Graphic: Next Generation Food

Food News, Things We Crave, Green Your Eats, Tips, Tools & Techniques, and the Weekly Roundtable (a roundup of our most recent posts). For those of you celebrating Rosh Hashanah, Happy New Year! The rest of you—have a great weekend, too!

Food News

• Ripert: Our Food Has Been Sabotaged (via PSFK)
• Senate Democrats to probe dairy farmers’ woes (via San Francisco Chronicle)
• Life Lab creates farm-to-school learning programs (via The Ethicurean)
• Yet another reason to love Jon Stewart! Watch him try to convince LeBron James to move to NYC with a Shake Shack burger. Yes all around! (via Eat Me Daily)
• “Green” revolutionary, Norman Borlaug, died last weekend. Civil Eats takes a look at his legacy
• Merrill Stubbs and Amanda Hesser’s new site, Food52, launches! It’s already a great recipe source and, for those who take their cooking seriously, submitted recipes are eligible for publication in their upcoming Food52 cookbook!
• USDA launches ‘Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food’ initiative (via Grist) and also launches a local food blitz, loosens rules on interstate meat commerce, and more (via ChewsWise)
• Fast food is worse than you know! (via TreeHugger)

Things We Crave

• How cute are these FREE printable lunchbox notes, stickers and tags? Love ‘em! (AlphaMom via @Eensiesmama)
• Super cute insulated lunch totes that have pockets for staying organized and can easily be wiped down. I’m digging Citrus Celebration, myself (via Cool Mom Picks)

Green Your Eats

• Food Matters—part 2 of Cooking Up a Story’s interview with Mark Bittman, where he talks about why we need to eat more sustainably and focus our diets more on plant based foods (part 1 is here)
• Green your eats… literally. Check out this recipe for a Green Tomato Soup (topped with bacon—hello!) using the season’s final tomato gifts (via NY Times)
• Should you buy an iPhone app that tells you (when) to skip buying organic? Check out the app and weigh in at TreeHugger
• Fun with Edible Nasturtiums! (Great ideas to keep in mind for next spring!) (via Makes and Takes)

Tips, Tools & Techniques

• Awesome idea! Have the kids keep a food journal—you encourage writing AND have a log of what they do and don’t like for dinner (no more blank stares when you ask them what they want to eat)! (via The K5)
• Cookie Mag reviews supermarket cereals with moms and kids to find the healthiest options
• Whoa—the folks at Funky Lunch take sandwich art muy serioso! Check out the gallery, which includes sandwiches made to look like Charlie & Lola, Pooh, Spongebob, Hello Kitty and more! (via Design Mom)
• More from Design Mom! Adorable Les Petites Chefs bday part invites. To die for!
• I’m still thinking about the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies I made recently. Think I might have to make ‘em again, using this guide to the best chocolate chips for cookies from Serious Eats
• Have kids born in fall (I will soon!!)? Check out these 8 birthday cake recipes inspired by the season (via The Kitchn)

Weekly Roundtable

• We started the week with a Mexican rice side dish that’s cozy, cheesy goodness: Roasted Poblano Cheesy Rice
• We’re going to organize our kitchens together! We started by collecting your favorite kitchen tools (you can still chime in!): What Are Your Favorite Kitchen Tools
• We celebrated the learning that can come from playing with food (real and otherwise): Play & Learn With Food + Homemade Cheddar Crackers
• We began gearing up for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year: Spicy Beef Brisket + Shepherds Pie Leftovers
• We updated our recent chocolate chip cookie post to include Serious Eat’s guide to the best chocolate chips for cookies: Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie
• We (meaning, I) submitted THREE recipes to this week’s contest for best way to cook greens on Food52. Check them out (and vote for me!): Kale Chips, Garlicky Wilted Kale (with a dash of Nutmeg) and Polenta “Creamed” Spinach (a healthier take on a steakhouse classic)