This is a Guest Post by Silver Spring Town Center

Taste the World in Downtown Silver Spring’s Fenton Village

Sunday, May 6, 1-5pm

Nearly two dozen restaurants featuring cuisine from around the globe will be showcased in the second annual Taste the World in Fenton Village on Sunday, May 6 from 1 to 5 p.m. Fenton Village is located just south of downtown Silver Spring between Wayne, Georgia and Burlington avenues and Fenton Street.

Pictured above: The band Eastern Standard Time plays at 4pm

Unlike other tasting events assembled on sidewalks or public lots, Taste the World, in a “pub crawl” style, welcomes participants into the restaurants to sample not just their specialties but their special atmosphere. Restaurants will offer appetizers or small tasting plates for $2, $3, $4 and $5.

Event attendees will pick up their Taste the World passports at Parking Lot 3 on Fenton Street between Thayer and Silver Spring avenues beginning at 1 p.m. An array of live music will be played on our Taste the World Stage, including Eastern Standard Time who will really get the party going with a Caribbean Beat! Once participants have their fill of the range of tastes, they return to the stage area and enter a free drawing for prizes from local merchants.

For more information, call 240-832-3078 or visit www.tastetheworldfentonvillage.org for maps, a list of participating restaurants, and other event details. Also join our event page on Facebook  

Addis Ababa Restaurant
8233 Fenton Street

Silver Spring, MD 20910

Bombay Gaylord

Fenton Cafe

Fire Station Restaurant

Ghar-E-Kabob

Good Food

Jackie’s Restaurant

Kefa Café

Langano Ethiopian Restaurant

Lesaac Ethiopian Cafe

Lizbeth’s Café

Lotus Café

Mandarin Restaurant

Manny & Olga’s Pizza

Original Big Greek Café

Pacci’s Neopolitan Pizzeria

Piratz Tavern

Roger Miller Restaurant

Thai Derm

Thai Market

The Greek Place

Vicino Ristorante Italiano

Zed’s Cafe

Yihung Mohs is the owner of  Silver Spring Dream Dinners and the talented writer of the The Silver Spring Dream Dinners Blog.

The Healthy Pantry

Spring is officially here! With warmer weather, longer days and nature making its annual comeback, it’s easy to see why many call this their favorite season.  To open the windows and breath the fresh air is a great motivator to get organized and do some spring-cleaning.  There is something so appealing about starting anew during this season, which almost makes house cleaning sound like fun.

With an abundance of seasonal fresh vegetables and fruits now available, this would be an excellent time to go a step further and create a healthy family pantry.  By ridding your kitchen of heavily processed foods that are high in fat, artificial colors and flavors, you are one step closer to developing meals that are not only good for you, but also contribute to a healthy lifestyle.

Before getting started, keep in mind that this does not have to be a project that needs to be completed in a day.  It takes time to change lifestyles, cooking habits and menu preferences, especially when you have children.  But over time, you will find that food made with healthy ingredients just taste better.

So where do you begin? First, get rid of white sugar, white flour and any processed foods such as cookies, crackers, soda, sugar drinks and the like.

Look at any of the nutrimental data on any food item and if sugar is listed as the first ingredient, then say goodbye.  When it’s all said and done, you will be surprised how empty your pantry will be once those items are gone as the average American is said to consume 22 teaspoons of sugar a day.

Now you can now begin to stock your pantry with healthy alternatives. Where do you begin? It’s never a bad idea to have these items always available:

Olive Oil
This is really the only oil you need in your pantry.  Canola oil is a good choice for baking purposes, but throw out any oil that has polyunsaturated fats, such as safflower, peanut and corn oils)

Whole Wheat Pasta
Use instead of white pasta for a healthier version of your favorite pasta dish.  Your family won’t know the difference.

Diced, Crushed Tomatoes
Get rid of expensive ready-to-serve pasta sauces, where sugar is often the leading ingredient and create your own.  These canned tomatoes are an excellent source of lycopene, which has been known to reduce the risk of cancer.

Brown Rice
This healthy side dish helps with digestion and colon issues and provides a great source of fiber.

Beans
These are high in protein, vitamins and minerals. Use black beans in burritos or tacos or use as a side dish.  Butter beans, chickpeas and white beans can be cooked a variety of ways and should be a staple in any pantry.

Dry Produce
Always have onions, garlic and ginger on hand to put a spin on any dish.

Low Salt Chicken and Vegetable Broth
You can create your own healthy soups or sauces quickly without the high sodium of canned soups.

Nuts
Walnuts, almonds and sunflower seeds thrown in with some dried fruit make a healthy snack.

