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| Power Style Wellness Connections |
local flavor - Food Can Change the World
By Kimberly Crum • Photos by Ewa Wojtkowska
BUSINESSWOMAN NAJLA ASWAD REMOVES A TRAY OF
gourmet cookies from the toaster oven. The Double
White-Chocolate Cranberry Chocolate-Chunk cookie is
one of her newer Gone Chunky creations. Each warm
cookie is 90 percent chocolate, with tart cranberries and
gooey white chocolate chunks. Cookies are hand-formed
into an irregular shape, as if scraped from a
spoon in mom’s kitchen. But this is not your mother’s kitchen.
Aswad produces 1,500 pounds of cookie dough and 200
pounds of spiced-roasted nuts each week. It feels ironic to
nibble a single fresh-baked confection where cookies are
produced in bulk. But Aswad is an equal opportunity baker.
She ships huge orders of gourmet cookies and nuts to retailers
around the country. She also markets her products to busy
moms picking-up children from school. “I walk the carpool line (at Kentucky Country
Day school) with cookies and milk.” Najla’s cookies can be baked in quantity, or one
at a time. Yes, you can eat just one!
Najla Aswad is a woman of contrasts. Her heritage is Lebanese and German; her
food products are kosher. She studied to be a doctor; she became a caterer. She
is a native New Yorker; she is an active member of Kentucky Proud, the state’s farm
marketing program. She is an award-winning entrepreneur; she is a fierce advocate
of mom-cooked family dinners. Her work and personal life are all of one piece. “I
don’t have a business plan. I have a life plan.”
Mom to three children ages 3-10 years Aswad has operated three businesses: a
bed-and-breakfast, a catering business, and a food specialty company. In 2007,
the National Association of Women Business Owners (Louisville chapter)
recognized her as a Woman Business Owner of Distinction. One wonders how she
has been able to build a national name-brand product while still helping with
homework and cooking dinner for her family. Aswad’s precocious energy and
tolerance for sleep deprivation have helped. Her consuming passion for food
sustains her.
“I catered my first party when I was 14 years old,” says Aswad. Her passion for food
persisted through college at SUNY Binghamton. When she went to sit for the
entrance exam for medical school, she excused herself to go to the restroom, and
kept walking. “I knew I had to get this (cooking) thing out of my system.” After
graduation, she bought a five-room bed-and-breakfast inn, with a 30-seat
restaurant, near the Catskills. There, she cooked seven days a week for seven
years. Once married, she moved her catering business from the White Pillars Inn to
her home kitchen. “My business grew by 30 percent with each child. My biggest
event was when my daughter was 3 weeks old. I was literally pumping breast milk
during my breaks…between sautéing and serving.
“You can’t take bad ingredients and make a good cookie,” says Aswad. So she
purchases the best ingredients: Organic wheat flour, Madagascar vanilla, Belgian
dark chocolate, fresh nuts, berries and jam for her cookies; and, high-quality
macadamia nuts, pecans, walnuts and almonds that are savory and sweet, coated
with seven different spices, for her nuts. “I like to layer with flavor and textures…that’
s why I love the Gone Nuts. There’s so much happening in your mouth.” Gone Nuts
won the Best In Show and Best Snack Item at the Kosherfest 2006 held in New York
City.
Aswad is devoted to family dinners. Yet, she is aware of the mixed messages
women receive: work hard; drive your children to activities; cook nutritious dinners
that everyone loves. “Everybody talks about the importance of family dinners, but
no one tells us how to do it. I want to stand up and say, stop making my only option
for piano lessons at 5 p.m.!” Cooking takes time, contrary to a Food Network
culture that says we can make a fabulous meal in 30 minutes. “Rachael Ray can
make a 30-minute meal because she doesn’t have kids hanging on her.” Realizing
that many of us might not relish the idea of cooking nightly dinner, she says “If you’
re going to cook, love to cook…Get your hands in the flour and knead it. Follow
recipes, but make them your own. Experiment.” And she believes children should
be invited to help with cooking. “My three-and-a-half-year old has been in the
kitchen since he was two.” And 10-year-old Zachary cuts like a chef. “He’s been
using knives since he was 4 years old,” she says. “Give them a plastic non-serrated
knife. Let them cut iceberg lettuce or a soft cucumber. Children will eat what they
cook.”
