ECONOMY
HERE AND NOW
HOME BREW
Chillax with Summertime (and Anytime) Healthy Treats
Boutiques, businesses and brands you may not know — but should.
By Lynne Konstantin
KID TESTED, MOTHER APPROVED
-
-
Hey, happy
homemakers:
Sometimes you
need a little
help! In the age
hok, or,*,
of Jessica Sein-
feld's enormously
popular Deceptively
rCILICISlingeV
Fl‘p OO P
ctocovate siovoie
Delicious, and Hun-
C N'ax.
FlalPiaIC9
Pancake
gry Girl's weight-
conscious concoc-
tions on the Food
Network, resorting
to a baking mix has
become acceptable
among busy moms
(and dads) — par-
ticularly if the result
is as nutritious for
the kids as it is tasty
to eat.
When Portland,
Ore., parents
Maureen and Mark
Hotchkiss couldn't
find prepared
snacks that were
up to nutritional
snuff and taste
bud approved by
their three kids, they looked inward. The couple began
experimenting with creating a homemade energy bar
they could pack in their kids' lunches or serve as an after-
school snack.
Finding a receptive audience, first at home and then
with friends and family — and armed with 12 years of
sales and marketing for Harry's Fresh Foods (Maureen)
and years of working in food purchasing (Mark) — the
pair created Kids Central Kitchen in 2006.
The line of natural, whole-grain dry baking mixes are
easy-to-make by design so that kids can add wet ingredi-
ents like bananas, applesauce and yogurt and get in on
the baking action.
Brownies, energy bars, pancakes, cookies, banana
bread — all of the baking-mix options are free of trans
fats, hydrogenated oils, refined sugars, high-
fructose corn syrup and artificial colors and
flavors (there are also low fat, low
cholesterol, vegan and gluten-free
recipes available). They even omit-
ted egg yolks from the recipes so
kids can lick the bowl.
Order online at
kidscentralkitchen.com . Just for
Red Thread readers, use code DJN
at checkout to receive 20 percent
off your first order. kr
FUN TO MAKE, FABULOUSLY FAT-FREE
— AND KOSHER!
With so many scrumptious ice cream and frozen yo-
gurt stops cropping up around town, it's hard to choose
where you want to cool off. But Birmingham's Sweet
Earth has found its own niche and has been earning
raves since opening a year ago.
When husband-and-wife team Ryan and Katie Robison
conceived Sweet Earth, they wanted more than just deli-
cious — although it's not overlooked."It's a concept built
on the principle that there can be healthier alternatives
for us and our children," explains Ryan.
Fat-free (and certified kosher) flavors containing live,
active and healthy bacterial cultures, as well as protein
and calcium, plus organic, no-sugar-added, wheat-free,
gluten-free and vegan options are the draw.
But visitors stay for the make-your-own, self-serve
fro-yo bar with 14 flavors like Texas Peanut Butter, Pome-
granate, Birthday Cake, New York Cheesecake and more.
The piece de resistance: A toppings bar with more than
30 premium options, including Oreos, cinnamon toast,
pretzel pieces and M&Ms, as well as fresh fruit, mochi and
granolas.
Finish with marshmallow, chocolate and other hot
toppings and savor your creation — served in biode-
gradable, eco-friendly packaging with plant starch and
bamboo spoons — at a table crafted of reclaimed Michi-
gan lumber, designed and built by Robison's father.
"We are dedicated to leaving as minimal of a carbon
footprint as possible,"says Robison, who made sure even
the particulars of his operation were eco-friendly — from
green-certified paints and flooring to yogurt machines
using a recycling glycol system for cooling purposes,
saving tens of thousands of gallons of water that would
otherwise be wasted.
A fact that makes the sweets that much sweeter. GAT
DETROIT BAGEL BROS. SEE PAGE 14
By Stefani Barner
I RED MEAD
By Jackie Headapohl
SOUL SAVER SEE PAGE 14
Temple Kol Ami's Ariana Jaffe Silverman brings
spiritual and environmental activism to Detroit.
12 July2011
Brothers find success with
Detroit Institute of Bagels.
tion, spoke at Jaffe Silverman's installation as the associate
rabbi at West Bloomfield's Temple Kol Ami.
Rabbi Jaffe Silverman has made a name for herself as a
passionate advocate for ethical food choices and community
agriculture. She wrote her rabbinic thesis on ethical eating in
the Reform movement and, prior to her ordination, served as
the legislative assistant for the Coalition on the Environment
and Jewish Life at the Religious Action Center of Reform
Judaism in Washington, D.C.
