) so I will be trying my hand at actually making some after Easter and in the meantime I will try and avoid their tempting stare when I go into Starbucks!

-Mo. x

As my eldest goes to a German kindergarten, he and his friends will be celebrating Karnival today — going to kindergarten dressed up in their favourite fancy-dress (I think we can expect a fair few pirates, policeman and princesses!).

I love how our family combines the traditions from both our cultures — I think it is providing us with a very rich life and so I cannot let the day slip without what Shrove Tuesday always meant for me growing up …. pancakes!

Quite a few of my German friends, who will join us for pancakes, had never heard of our tradition before so I thought I better check out why it is we eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday?  Although our traditions seem quite different they stem from the same idea.  During Lent you would abstain from parties and celebrations and certain foods.  From what I can work out, in continental Europe the week before lent starts is all about extravagant celebration (hence the dressing up) knowing that there will be no more celebrations for 40 days.  Whilst here in the UK we focus on eating up all the foods in the house that will not be allowed during lent, typically fats, dairy and eggs — hence pancakes were made as they used up these ingredients.

We make thin pancakes — not so fine as the French but not so thick and fluffy as the American.  I am a big fan of sugar and lemon on my pancakes but I can have my arm twisted to share a Nutella and banana one — mmmmmm.  I’ve never braved making savoury pancakes, I leave those to the experts — my favourite is the cheese and mushroom one that the Le Creperie van in Hampstead makes.  If anyone is in Hampstead today you really should pop by the van for one of their crepes —  it would be rude not to on Pancake Day!

* Picture from Bowbrick.

Oh how I love macaroons, especially chocolate ones! They’re one of my many favourite things about visiting Paris. So imagine my delight when I learned about La Dinette — a cake delivery company in London set up by a French pastry artist. La Dinette delivers fresh cakes, macaroons, tarts, and cupcakes straight to your door — perfect for birthday parties, brunch with friends, or just to satisfy your sweet tooth. I have personally tested the macaroons and cupcakes… and they’re delicious!  Visit La Dinette for products and prices.

-Courtney

xxx Esther

Confession.  One of my daughters is completely addicted to chocolate milk.  What started so innocently as a special treat is now pleaded for (multiple million times) daily by the four-year-old junkie who lives in my house.  I usually cave to keep the peace. Thankfully, a while back I learned about this miracle powder made by Amazing Grass Kidz that offers a healthy, quick-mix version of chocolate milk!  The powder is organic, gluten-free and packed with 31 hidden fruits and veggies and I must tell you the taste comes pretty darn close to the real thing.  I weave it in a few times a week as an alternative to the “real thing” and she loves it (and trust me, she is a very tough customer).  You can find the brand at health food stores, Whole Foods or on-line.  It also comes in Berry flavor.

-Dina

If you are visiting Melbourne, the Gold Coast or Sydney check out locations here ! If you live elsewhere in the world and you are hankering for your own sampling of Igloo Zoo  — I apologize profusely for the tease!

- Sara

The summer in New York City has been brutal.  I’ve heard that it was the hottest July on record but August was pretty unbearable as well.  Meanwhile, I have been outdoors most of the time, forgetting to re-apply sunscreen and definitely not taking care of my hair which now is the consistency of straw.   So… the other day while sitting around making guacamole with a friend, she suggested I mash up an avocado, mush it around with an egg yolk and put it in my hair.  So next thing I know I am massaging in the green goop and wrapping my head in saran wrap (sexy!) and after sitting with it for 45 minutes I was shocked!  It really did give my hair a noticeable boost as it felt suddenly thicker and healthier.  I am going to do it with the kids because I think they would love it — especially after a summer of chlorinated pools!!!  I also hear that Mayo works well — I will try that next and let you know.
Just to recap: mash up avocado, mix in egg yolk,  apply to hair (more at the roots), sit for a bit, rinse it, done.

-Dina
(Image from For The Birds)

Now, I am still not convinced by the idea of frozen sushi, but a lot of their other products are great. There is a pureed vegetable range, frozen into perfectly sized tablets to defrost that the whole French population must be weaned on (these saved my life). The frozen fruit are great to have in the winter. And because we are, after all, still in France, you can stock up on foie gras, snails and mashed potatoes infused with truffle oil.

So next time you are anywhere in France do leave your prejudices behind and check out Picard, as I cannot think of a single French person who does not rave about it.

- Emilie

For the past few years my family has had the good fortune of spending a month living in London.   We are always quite sad to leave, but memories of London remain with us day to day via our much improved vocabulary, our deep appreciation for the BBC & Peppa Pig, and our proclivity for afternoon tea. You don’t often see children drinking tea in the states, however some of my friends love to serve their children chilled chamomile or herbal teas.  At first I thought it was a bit strange but now I think it’s a fantastic alternative for kids and at least one of my girls is catching on.   I found these German designed tea-bag cup loungers from Donkey Creative Labs and I think they are absolutely hilarious.  They come in all sorts of themes — mostly for adults — but I thought they were so cute I just had to share.

