Kosherfest 2009 Social Media Highlights

Posted in Jewish Web, Kosher.com News, kashrut, social media

Flickr - 43 photos

Twitter - Hundreds of Tweets!

Yeshiva World News- PHOTOS: Thousands Attend KosherFest 2009 (including a number of shots of Kosher.com and our monster size kosher shopping cart!)

The Jewish Week - JInsider: 21st Century Kosher (Part 2)

Vos Iz Neias -

• Photos Highlighting The Best and Brightest
• 4000 at Opening Day of Kosherfest
• Pic of Kosher.com booth

JTA covers the event live (YouTube) - Breaking down the buzz over kosher food

The Cool Jew (includes videos) - TheCoolJew.com at Kosher Fest

Chowhound - 2009 Kosherfest Winners

The Gourmet Retailer - Kosherfest to Showcase Upscale Kosher Products

Slashfood - Innovative Nosh at Kosher Fest 2009

KosherToday - Kosher News from Around the World

The Jewish Journal - U.S. appetite for Israeli food grows

The Paramus Post - 21st Annual Kosherfest 2009

And a few great articles by Jamie Geller:

• Kosherfest: I came, I saw, I ate!
• Kosherfest: 5 New Finds
• Kosherfest: The Best of the Best

Have you seen other articles about Kosherfest that you enjoyed reading? We would love for you to add to the list below!

This Week on Kosher.com …

Posted in Kosher.com News, The Kosher Way

	Cooking Kosher on a Budget talks “rightovers,” an easy method for cooking ahead.
	Nutritious Delicious and Kosher expert Bonnie Taub-Dix offers 10 tips for better kids’ nutrition. Your kids will be healthier and you won’t have to hassle them in the process
	Hankering for a hunk of cheese? In Quick & Kosher Shopping, Jamie talks with Tim, our expert from Cappiello Cheese, about what’s new in the Cappiello line.
	In Your Kosher Questions Answered, it’s everything you ever wanted to know about egg substitutes … fascinating!
Plus, try these recipes:
	Lemon Chicken Stir-Fry brings zing to the plate, livening up your dinner hour.
	Spicy Szechuan Braised Meatballs get their zip from five-spice powder. Try some tonight.

Kosherfest: Best of the Best

Posted in Kosher.com News

This week I visited Kosherfest, the world’s largest kosher food show. Here are the products that the official panel voted best in class in the New Products Competition.  (They were judged on the basis of newness, quality, taste, saleability and retail price.) If you’re interested in these or any kosher food products, check us out at  Kosher.com. With 15,000 kosher food items including fresh meat and baked goods, we have something for everyone.

Kosherfest 2009 Best in Class Winners

• Best In Show - Luck Chen Asian Noodles (5 flavors)
• Best Baked Good, Bread, Grain or Cereal - Sarah’s Tent Potato Bourekas
• Best Beverage - True Toniq DBA Brain Toniq, Brain Toniq
• Best Cheese or Dairy - Get Healthy America Lasagna Florentine
• Best Dessert, Candy, Cookie or Cracker - Illinois Nut & Candy Smooth & Crunchy Peanut Butter Bark
• Best Food Service Product - Custom Candy Concepts, Inc, Picture Cookies
• Best Packaging/Design - True Toniq DBA Brain Toniq, 4-pack Brain Toniq
• Best Kosher Organic - Quality Frozen Foods Organic Batter Blaster
• Best Snack Food - Osem USA, Inc. Bamba Peanut Snack w/ Hazelnut Cream Filling
• Best Fine Food from Israel - Blue & White Foods LLC Falafel with Tehina Filling
• Best Giftware/Novelty - Kosherkeepers® by Plastic Packaging Corp Food Kosherkeepers® Food Storage Containers
• Best Jam, Preserve or Spread - Oxygen Imports Mixed Berry Blast
• Best Meat, Poultry or Seafood - Kosher Valley Chicken Breast Cutlets
• Best Wine, Beer or Spirit - The Natural Group/Kedem Elvi Sintonia Sangria
• Best Savory Condiment, Spice, Sauce, Oil, Vinegar or Dressing - Streit’s Matzos Asian Mel’s Gourmet sauce Line
• Best Passover Product - Zelda’s Sweet Shoppe Zelda’s Orange Chiffon Cake
• Best Health & Wellness - Green Rabbit, LLC MimicCreme Coffee Creamer
• Best Pasta, Rice, Bean or Soup - Luck Chen Asian Noodles

So that’s it. Plenty to keep us busy tasting and trying until Kosherfest 2010. You know I’ll be there!

Kosherfest: 5 New Finds

Posted in Kosher.com News

Kosherfest, which took place this week at the NJ Meadowlands,  is the the largest kosher food exhibition in the world. This was my first visit and will not be my last. There was an amazing collection of vendor showcases, cooking demos, and new food finds. (And did I mention you get to taste stuff?)

