1.  North Korea apparently has developed a Super Juice that will multiply brain cells and stop aging!  (via weird asia news)
2. The Best Vegetarian Restaurants in LA (via Huffpost)
3. Gordon Ramsay teaches you how to properly sharpen you knife (via Youtube)
4. Make This: Olga’s Pita Bread Recipe
5. 7 Fruit Cocktails Good For Your Health (via treehugger)

1. San Fran McDonalds to stop offering Dollar Menu to get rid of homeless patrons (via Eater)
2. What would happen if restaurants stopped hiring illegal immigrants? (via NY Times)
3. 8 Weight Loss Secrets from around the world (via Reader’s Digest)
4. How to “Send Food Back” at a restaurant if it’s not right (via divine caroline)
5. Make This for Rosh Hashanah: Bubbe’s Apple Cake Recipe

1. 7 Tips to Kick the Sugar Habit (via Huffpost)
2. 5 Ideas that would revolutionize school lunches and save our kids (via planet green)
3. Cockroach brains found to have powerful antibiotics that can kill strains of E. Coli (via treehugger)
4. Eat This: Barefoot Contessa’s Chicken Parmesan Recipe
5. Which vegetables to grow during the fall (via MNN)

1. Barefoot Contessa’s Tequila Lime Chicken (submitted by DMB)
2. Grilled Salmon with Curry and Garlic Sauce (submitted by Lynn)
3. Herb and Garlic Pork Chops (submitted by K Monki)
4. Grilled Eggplant Slices with Caprese Salad (submitted by Pryor)
5. Chili-Lime Sweet Potatoes (submitted by Dan)

For More Great Labor Day Grilling Ideas, check out these recipes on Kitchen Monki’s Recipe Explorer!

Kitchen Monki would like introduce member John Newman of the blog, Confessions of a Mormon Foodie! Don’t forget to check out his Profile for some wonderful recipes.

As a father of four, I want to make sure my kids grow up with the ability to take care of themselves. I’m not talking about turning them into gourmet chefs. I just want them to be able to prepare good food for themselves, and their future families. The benefits of teaching kids to cook goes beyond just learning to feed themselves, though. Learning a new skill and executing it well develops self-confidence. It give kids a sense of personal identity and increases self-esteem.

Teaching kids to cook takes a little planning, and a lot of patience. The results are worth it, though. As kids get older, they’ll want to start trying out recipes on their own. Let them. Just be on hand to supervise. Curb your desire to “fix” everything. Failing is just as important as succeeding when learning process.

When teaching kids to cook, safety in the kitchen is paramount. It seems obvious, but often obvious things get left out of informal training. “Use a pot holder,” and “wash your hands,” are classic safety rules.

Proper knife use is important, too. Very small children should stay away from knives, but I feel kids eight years and older can learn to use them safely. Start with a paring knife or other small kitchen knife. It’s a great size for small hands and kids can easily learn proper cutting and chopping techniques with it. Once they master the smaller knife, you can move them up to the chef’s knife.

Introducing a child to the stove can be a good next step. Grilled cheese sandwiches and canned tomato soup are a great combination for teaching. Add a glass of milk and your child has now made a complete meal. Wait until the child is a little older, at least the early teens, before introducing the oven. They need to have the physical capacity to open and shut the oven door and lift food laden pans.

The most important part is to have fun. If you keep it light, and don’t worry too much about the final results, the kids will have fun and want to cook more. They’ll get better, and learn to love cooking for themselves. Isn’t that the point, after all?

John

Check out more foodie wisdom at John’s blog, Confessions of a Mormon Foodie.

1. 20 Retro Cereals that were Awesome (via Pleated Jeans)
2.  A brief history of the Lunch Box (via the Atlantic)
3. 10 Minimal-Labor Labor Day Grilling Recipes (via Serious Eats)
4. Eat This: Dill Chicken Paillards with Tomato-Dill Relish Recipe
5. The secret to the shelf life of food from McDonalds (via Salon)

1. Drinking Water proven to help Weight Loss (via Disc. News)
2. Roger Ebert no longer eats, but he can still cook (via NY Times)
3. Why you can and should eat Kangaroo (via Esquire)
4. Make This: Pumpkin and Coriander Soup Recipe
5. The Secret to Good Airline Food: Fly Italian (via the Atlantic)

1. This is sheer Genius!… Standing Rice Paddle (via the food section)
2. 10 Chef’s Favorite Kitchen Tools and Tricks (via Huffpost)
3.  What do people look for on Nutrition Labels?   (via fooducate)
4. 37 Ingredients that make up the Twinkie are photographed (via MNN)
5. Make This: Curried Ground Turkey with Potatoes Recipe

1. The Healthiest Fast Food Burgers you will encounter (via Hungry Beast)
2. What “true” Espresso is and how Americans ruin it (via Salon)
3. 7 Weird Foods eaten while the animal is still Alive (via Weird Worm)
4. Make This: Sweet Corn, Chillies, and Burrata over Fettucine… Recipe
5. Tyson recalls 172 tons of Deli-Meat sold to Wal-mart (via slashfood)

1. Study shows Bottled Teas have virtually No Anti-Oxidants in them (via fooducate)
2. 10 Everyday Superfoods (via Eating Well)
3. Ranchers feeding Red Wine to Cattle to make the meat taste better (via G&M)
4. For the real serious cook: Rick Bayless’s Oaxacan Black Mole with Braised Chicken… Recipe
5. WT..? Moms stage a ‘Nurse-In’ at Arizona McDonalds in Protest of a breastfeeding mom getting kicked out (via Consumerist)