The list of healthy food choices goes on.  Having a well-stocked pantry allows you have the items on hand to make healthy, enjoyable meals. By adding fresh fruits and vegetables to your diet you are creating a lifestyle that is not only nutritiously satisfying but also beneficial to you and your family’s overall health.

Thanks to Yihung and Silver Spring Dream Dinners for the tips and of course, family dinners made easy.

Would you like to contribute a guest post to A Parent in Silver Spring? I accept articles that contain information that is helpful or entertaining for parents, and of use to everyone, not just potential customers. Just send me an e-mail with your idea for a post and we’ll talk.

Photo credit: iStock

Judy McGhee works for The Maids of DC and therefore knows all about clutter as a professional in the home cleaning business. She offers tips and advice to help homeowners keep their houses squeaky clean!

As a busy mom, we all struggle with the clutter in our homes! We all want everything to be in its place  when the phone rings and your mom, of heaven forbid, mother-in-law is on her way over. A girl could twist an ankle running around the house stuffing things into closets and under beds!

There are some simple tips to help you go from cluttered to calm! Think of the time you will save not looking for “lost” items like your keys, or that bill that was due last week that now incurrred late charges! Time to declutter! It’s hard to know where to begin, so let’s get started!

The clutter did not get here overnight, and it will take time to create a clutter free and organized home. (No, the declutter fairy is a myth!) Start slow and remain steady, forming new habits as you go. The first important tip is to take one room at a time so the task is not overwhelming. Schedule yourself declutter sessions, maybe 15 minutes per day to start, then work your way up to 2 hours once or twice per week.

Now that you have picked the room to start in, get garbage bags and boxes. The garbage bags are for items that you have not used or worn that need to be thrown away or recycled. The boxes are for items that you do not want or need and can be donated, sold at a garage sale, Craig’s List, or Ebay.

A Place for Everything and Everything in its Place

In less than 15 minutes, you can declutter the bathroom. Empty the hamper and carry it to the laundry room. Gather all items that do not belong in the bathroom, i.e. jewelry, clothes, shoes, etc. and return them to their designated place in the home. Wipe the counter off and store any items out of place. You may need to pop over to the store and pick up a few bins to toss under the sink. I like those Rubbermaid caddies with a center handle and compartments on each sire for storing my bathroom cleaning supplies. I can then carry it from bathroom to bathroom for cleaning. Plus, if anything leaks, the mess is in the container and not in my cabinet. Finish by vacuuming the floor and washing it with some pine or lemon cleaner. Voila!

The bedroom should be a relaxing place in your home, so get the clutter out for a more peaceful room. Grab a basket and start gathering items that do not belong in the bedroom and return them to their designated place. Go to the closet and organize your clothes. Don’t forget the night table, which seems to attract clutter. Another rule to enforce to remain clutter free is the in-out rule. When you bring in a new item, an old one must go. This is important when you get to your bedroom closet!

The kitchen is another clutter magnet! Most things end up on the counter top, so start there. (Islands are notorious for gathering “stuff.” Any items in the “wrong” spot need to be returned to their home. Have a small basket or box to gather all items that do not belong in the kitchen. Straighten out your refrigerator and pantry shelves, tossing anything out of date.

Now you can move to the living room. You will probably need a larger bin to collect the entire out of place items from this room! Continue through all rooms in the house, and don’t forget the garage!

Now that your rooms are declutterd and you can see the floors again, consider a professional carpet cleaning to show off your hard work! It will make the whole house smell fresh and look like new.

To keep your home decluttered, remember to put things away, right away! Think of each item as ice cream you bring home from the store. Would you leave it on the counter for an hour?

Check out The Maids of DC if you can use a bit of help maintaining your home.

No compensation was received for publishing this informative guest post. If you too would like to provide an informative article for local parents, contact me.

Donna Stefano is project director at the Cooperative Housing Foundation—known simply as CHF International— which serves more than 20 million people each year around the world. CHF International’s headquarters are based in Silver Spring, Maryland, but staff members worldwide assist low- and moderate-income communities improve their social, economic and environmental conditions. Based in the West Bank, Stefano is a single, American mother with a nine year old son. He was born in Maryland, and when in the States they call Silver Spring home.

A Parent in the West Bank Values Classroom Diversity

How fortunate our children are to live in the greater metropolitan D.C. area, with all its ethnically and culturally diverse populations. Growing up in a diverse area better prepares them for the future of living in an increasingly global community, and I like to think my own experience proves it.

A few short years ago, when my son was five, I enrolled him in kindergarten in our local public school in Silver Spring. The 25 students in that kindergarten class hailed from almost every single continent. The annual celebration of International Day was the school’s pride and joy, with full participation from extended families showing off their beautiful traditional costumes and homemade cooking.

