Pig Island - Pig Pick Up

This was the scene at the Union Square Greenmarket at the annual pig pick up for the Pig Island on Governor's Island event happening this Saturday, September 1.  Autumn's Harvest Farm had a truck load of their pigs to distribute to some of the best chefs in New York City.  The chefs couldn't wait to get their hands on the pigs to prepare their dishes for the Pig Island event.  I talked to some of the chefs, and was excited to hear what they will be making.  There will be 25 chefs and 80 local pigs benefiting Food System Network New York City and City Harvest.  What better way to spend your Labor Day Weekend; so make sure you grab a ticket and head over to Pig Island.  There will be some delicious dishes waiting for you, plus local beer, wine, cider, butchering demo and live bands.  If you need more convincing, take a look at this video, and hear for yourself some of the amazing dishes that will be featured.  Hope to see you there!

Kale Chips - Healthy Snack for Kids

My talented friend Tiffany Casanova produces, directs and edits her own web series featuring her Eco Twins Tristin & Tyler.  She is the brain behind her website TristinandTyler.com.  She recently told me she wanted to produce a cooking segment on her web series that concentrates on healthy eating for kids.  In this 5 part cooking series, she asked me and other cooks being featured to come up with a healthy snack recipe that would be easy to make.  I love snacks so the first thing I thought of was making some type of chips.  Kale chips has become such a popular snack with adults so I thought wouldn't it be great if the kids start enjoying these as well?  This simple recipe takes no time to make, and it is a great way to introduce your kids into the kitchen, and learn about cooking.

You can bake these simply with salt and pepper for seasoning, but since sometimes it's hard to get kids to eat vegetables even in a chip form, I added some cheese, lemon and herbs for extra flavoring to entice them.  Result:  Tristin & Tyler love them!  I hope your kids love them too.

Oven-baked Kale Chips

1 head of Kale (cut out the stems and cut the leaves into small pieces)

1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese

3 tbs of extra virgin olive oil

2 gloves of garlic - minced

2 tbs of chopped parsley

Zest of 1 lemon

Juice of 1/2 lemon - approx. 1 tbs of lemon juice

Salt & pepper for seasoning

For cooking direction, watch the video above.

This is my first cooking video, and I was extremely nervous about being in front of the camera, but working with Tristin & Tyler was so much fun.  These kids are so natural which made me forget that I was actually cooking in front of a camera.  I was so impressed with the way Tiffany took charge of the shoot.  It was amazing to work with her.  So thank you for having me cooking with your gorgeous kids!  It was a great experience, and I had so much fun doing it.