“The food business is limitless,” Aswad says. Her food “business” is not limited to
growing a thriving business or healthy children. Aswad sees food as a tool for
changing the world. Her dream is to bring Afghanis, Israelis, Arabs, and Iraqis
together in the kitchen, where they will share their similarities. She sees the kitchen
as a neutral place. “It is the place we nurture our children, our families, our souls
our bodies. Food is the common strand that links us all…World peace is just a
matter of cinnamon and allspice.” We asked Najla to provide nutritious and flavorful
home recipes that her children will eat. Sorry, chocoholics, but the cookie recipes
are trade secrets!
NAJLA’S RECIPE FOR HUMMUS
“We are never without hummus in our house.
It is dairy-free, highly nutritious and a great snack to have on hand.”
2 cans whole chick peas, 1 can fully drained
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice, no substitutes!
1 tsp. kosher salt
5 tbsp. tahini, ground sesame seed paste
Parsley, paprika, olive oil for garnish
Vegetables and pita bread
Put all the ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth. Serve on a flat
serving dish along with veggies and pita bread. Sprinkle with parsley, paprika and
drizzle with olive oil.
NAJLA’S PENNE PASTA WITH TOMATO BASIL SAUCE AND CHICKEN
“The foundation of this recipe is the sauce. It is so simple to make yet so versatile
that you can build on it and create so many other dishes. See suggestions below.”
1 medium onion, chopped small
3 garlic cloves, peeled, uncut
4 tbsp. olive oil
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes (optional)
1- 28 oz. can whole roma tomatoes in juice
1/2-3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1 lb penne (any shape you like is fine)
Salt and pepper to taste
Basil leaves, fresh is best
In a large deep skillet on medium heat, sauté onion and garlic in olive oil until the
onions become translucent and the is garlic soft enough to mash with a fork, about
10 minutes.(I like this technique with the garlic because it prevents burning small
minced pieces and yields an interesting shape to the dish.) Add the red pepper.
Start the water for the noodles, when the water reaches a rolling boil, add the pasta
and cook until al dente about 7 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water to stop the
cooking.
Chop the whole tomatoes into tiny pieces. You can do this with a food processor,
pulsing them until chunky. Add the juice and the chopped tomatoes to the onion
and garlic. Let this reduce until all the juice is evaporated and you have thick paste.
This may take 20 minutes. Stir occasionally to avoid scorching. (This reduction time
yields an amazingly rich tomato flavor that is not the same as starting with a
crushed thick sauce.)
Add the cream, salt and pepper to taste. Add your pasta, stir to coat every
noodle, sprinkle chopped basil leaves and serve steaming hot!
You can jazz this up by adding in fresh leaf spinach and cubed fresh mozzarella at
the final stir, shredded roasted chicken or left over sliced grilled chicken. Substitute
the basil for finely chopped fresh rosemary and mozzarella. For a sophisticated
adult dinner, add 1/4 cup vodka to the tomatoes, then the cream for a fabulous
vodka cream sauce.
Serve with crusty bread and salad. Bon Appetit!
Customers can order Najla’s gourmet Gone Chunky cookies and Gone Nuts spiced
mixed nuts through the web site at www.najlas.com, or directly from the retail store
at 8007 Vine Crest Ave, Suite 3, Louisville, KY 40222, 502.412.4420. Other cookie
varieties include Classic Chocolate, Macadamia Chocolate Chunk, Oatmeal Cherry
Chunk, Chocolate Walnut Expresso, Peanut Butter and Chocolate, and White
Chocolate Pecan. Custom assortments and shipped gift boxes are available.
Writer Kimberly Crum can be reached at (kimcrum@iamtodayswoman.com).