-Dina

I think I only discovered the beauty of beetroot in my thirties. If I am not mistaken, when I was a kid, beetroot used to come out of a tin and had the texture of a wet piece of Styrofoam. Now that I have started buying fresh beetroot and have learned to roast or steam it, I have developed a new appreciation for this vegetable. Plus, my kids love it… though that might have more to do with the fact that I told them that their pee would turn pink if they ate loads. (This is very exciting if you happen to be four years old). So here are a couple of things that I have started making with beetroot…

1. I roasted them for an hour in olive oil and a bit of lemon juice and balsamic vinegar in the oven with a garlic clove or two and I then served them as a side dish garnished just with a bit of parsley.

2. I steamed them and then grated them with carrots and made a great salad with a vinagrette sauce. The purple of the beetroot simply looked great mixed in with the orange colour of the carrots.

3. I put a bit of a twist on hummous (I am sure a houmous purist would not be happy) and blended a steamed beetroot with a can of chickpeas, olive oil, a clove of garlic, some lemon juice and a couple of teaspoons of tahini. As you can imagine my pink crazed girls went crazy when they ate pink houmous.

4. I remembered Esther’s red beet salad and made it and it was delicious. I think it is a northern European way of eating beetroot, as I remember it being served in Germany too when I was a kid.

5. With my new-found homemakers enthusiasm I even steamed the beetroot leaves and served them up as a spinach alternative, though I have to say this dish was not the hit of the evening.

Please do let me know if you have any other ideas of how to eat beetroot. I would love to widen my repertoire.

- Emilie

P.S. The photo is of some vegetables we had freshly picked in the country with the beetroot taking centre stage in the middle of the picture.

I remember as a kid I came home during lunch break and my mum sent me to the neighbours (who had a strawberry farm) with a very little amount of money and I came back with a wooden crate filled to the top with strawberries — the reddest, sweetest, biggest and tastiest variety you can imagine. Before I came home I had eaten about a third, for lunch we had another third (on bread, with a little sugar), and the rest was eaten with yogurt for desert. Bliss.
Last week, in my father-in-law’s Mr. McGregor-like garden I picked a generous amount of raspberries, and quickly made raspberry jam (my favourite ever jam)! And yesterday I picked the few redberries from our neighbour’s shrub that came peeping through the hedge, and made blue redberry muffins of them. I just love berry season! Can’t wait for the blackberries to be ripe (blackberry jam is my second favourite jam)…

Have you been eating berries? Any good recipes to share??

xxx Esther

P.S. That cute cutting board is from Tas-Ka

Interestingly, Vegemite came about as a substitute for Marmite when supplies ran out in Australia during the war. It’s made from yeast leftover from the beer brewing process… but don’t get excited, it isn’t alcoholic! Also, it tastes quite different to Marmite, at least according to its most ardent fans.

My personal favorite is eating Vegemite on toast with lashings of avocado — really so good! And I have friends who swear by adding it to gravy and soups. It also goes really well with rosemary, honey and wholegrain mustard to make a tasty barbeque marinade for meat, fish or veggies. And Cheesymite scrolls from bakery chain ‘Bakers-Delight’ are just beyond scrumptious, especially if  you are lucky enough to score one just as they are leaving the oven.

Now if all this salty Vegemite talk is making you either peckish (like it is me) or just plain curious, you can always order a jar of your very own here.

ps. One more thing — on crackers, Vegemite is a great remedy for morning sickness!

- Sara

Bear was started by personal trainer, Hayley, last year in an attempt to find a tasty alternative to chocolate, biscuits and treats — clearly a lady with my needs in mind!  She chose the name ‘Bear’ after she read an article which said that bears who had found their way into cities and therefore foraged for foods in bins behind fast-food joints ended up being 30% fatter and 30% less active then their wild counter-parts.  They also died younger.

So Bear produce all their nibbles as nature intended — no fiddling, no air-freight fruit and fairly-traded.  You can buy Bear goodies through Ocado.

-Mo. x

1.  So easy to make!
2.  Makes delicious dessert when served with yogurt, ice-cream or whipped cream.
3.  Stores in the fridge for ages (well at least a week/10 days) so is a great fall-back for unexpected visitors.
4.   It’s fabulously pink (and looks great in one of those old-fashioned jars!)
5.  Soooo in season (that is Rhubarb but I hear pink is too).

The recipe is based on Nigella Lawson’s Rhubarb Fool from her book ‘Forever Summer’, which I have been making for years now.  But it wasn’t until I left it  in the oven for too long that  I came across my own version of it…

Leaving it in the oven for longer didn’t burn it to a frizzle like I had feared, but made the rhubarb a bit thicker and more jam-like than the recipe.  I jarred it and put it in the fridge and used it later, dolloping it onto vanilla ice-cream for an easy last-minute dessert. It was fantastic and (I felt) even better for its slightly thicker consistency.

To make this big jar pictured I used:

-almost 2 kilos of rhubarb (it was on special offer)
-600g caster sugar
-a vanilla pod

Cut the rhubarb into rough chunks and place in an oven proof dish.  Cover with the sugar and the seeds from the vanilla pod. Cover with foil and bake in the oven at 190° (gas mark 5).  For a saucier version bake for 1 – 1.5 hours, and for a jammier consistency leave in for up to 2 hours.

Lakeland sells Le Parfait preserving jars like this one but my absolute favourite jars are by Weck, a German based canning company.  They are easy to buy direct from Weck in the States but tricky to find over here — thankfully Toast mailorder has just started to stock a small range.

Mo. x

For a printable version of this recipe, click here.