TRY A COOKING CLASS

What is the most daunting part of cooking for you?  Is it deciding what to make?  Finding the time to go grocery shopping?  Getting out of a culinary rut where you feel like you’re making the same things all the time? Or is it the prep work that needs to be done before you can actually start cooking?

I find that many people dislike the cutting, chopping, dicing, and prepping.  Mostly because not knowing how to cut an onion, celery stalk, or zucchini is confusing, messy, and difficult. 

The other common issue is the rut.  Making the same recipes every week can get boring.  And just trying a new recipe can be intimidating, especially if you are feeding fussy or picky eaters and not familiar with the ingredients in he recipe.

One of the best ways to solve both issues is through cooking classes.  In a cooking class you get to see, and practice, the correct way (meaning fastest, most efficient, and safest way) to prepare meats, fruits, herbs, and vegetables before they are cooked.  You also get to try new dishes, made with interesting ingredients and new cooking techniques, so you can reduce the uncertainty of a new recipe.

In the Mercer County area there are several grocery stores, cooking supply shops, and restaurants that offer cooking classes – some hands-on and some demonstration only.

At the Jersey Girl Café we offer classes on select Monday nights.   Most classes are $35 to $40 per person, and last about 2 and a half hours, including time to sit down together as a group and enjoy the food we’ve made.

Cathy Campbell, editor of Mercer County Woman, recently spent some time with me in my cafe kitchen, learning just how best to dice and slice, and cook with spices.  You can view the video of our cooking lesson at …

Our next cooking class is scheduled for Monday, December 4 at 7pm.   We will be focusing on improving knife skills.  Online registration is available at

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cooking-class-knife-skills-tickets-38879434435

About REAL * FRESH * LOCAL

On the front of our Menu, I include the phrase “Real, Fresh, Local”  These three words are a key part of how I view my food at Jersey Girl Cafe.  

When I started Jersey Girl Cafe, I wanted to serve the highest quality food. The best tasting dishes come from making them from scratch.  This meant that where possible our dishes are made with fresh produce, herbs and meats. Over 95% of our menu items use these fresh ingredients and our sauces are handmade.  When we can find a consistent local supply for our produce, we use that supplier, especially in the summer when New Jersey produce is amazing.

When I have to make exceptions, the decision is driven by a desire to ensure we place a consistent quality of plate in front of you for every meal.  (For example, we use frozen French Fries because we have yet to identify a consistent, quality source for local potatoes that deep fry well.)  These menu items are the exception, not the norm.

Our goal is to make sure that every time you sit down at Jersey Girl Cafe you are served a plate of exciting flavors, full of fresh food.

SHARE YOUR PLATE

We pride ourselves on serving not just the freshest food, but also serving plates that you can't wait to dive into.  We'd like your help in sharing our food on social media.  

Snap a quick pic of your favorite Jersey Girl Cafe food and share it on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram with the hashtags #jerseygirlcafe #shareyourplate.  

Every Monday we will pick one shared photo with those hashtags at random and give that person a gift certificate for a free 2-for-$15 Small Plate order.   There will be a new winner every week.  One entry per person per week.

DICE THE TOMATO

We've got a quick video of how to seed and dice a tomato to make your tomato seeding and dicing so much easier this summer!

FREE COOKING DEMOS AT JERSEY GIRL CAFE

Want to improve your skills in the kitchen? Stop by after work for dinner and stay for a cooking demonstration from our own Chef Kathy.   There's no fee and no reservations.   

You can even order some wine to enjoy from the table side wine service provided by Buy Rite Liquors.

Demonstrations will occur each Thursday Night in June starting at 6pm at our Route 33 location (731 Route 33, Hamilton, NJ).  These events will feature the same fresh ingredients and techniques used to prepare all of your Jersey Girl Cafe favorites.   Upcoming events include:

June 22: Quinoa Salad.  Learn from Chef as she makes a fresh quinoa salad. Techniques to be demonstrated include: How to make quinoa, how to mince herbs, and the best method for dicing onions.

June 29: Tuscan White Bean Salad.  Chef will demonstrate how she makes a Tuscan White Bean Salad.  She will highlight how to prepare the fresh ingredients and how to make a tasty vinaigrette.

See you at the demos!

SMALL PLATES - BIG FLAVOR

This summer, Jersey Girl Cafe is introducing a new Small Plates menu.  Inspired by the Small Plates trend, these dinner-only dishes are made for sharing.  For $15 you can choose your two favorites of our new shareable plates.  For $20 you can choose three of these plates.