By Kimberly Crum • Photos by Ewa Wojtkowska
BUSINESSWOMAN NAJLA ASWAD REMOVES A TRAY OF
gourmet cookies from the toaster oven. The Double
White-Chocolate Cranberry Chocolate-Chunk cookie is
one of her newer Gone Chunky creations. Each warm
cookie is 90 percent chocolate, with tart cranberries and
gooey white chocolate chunks. Cookies are hand-formed
into an irregular shape, as if scraped from a
spoon in mom’s kitchen. But this is not your mother’s kitchen.
Aswad produces 1,500 pounds of cookie dough and 200
pounds of spiced-roasted nuts each week. It feels ironic to
nibble a single fresh-baked confection where cookies are
produced in bulk. But Aswad is an equal opportunity baker.
She ships huge orders of gourmet cookies and nuts to retailers
around the country. She also markets her products to busy
moms picking-up children from school. “I walk the carpool line (at Kentucky Country
Day school) with cookies and milk.” Najla’s cookies can be baked in quantity, or one
at a time. Yes, you can eat just one!
Najla Aswad is a woman of contrasts. Her heritage is Lebanese and German; her
food products are kosher. She studied to be a doctor; she became a caterer. She
is a native New Yorker; she is an active member of Kentucky Proud, the state’s farm
marketing program. She is an award-winning entrepreneur; she is a fierce advocate
of mom-cooked family dinners. Her work and personal life are all of one piece. “I
don’t have a business plan. I have a life plan.”
Mom to three children ages 3-10 years Aswad has operated three businesses: a
bed-and-breakfast, a catering business, and a food specialty company. In 2007,
the National Association of Women Business Owners (Louisville chapter)
recognized her as a Woman Business Owner of Distinction. One wonders how she
has been able to build a national name-brand product while still helping with
homework and cooking dinner for her family. Aswad’s precocious energy and
tolerance for sleep deprivation have helped. Her consuming passion for food
sustains her.
“I catered my first party when I was 14 years old,” says Aswad. Her passion for food
persisted through college at SUNY Binghamton. When she went to sit for the
entrance exam for medical school, she excused herself to go to the restroom, and
kept walking. “I knew I had to get this (cooking) thing out of my system.” After
graduation, she bought a five-room bed-and-breakfast inn, with a 30-seat
restaurant, near the Catskills. There, she cooked seven days a week for seven
years. Once married, she moved her catering business from the White Pillars Inn to
her home kitchen. “My business grew by 30 percent with each child. My biggest
event was when my daughter was 3 weeks old. I was literally pumping breast milk
during my breaks…between sautéing and serving.
“You can’t take bad ingredients and make a good cookie,” says Aswad. So she
purchases the best ingredients: Organic wheat flour, Madagascar vanilla, Belgian
dark chocolate, fresh nuts, berries and jam for her cookies; and, high-quality
macadamia nuts, pecans, walnuts and almonds that are savory and sweet, coated
with seven different spices, for her nuts. “I like to layer with flavor and textures…that’
s why I love the Gone Nuts. There’s so much happening in your mouth.” Gone Nuts
won the Best In Show and Best Snack Item at the Kosherfest 2006 held in New York
City.
Aswad is devoted to family dinners. Yet, she is aware of the mixed messages
women receive: work hard; drive your children to activities; cook nutritious dinners
that everyone loves. “Everybody talks about the importance of family dinners, but
no one tells us how to do it. I want to stand up and say, stop making my only option
for piano lessons at 5 p.m.!” Cooking takes time, contrary to a Food Network
culture that says we can make a fabulous meal in 30 minutes. “Rachael Ray can
make a 30-minute meal because she doesn’t have kids hanging on her.” Realizing
that many of us might not relish the idea of cooking nightly dinner, she says “If you’
re going to cook, love to cook…Get your hands in the flour and knead it. Follow
recipes, but make them your own. Experiment.” And she believes children should
be invited to help with cooking. “My three-and-a-half-year old has been in the
kitchen since he was two.” And 10-year-old Zachary cuts like a chef. “He’s been
using knives since he was 4 years old,” she says. “Give them a plastic non-serrated
knife. Let them cut iceberg lettuce or a soft cucumber. Children will eat what they
cook.”
