Bet you didn’t know it was Newark Restaurant Week (www.gonewarkrestaurantweek.com). You can save big through the weekend at thirty downtown eateries. Check out the website to see which of your favorite restaurants are participating.

The beloved Masterwork Chorus (www.masterwork.org)  launches its season on Sunday singing pieces from Romantic composers like Brahms, Bruckner, and Mendelssohn. The concert is at the Dorothy Young Center at Drew University.

The Cheetah Girls bring their One World Tour to Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall (www.boardwalkhall.com) this Saturday night. Hellogoodbye headlines at The Stone Pony (www.stoneponyonline.com).  Get a taste of Dinner With Diamond—all Neil, all the time,  at McCloone’s Supper Club (www.timmcloonessupperclub.com) tomorrow night. The Bacon Brothers are at the Mayo Center (www.mayoarts.org) in Morristown.

Get your hiking boots on and hit the trails at the Sussex Swamp Preserve (www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/newjersey/work/art8499.html) You’ll learn how the geologic formations in the area are so important to the biodiversity of the site. And it’s good exercise!  

It may be the last weekend this season to go apple picking. Here are a few farms that are still offering you a chance to pick your own, although we suggest you call first: www.wightmansfarms.com, www.hillviewfarmsnj.com, www.melickstownfarm.com. 

Want to learn to weave a basket from the real artisans? This Sunday, basket maker Mary May of Forked River is leading a workshop at the Lily Lake studio in the Noyes Museum of Art (www.noyesmuseum.org). You’ll learn to make a shaker-style table basket with a carved handle.

Tomorrow at Saks (www.saksfifthavenue.com) at Riverside Square Mall in Hackensack, you can preview the St. John Resort Collection with a representative from the line.

It’s the Second Saturday in downtown Collingswood, (www.collingswood.com/arts/second-saturday) with dozens of  merchants and  restaurants participating. Everything stays open late, and the streets are alive with shoppers. Here’s a story we published last March that brings it home: www.njmyway.com/content/view/379/101/

Get your Halloween started tonight, with the first annual boardwalk costume parade in Asbury Park (www.cityofasburypark.com) and a Chamber of Commerce sponsored march tomorrow night.

Follow this with some scary good times all weekend.

Try a haunted hayride (www.heavenhillfarm.com/halospok.html) in Vernon. Same theme in Flemington, at Schaefer Farms (www.schaeferfarms.com) Or face your worst nightmare at DePiero’s Farm in Montvale (www.night-mares.com). 

If you are thinking about going to the theatre… our friends at the George Street Playhouse have some Halloween specials planned for audiences this weekend at their funny/scary original hit musical The Toxic Avenger. (www.gsponline.org)  

All that screaming really helps work up your appetite!

The hosts at Mortons Steakhouse in Hackensack (www.mortons.com) want you to sink your teeth into a juicy burger, and it’s for a great cause. They’ll donate $5 for each sirloin burger entrée you order, to the Make A Wish Foundation, which makes dreams come true for critically ill youngsters.

Marlton gets a brand new Bonefish Grill, (www.bonefishgrill.com) the seafood chain that keeps spawning all over the state – with good reason; great quality and good value.

Kids can make their own edible Halloween haunted house at Chef Central (www.chefcentral.com) in Paramus.

In Flanders, families can create food and art…together.  That’s the idea behind Cooks and Crafts (www.cooksandcrafts.com) where you can learn how to make a gourmet meal, or a  home-made house gift.

Enjoy the quality time, and let someone else clean up the mess! Now that’s a recipe for a great weekend.

What’s new from the world beyond? Just in time for Halloween, ghosts, ghouls, and celebs will be populating the Parsippany Hilton all weekend for the cool Chiller Theatre Convention (www.chillertheatre.com). Stars include Burt Reynolds and Angie Dickenson, for the kids there’s a Batmobile, and a costume contest.    

It’s Make It Spooky Family Project Day on Sunday at the Jersey City Museum. (www.jerseycitymuseum.org). Craft costume-making  projects and storytelling, all celebrating the creepiness of the season.

In Atlantic City, lots of laughs. Regis is playing Harrahs, with special guest Nikki Blonsky… (www.harrahsresort.com). Robin Williams is at The Borgata (www.theborgata.com).

If you’ve got a dollar to spare, or some non-perishable foods … stop by the London Food Company (www.londonfoodco.com/) at 416 Bloomfield Avenue in Montclair, and make a donation. The food drive will benefit the United Way of Bloomfield (www.unitedwaybloomfield.org).

Also in Montclair tomorrow night,  the town arts council is sponsoring a Gallery Walk. (www.gallery51.org/workshops.php?workshop_id=9). You can ride on shuttle buses between ten galleries, and you’ll be eligible for a special prize drawing and freebies at local restaurants.

The Mt.Tabor Historical Society (www.mounttabornj.org/) is getting some buzz for this exhibit; celebrating the life and work of Antonio Petruccelli – one of the nation’s foremost illustrators, and a resident of the town.  He drew covers for The New Yorker, Fortune, and Collier’s Magazines.

And on Sunday in Bernardsville, our friend author Julie Maloney speaks from the heart about writing as a life tool—how it played an especially important role in her battle against breast cancer. You can sign up at www.bernardsvillelibrary.org.

Elephant expert Cynthia Moss—she spent four decades in Africa studying them—is at the Birchwood Manor in Whippany (www.birchwoodmanor.com) tomorrow night, to discuss the complex social lives of our favorite pachyderms.It’s all for a great cause- St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center (www.sthuberts.org) and the Amboseli Trust For Elephants (www.elephanttrust.org).

The dinner, book signing and presentation will cost you $100.

You’ll never forget this evening – have a great weekend!

If nothing else this weekend, go see the pride of Summit!

The Fortnightly Group of Summit and the Summit Junior Fortnightly Club created a designer inspired green facelift for their historic Twin Maples house. Each room is amazing. You’ll also get a lesson in how to heat a home with a new geo-thermal system. Here’s the website: www.historictwinmaples.org.  Ticket purchases benefit the Overlook Hospital Cancer Center and the Twin Maples Historic Preservation Fund. Don’t miss the carriage house in the back—for a true green experience.

It’s a Garden Party on Sunday for another worthwhile cause in Asbury Park. An auction of works by local artist/philanthropist Laura Brunetti (www.lestrellastudio.atomicshops.com) to benefit the Center House (www.thecenterinap.com). 

Our friends in New Brunswick are hosting a pub/wine crawl through downtown.Check the city website (www.newbrunswick.com) for registration details. You’ll find some great tastings and be eligible to win door prizes.

Looking to get in the Halloween spirit? There’s the much revered East Windsor Haunted House (www.hauntedhouse.squad142.com) sponsored by the town Rescue Squad.

Up north, go by this one: www.madnessonmeadowlane.com in Paramus, which promises to be the ultimate Halloween experience.

Down the street, for the little ones, a tamer Spooktacular at the New Jersey Children’s Museum. (www.njcm.com/spooktacular.html).

Got a great and scary haunted house in your neighborhood? Click on Write the Editor below and let us know. Attach a photo if you like. We’ll try and publish the most ghoulish picks next week.