Grilled Salmon Fillet with Tatziki

Small Plates are available from 4pm to closing.

Your choices include:

• GOAT cheese in garlic tomato sauce - crostini
• PEAR - bacon - brie quesadilla
• BUFFALO chicken quesadilla
• BACON wrapped, goat cheese stuffed, dates (6 pieces)
• ROAST beef, goat cheese, roasted red pepper, fig chutney - crostini canapes (6 pieces)
• SALMON fillet with cucumber-dill tatziki, pickled red onion
• HUMMUS feta, tomato, red onion - fresh tortilla chips or sliced zucchini
• GARLIC parmesan fries - garlic aioli

Roast Beef with Goat Cheese, Roasted Red Pepper, Fig Chutney

All our Small Plates have been created to be paired with selection of wines & beer.

Wait? Wine? Beer?

That's right, as a part of our new menu items, we've partnered with Buy Rite Liquors to arrange table-side Wine and Beer delivery.  The experts at Buy Rite have developed a list of pairing suggestions to match each of our new dishes, or select your own favorite from their curated list.   Ask our staff for Buy Rite's order menu and use your cell phone to order directly from Buy Rite Liquors. Their staff will deliver your selection right to your table.

So stop by and try our new dinner-only Small Plates and table-side wine delivery.

Max Challenge Menu

Getting fit and losing weight are the number 2 and 3 most common new year’s resolutions.  Alas, 55% of us lose our commitment to most new year’s resolutions within 4 weeks of new year’s day.

Change is hard, and changing how you eat and how you cook is especially challenging.  Most people who succeed in changing how they eat use various support tools (groups, apps, diet programs) to help with making changes.

Jersey Girl Café can be one of those go-to tools.  We are partnering with THE MAX Challenge to identify a menu that complies with the nutrition program that they offer to their members.

THE MAX Challenge offers a system that combines nutrition counseling, fitness classes and motivation.

For more details on THE MAX Challenge go to www.themaxchallenge.com or call Noelmarie at 609-512-4350

Jersey Girl Café also offers a modified personal chef service, Chef Express, that allows you to order a week of meals.

Chef Express offers healthy, delicious meals using the freshest locally grown vegetables, herbs, seafood, and top quality meats.  We make dinner easy by offering a flexible personal chef service that allows you to order a week’s meals online and pick them up.

We specifically make meals using recipes from THE MAX Challenge Cookbook.

Online Ordering for Marketplace cafe

Jersey Girl Café is delighted to announce that we now have online ordering for our location in the Hamilton Marketplace (608 Marketplace Blvd – near the Staples).

We chose our Marketplace location for the initial rollout because of the extended hours, and because after shopping you don’t want to wait any longer than necessary to satisfy any Jersey Girl craving.

The online ordering site can be accessed from our website (www.JerseyGirlCafeNJ.com) or directly at www.JerseyGirlCafeOnlineOrder.com

Ordering is easy, if we don’t say so ourselves. 

You are able to order from our full menu, including monthly specials.

Create your order exactly how you want it, and let us know when you want to pick up.

You can also pay online or at the store when you pick up.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays. 

From a kid’s perspective you always have an awesome 4 day weekend, you get to hang out with your cousins and the stress of Christmas expectations is a month away.

When my husband and I were dating, Thanksgiving was the first time I brought him home to meet my family.  Not from the US, my husband had the impression that American families were like the Bundy family on Married with Children, I needed to set him straight on that.  My parents were warm and welcoming and my brothers and sisters curious about the new guy. 

But it was my Aunt Rose who took the cake.  She must have taken a liking to him, and she was always my biggest fan.  After dinner Aunt Rose cornered Ajaz and asked him when he was going to ask me to marry him.  He was dumbfounded, impressed with my aunt’s sassiness, and immediately became her biggest fan!

Aunt Rose was everyone’s favorite aunt.  She was supportive of everything we did, always putting a positive spin on what could be risky adventures.

Rose Mozek make the fluffiest angel food cake, and a tart apple pie for her husband Adam who had diabetes.  She was older than Adam by a few years, who she met when he photographed her with another boyfriend.  Did I mention she was decisive.

Our Cheese Steak and Egg sandwich was created to remember how she would prepare steak and eggs for her sons, Robert and Ken when they were in college. 

And our Rosie Panini honors Rose, my godmother, with its complex, and sassy, red pepper pesto (with goat cheese) and fresh mozzarella.