“The food business is limitless,” Aswad says. Her food “business” is not limited to
growing a thriving business or healthy children. Aswad sees food as a tool for
changing the world. Her dream is to bring Afghanis, Israelis, Arabs, and Iraqis
together in the kitchen, where they will share their similarities. She sees the kitchen
as a neutral place. “It is the place we nurture our children, our families, our souls
our bodies. Food is the common strand that links us all…World peace is just a
matter of cinnamon and allspice.” We asked Najla to provide nutritious and flavorful
home recipes that her children will eat. Sorry, chocoholics, but the cookie recipes
are trade secrets!
NAJLA’S RECIPE FOR HUMMUS
“We are never without hummus in our house.
It is dairy-free, highly nutritious and a great snack to have on hand.”
2 cans whole chick peas, 1 can fully drained
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice, no substitutes!
1 tsp. kosher salt
5 tbsp. tahini, ground sesame seed paste
Parsley, paprika, olive oil for garnish
Vegetables and pita bread
Put all the ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth. Serve on a flat
serving dish along with veggies and pita bread. Sprinkle with parsley, paprika and
drizzle with olive oil.
NAJLA’S PENNE PASTA WITH TOMATO BASIL SAUCE AND CHICKEN
“The foundation of this recipe is the sauce. It is so simple to make yet so versatile
that you can build on it and create so many other dishes. See suggestions below.”
1 medium onion, chopped small
3 garlic cloves, peeled, uncut
4 tbsp. olive oil
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes (optional)
1- 28 oz. can whole roma tomatoes in juice
1/2-3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1 lb penne (any shape you like is fine)
Salt and pepper to taste
Basil leaves, fresh is best
In a large deep skillet on medium heat, sauté onion and garlic in olive oil until the
onions become translucent and the is garlic soft enough to mash with a fork, about
10 minutes.(I like this technique with the garlic because it prevents burning small
minced pieces and yields an interesting shape to the dish.) Add the red pepper.
Start the water for the noodles, when the water reaches a rolling boil, add the pasta
and cook until al dente about 7 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water to stop the
cooking.
Chop the whole tomatoes into tiny pieces. You can do this with a food processor,
pulsing them until chunky. Add the juice and the chopped tomatoes to the onion
and garlic. Let this reduce until all the juice is evaporated and you have thick paste.
This may take 20 minutes. Stir occasionally to avoid scorching. (This reduction time
yields an amazingly rich tomato flavor that is not the same as starting with a
crushed thick sauce.)
Add the cream, salt and pepper to taste. Add your pasta, stir to coat every
noodle, sprinkle chopped basil leaves and serve steaming hot!
You can jazz this up by adding in fresh leaf spinach and cubed fresh mozzarella at
the final stir, shredded roasted chicken or left over sliced grilled chicken. Substitute
the basil for finely chopped fresh rosemary and mozzarella. For a sophisticated
adult dinner, add 1/4 cup vodka to the tomatoes, then the cream for a fabulous
vodka cream sauce.
Serve with crusty bread and salad. Bon Appetit!
Customers can order Najla’s gourmet Gone Chunky cookies and Gone Nuts spiced
mixed nuts through the web site at www.najlas.com, or directly from the retail store
at 8007 Vine Crest Ave, Suite 3, Louisville, KY 40222, 502.412.4420. Other cookie
varieties include Classic Chocolate, Macadamia Chocolate Chunk, Oatmeal Cherry
Chunk, Chocolate Walnut Expresso, Peanut Butter and Chocolate, and White
Chocolate Pecan. Custom assortments and shipped gift boxes are available.
Writer Kimberly Crum can be reached at (kimcrum@iamtodayswoman.com).