This environmental work was a part of what drew
her toward the rabbinate.
"I wanted to work for environmental protec-
tion not just because it was important but
because I see the world as sacred," she says.
As the only pulpit rabbi currently living
within Detroit proper, Jaffe Silverman and her
husband, Justin Robert Long, a professor at
Wayne State University's School of Law, maintain
an active role in their neighborhood, the
Sweet Earth, 141 W. Maple Road, Birmingham. Hours:
Sunday-Wednesday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Thursday-Saturday,
11 a.m.-11 p.m. (248) 792-6285; mysweetearth.com .
She's Saving Souls, Including Motown's
D
Bagel Bros. Bring Jewish
Staple Back to the City
here are a few food items that are as iden-
tifiably"made in Detroit"as the horseless
carriage, seven-layer cake, Coney Island
hotdogs and a certain extra-fizzy ginger ale
among them. Then there are bagels.
While certainly not indigenous to the Motor
City, bagels that are produced locally have tell-
tale specifications that are unlike their New York
or national chain brethren: a bit smaller, slightly
crunchy outside and a less"doughy" inside. And
now, local bagels have made their triumphant
return to the city center, courtesy of the Detroit
Institute of Bagels.
It's a business that Ben Newman, 27, and his
younger brother Dan, 23, are in the process of
launching from their home in the city's Corktown
district.They plan to open a brick-and-mortar
store in the first quarter of 2012.
Ben, an urban planner, said he was inspired to
start a food business in the city through course-
work on Detroit's vacant properties, part of the
master's program he completed at the University
of Michigan.
"New businesses in the food industry can help
fill those vacant spaces, attract more people to
Detroit and provide jobs," Ben said.
Kevin Bush studied urban planning at U-M
with Ben. "What the Newman brothers are trying
to do," he said, "is exactly the thing post-indus-
trial cities like Detroit need as they try to attract
and retain residents and companies!'
Why bagels? For one thing, Detroit is a "bagel
desert," said the brothers. (The lone oasis:
Einstein Bros. Bagels in Midtown, near Wayne
State University.)
"Besides, bagels are the quintessential Jewish
food," Ben added, "and we want to be a part of a
growing Jewish community in the city!'
The Newman brothers, who grew up in
Bloomfield Township, described how they ini-
tially baked several variations of bagels, tweak-
ing each successive batch, until they settled on
the right recipe. The focus group they tapped
came by way of their participation last March
in a three-week fundraiser for the Isaac Agree
Downtown Synagogue.
"It was a good way to test support and help
the synagogue," Dan Newman said.
After the fundraiser concluded, the brothers
kept going. New customers came from word of
mouth or the Detroit Institute of Bagels' website
(detroitinstituteofbagels.com ); their Facebook
page now includes more than 500 fans.
Ben and Dan churn out between 10 and 15
dozen bagels a week, often rising as early as 2:30
a.m. to start baking. "The kitchen gets hot," said
Dan, who studied business and political science
at the University of Michigan. "But it's a lot more
fun to knead bagels than to punch numbers in a
spreadsheet'
Their downstairs neighbor Dean Simmer, a
high school teacher at Detroit Cristo Rey High
School, is excited about the brothers' venture.
PROFESSIONALS
orn into a traditional Jewish household, Ariana Jaffe Silver-
man, along with her brothers and parents, was an active
member of K.A.M. Isaiah Israel on Chicago's South Side.
She also spent summers at Olin Sang Ruby Union Institute —
one of the Reform Movement's summer camps — in Ocono-
mowoc, Wis.
But when her rabbi suggested to the 16-year-old Ariana
that she should consider joining the clergy, she found
the idea laughable. "He was a man in his 60s with a
gray beard —just like my idea of what every rabbi
should be. I simply did not fit that description,''
she recalls.
It took another decade, during which time
she earned a history degree from Harvard
and pursued a career as an environmental
lobbyist, before she found herself at Hebrew
Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.
A Wexner Graduate Fellow, she earned a
master of arts in Hebrew literature before receiv-
ing her smichah, ordination, in 2010. Rabbi Elka
Abrahamson, the president of Wexner Founda-
Dan (left) and Ben Newman, brothers and business
partners at Detroit Institute of Bagels.
SUPPORT FOR THIS PAGE HAS BEEN UNDERWRITTEN, IN PART, BY
Quicken Loans
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