My son and his classmates were talking about the event days ahead of time. I loved how his classmates’ backgrounds, native languages, names and dress were all taken for granted in a way that was never divisive.

Because everybody was different, nobody was different.

I think it was part of this exposure to such diverse backgrounds that eased our transition to life overseas when we moved to the West Bank a year later for my job with CHF International, the Silver Spring-based international development organization. Suddenly, my son found himself in a class of Palestinians who were anxious to put him into a category; he was an American child, with an Arab name, who didn’t speak a word of the Arabic language. His classmates and their parents were very confused by us.

Part of that desire to put an identity on my son was due mostly to long-standing cultural traditions in much of the Middle East. Here, a person’s social status depends on the family lineage, or their religion, or their tribal affiliations. Our social status was limited, I had no links to a “big, good” Palestinian family, nor do I have a husband linked to such a family. And while my son is Muslim, he found himself tongue-tied in the school’s mandated-religious education classes.

The kids perceived him as “different” in a way that I don’t think he could comprehend because of his early schooling in Silver Spring’s diverse classrooms. Halfway through his first school year, an Australian child joined his class. He and my son quickly bonded over their unclassifiable status.

Eventually, I put him in an American international school in Jerusalem geared toward the expatriate crowd.  He was back into an environment in which everybody was different, and that feels most comfortable to him now.  Once again, the school’s international day is celebrated with full fanfare.

He comes home from his day at school with stories about the different foods in his classmates’ lunchboxes, and that has (thankfully!) opened up his desire to more courageously explore different cuisines.  While my son has not had the opportunity to play a good old game of baseball with his classmates in the past four years,  he has taken  an interest in sports that are national pastimes in several of his classmates’ countries – tennis, skiing and surfing to name a few.  He has learned all the different ways that Christmas is celebrated across the world and, in the spirit of inclusion, has requested to celebrate them all!

Most importantly for my son, who now dreams of visiting “every single country in the world!”, he has developed lasting friendships with families who have issued open invitations to their homes across the globe.  I can’t wait to share our home in Silver Spring with them one day, showing off our roots made up of a wonderfully diverse community.

Donna Stefano is a project director for CHF International, an international development and humanitarian aid organization based in Silver Spring, MD. She currently resides in Jerusalem with her young son. They both call Silver Spring home. Read more of her writings in the Huffington Post and Role/Reboot.

Yihung Mohs is the owner of  Silver Spring Dream Dinners and the talented writer of the The Silver Spring Dream Dinners Blog.

It’s that time of the year when we are ready to pack away our winter coats, gloves and hats and start thinking about shorts, swimsuits and tank tops!

With warmer days upon us, it’s time to think about fun outdoor activities that will make you jump off the couch and get active. Breathing in some fresh air is not only physically benefiting, but also emotionally healing.  Reconnecting with the outside after a long winter inside is like giving your body a spring cleaning. So it’s time to shift into gear and get moving.

With heart disease, obesity, diabetes and other health problems rising among women at alarming rates, it is recommended that we get about 30 minutes of exercise five times a week. This is difficult for many given our busy lifestyles, but combining exercise with family activities can make working up a sweat a breeze.

Walking

Take note:  We move our clocks ahead on Sunday, March 11 at 2:00 am. So with the days getting longer, it’s time to start a traditional after dinner family walk.  This is a great way to involve the entire family in an easy exercise. Walking through your neighborhood or park increases the heart rate and improves the cardiovascular system while getting reacquainted with the outside. One of our favorite things about spring is that every day, something outside changes. Spring flowers are popping up!  Trees are starting to blossom! Lilacs will soon bloom and robins are scattering over your front yard. There is always a new discovery to share. So find it!

Biking

It’s time to dust off your bike and play like a kid!  Hit the bike trails and explore nature with the kids.  Bike riding is a great way to stay fit and more fun when the whole family is involved.  Great for the body and soul, this aerobic exercise is associated with increased health and well being.

Tennis

Playing tennis on a regular basis can help maintain or improve mobility, strength, fitness and balance.  Even if you don’t play well, it’s a great exercise that can burn up to 400 calories per hour.  If you have young children, play some drills with them to get everyone running around the court.  Little ones will enjoy playing tennis “volleyball” where they can’t let the ball touch the ground.

Thanks to Yihung and Silver Spring Dream Dinners for the tips and of course, family dinners made easy.

Would you like to contribute a guest post to A Parent in Silver Spring? I accept articles that contain information that is helpful or entertaining for parents, and of use to everyone, not just potential customers. Just send me an e-mail with your idea for a post and we’ll talk.

Photo credit: eyeliam on Flickr via a Creative Commons license