These are my top 5 finds from the show, in no particular order:

• OU certified glatt kosher organic baby food from a company called Petite Select.  What’s the big deal?  Take a look at these innovative flavors in infant cuisine: Arroz con Pollo, Shepherd’s Pie, and Mango Jamba!  A real chef (and real mom) created these and they’re delish.  In the coming days, I’ll post my video interview with her.  Her friend and business partner actually created a dessert called “The Smart Cookie” which is the antithesis of the Jessica-Seinfeld-style-sneak-pureed-beets-and-spinach-into-your-brownies kind of dessert.  These cookies are actually beet red and green, and your little ones will still love them.

• A sensational classic vinaigrette called Garlic Expressions from LaMar Foods. I didn’t get a chance to try it at the Kosherfest, but it got such raves that I took home a bottle.  First, I tasted it cautiously; then, I poured it all over my salad.  When I ran out of lettuce, I put the bowl to my lips.  I’m very picky about my salad dressing, people, and I tell you this one is an experience.

• MimicCrème ice cream mix is made from almonds and cashews.  (You actually make the ice cream yourself.) Before recommending it, I tasted the finished product—ten times—just to be sure.  I wouldn’t want to mislead you.

• A new soup with no MSG: Manischewitz Chicken Broth.  Though it’s a new product, it’s already a huge seller at Kosher.com.  (Check out my video interview with David Yale, prez of Manischewitz.  I’ll post it as soon as I can.)

• Israel’s famous Angel Bakery, which had a  booth the size of a small village, was a favorite stop.  The same parent company distributes bourekas to die for, as well as  Passover “pizza dough,” ” breads” and cakes (under the Eytan label).  It’s the solemn truth that I would eat these year round.  They also make cool vegetarian cutlet options, and a new line of Hungarian salamis that made this Hungarian gal go crazy for them.
• 

These were my favorites, folks. I’ll post the list of what the official panel voted best in class in the New Products Competition soon.

Kosherfest: I Came, I Saw, I Ate!

Posted in Kosher.com News

This week I went to Kosherfest at the NJ Meadowlands, that mega-food expo that lets professional foodies, industry types and just everyday folks savor the newest products.  It’s been going on annually for more than twenty years, but this was my first time there. What can I say, I’m hooked!  Picture two solid days with thousands of people tasting and sniffing, munching and crunching on tantalizing samples all day long.  And the aromas … out of this world.

We brought our giant Kosher.com cart with us, filled to the top and overflowing with as many of our 15,000 groceries as our creative and hard-working team could stuff into it. I got to meet face-to-face with so many people.  And, of course, I ate a ton of great food.  I’m told that there were more than 500 newly kosher certified foods introduced at the show. Hey, somebody had to try them all, right?  The hardest part of it was strategically planning the dairy options around meat.  I was glad I held off on the meat samples on the first day, because by the end of the day I craved my favorite dairy coffee beverage—J&J Iced Cappuccino.  It was set up water cooler style, with cups that you could fill to your heart’s content!

Kosher.com's Giant Cart Rolls into Kosherfest

While the eating was amazing, there’s serious food biz happening in Kosherfest’s  aisles.  I came across some amazing finds, like OU-certified organic baby food, “ice cream” made out of almonds and cashews and some out-of-this-world bakery innovations from Israel. Look for my next post to get all the deets!

This Week on Kosher.com …

Posted in Kosher.com News

	Cooking Kosher on a Budget shows you the 5 essential planning tips that make “making Shabbos” look easy!
	Nutritious Delicious and Kosher expert Bonnie Taub-Dix offers 10 tips for better kids’ nutrition. Your kids will be healthier and you won’t have to hassle them in the process
	Hankering for a hunk of cheese? In Quick & Kosher Shopping, Jamie talks with Tim, our expert from Cappiello Cheese, about what’s new in the Cappiello line.
	Your Kosher Questions Answered shows you why whole wheat flours aren’t only for the granola set.
Plus, try these recipes:
	Cheese & Spinach-Stuffed Portobellos combines a delicious blend of ricotta, spinach and Parmesan served in roasted portobello mushrooms. The dish works as an appetizer, side dish or lunch entrée.
	Roasted Cod with Warm Tomato-Olive-Caper Tapenade brings together the flavors of the Mediterranean in a fabulous dish fit for any table.

This Week on Kosher.com …

Posted in Kosher.com News, Uncategorized

	Eating Kosher on a Budget offers 10 strategies for fun budget-conscious Shabbat lunches.
	Nutritious Delicious and Kosher expert Bonnie Taub-Dix says skip the cleansing detox and choose “clean” foods instead.
	Quick & Kosher Shopping diva, Jamie Geller, talks with Kosher.com’s fish expert, Robbie, about snapper.
	Your Kosher Questions Answered demonstrate why whole wheat flours aren’t only for the granola set.
Plus, try these recipes:
	Avgolemono Soup is an easy Greek favorite that can be made from ingredients you have in the pantry and fridge. The soup combines chicken broth with rice, and is flavored with lemon and thickened with eggs. Think of it as kosher Greek penicillin.
	Cheese & Spinach-Stuffed Portobellos combines a delicious blend of ricotta, spinach and Parmesan served in roasted portobello mushrooms. The dish works as an appetizer, side dish or lunch entrée.

