kiwi Cooks

To ensure you receive your KIWI Magazine emails, please add us to your address book now.  For detailed instructions on how to add us, click here. If you have trouble viewing this email, click here. february 2012 JAMMY FIG BARS WHEN FRESH FRUIT OFFERINGS AT THE MARKET ARE SLIM, TURN TO FLAVOR- AND NUTRIENT-PACKED DRIED FRUIT INSTEAD. DRIED FIGS ARE LOADED WITH FIBER, POTASSIUM, AND IRON—AND TASTE LIKE DESSERT WHEN TUCKED INTO THESE WHOLE GRAIN SNACK BARS. Active time: 15 minutes Total time: 45 minutes WALNUT-DUSTED CHARD WITH GOLDEN RAISINS Active time: 10 minutes Total time: 10 minutes  Most kids turn their noses up at greens because of too-tough stems and a super bitter flavor. The solution? Cut the stems out (you can save them for composting), and balance out bitterness with something sweet, like raisins. RIGHT NOW: MAPLE SYRUP SEASON It's still too early to start planting your garden, but in New England, late February is the perfect time to harvest tree sap for maple syrup. When below-freezing nighttime temperatures are followed by above-freezing days, sap begins to flow from maple trees. Then the sap is boiled down into maple syrup (it takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup) and bottled. The syrup is equally sweet regardless of when in the season the sap is harvested, but sap that comes towards the end of the season produces syrup with a stronger maple flavor, according to Balsam Woods Farm, a New England syrup producer.  ADVERTISEMENTS