Avgolemono Soup

Posted in The Kosher Way

Watch me make Avgolemono Soup, an easy Greek favorite that combines chicken broth with rice. The soup is flavored with lemon and thickened with eggs. Avgolemono can usually be made from ingredients you have in the pantry and fridge. Think of it as kosher Greek penicillin.

Apple Country

Posted in Kosher.com News, The Kosher Way, green living

Quick & Kosher

One of the cool benefits of living way north of the GW Bridge and the Big Apple is that we are in real apple country. On a whim, we can take the kids to a local orchard not ten minutes from my house, and become one with nature. It feels just like the olden days—only back then, the farmers would pay hired hands to pick the apples, while we actually pay the farmers to please, please let us harvest their fruit.

With our toddlers in tow, it took the better part of a leisurely hour and a half to collect our bushel’s worth. There were all kinds of folks up in those trees. You can easily spot the real apple connoisseurs: they come equipped with a knife and magnifying glass—and they taste each variety, talk about it, inspect it, thumb their noses at subpar apples, and toss them to the ground disdainfully. I think they had fancy foreign accents too, but that could be my imagination working overtime.

Then there were plenty of families like mine. Our apple criteria were not quite the same as those snooty gourmets, but it was based on our own very strict checklist. To get into our basket, the apples must: 1) be reachable by someone smaller than three feet tall (there are only so many times Mommy and Daddy can pick you up), 2) have no soft spots and 3) have no worm holes.

So we picked our Granny Smiths and Romes, our Cortlands and Macintoshes, and we were on our way. It cost us 25 bucks for the experience—but honestly, I think we wound up with 50 pounds of apples. Back home, I started unpacking our produce and panic struck. HELP! What’s a gal who never baked an apple pie in her life to do with oodles and oodles of apples? OK— I can make Puff Pastry Apple Purses, and even my 4-year-old can help. Great! The Purses were super. Only 88 apples left.

I remembered that as a kid, one of my favorite treats was caramel apples. (I discovered a rocky road version—almost too fab for words.) I was all ready to fire up the caramel, when my other half interjected that it would be such a waste—he doesn’t like caramel apples.

I should have been able to predict this impasse. Since the day we got married and discovered that I’m into fish and salads and he’s all about meat and potatoes, we rarely relished the same meals. Why should we agree on apples?

The man wanted candy-coated apples. He yearned for candy-coated apples. It had something to do with his childhood, a day at the beach or the circus or something, a fight with his brother, a gift from his sister, I don’t know. All I knew was that a candy-coated apple would resolve a long-standing ache in his heart.

I put away the caramel. After all, I’m an adult. I can give up my caramel apple if it means that much to my husband. You know, I never thought I would enjoy the process, but we had such fun. I discovered that making candy-coated apples is a great activity to do with the kids, and we munched and crunched our way to family bliss!

The Easiest Post-Hakafot Bash Ever

Posted in Simchat Torah

Quick & Kosher

We did it last year, and we’re doing it again this year—hosting the last meal of Simchat Torah for half a dozen couples, along with their holiday guests, and their kids, and their kids’ guests, and their guests’ kids—at our house. As my Bubby would say, “keneyin hora” (loosely translated—”I never saw so many people packed into one house—they should live and be well.”), we’re talking about a BIG crowd. It all happens after Hakafot—when the kids are high on Torah songs and the adults are exhausted and hungry.

I wouldn’t mind if it becomes an annual tradition, though, because I try to keep this party as easy and informal as possible. Last year, we went with an Israeli-style buffet—falafel balls with mini-meatballs, chicken fingers, fries, and the prerequisite salad bar of Israeli cabbage salad, Israeli tomato & cuke salad, hummus, tahini, pickles, olives, and who knows what else.

This year, we’re going Mexican.

That means the buffet will feature hard tacos, soft tortillas and all the fixin’s for a do-it-yourself taco supremo—ground beef, chicken and peppers, refried beans, Spanish rice, shredded lettuce and diced tomatoes, soy faux sour cream, guacamole and salsa. Olé!

This kind of party takes the pressure off the hostess, takes the stuffiness out of the event and really relaxes all those involved. The worst thing is when your guests feel that they’ve put you out. But this type of soirée seems like a cinch to whip up—and it is. I don’t really follow any complicated recipes. I just sauté chicken with multicolored peppers and add some salt and pepper (with maybe a hint of paprika or cayenne.) As for the ground meat, I just use salt and pepper or a touch of Mexican taco seasoning. If you are a bit more ambitious,  try this delicious Latin American Picadillo (the name means “small bits and pieces”) made with ground beef, raisins, olives and a host of spices.

When my guests ask what they can bring, I say, “Yourself—and a dessert please.” To close friends, like my best bud Aliza, I might stoop to a threat: “You’re not allowed to set foot in my house without your Boston Cream Pie.” It is such a patchke (a major fuss, squared), but listen, Aliza’s parve Boston Cream Pie is out of this world! And that assessment is not just the craving of some crazy pregnant woman—it’s an objective fact! Just ask my other guests.