Overnight Steel Cut Oats c/o Healthy Living Blog

Steel cut oats are the holy grail of breakfast food, but to achieve optimal texture and taste, they require about 45 minutes of cooking time…time most of us don't have in the morning. To solve this problem, cooks (like Mark Bittman) have developed recipes for "overnight" oatmeal reducing am cook time to a scant 10 minutes. This recipe from Jeanette's Healthy Living blog delivers a nutrient and flavor packed meal for everyone in the family, and although Bittman's version is pretty good, Jeanette's has a few extra ingredients that speak to me. 

Click to read more ...

This Week In Wine: Viñedo de los Vientos Dessert Wine

Served at leFarm in Westport, Viñedo de los Vientos “Alcyone” is a wine worth sampling.

An Uruguayan dessert wine made with the Tannat grape, you'll experience luscious flavors of cocoa-dusted black raspberries, vanilla bean and exotic spices.  Intense and rich without being cloyingly sweet, this wine is positively addictive.  Pair with molten chocolate cake, pour over vanilla ice cream, or sip on its own as a fantastic liquid dessert!

Click to read more ...

Thanksgiving Cooking Class w/ Chef Pietro Scotti

Chef Pietro Scotti, of Westport restaurant fixture DaPietro's, is offering a Thanksgiving Cooking class on November 16th at The Clarke Culinary Center.

Chef Scotti will share cooking tips and the culinary secrets to some of his favorite Thanksgiving dishes when he demonstrates the preparation of a three-course Thanksgiving meal including Sweet Potato Gnocchi, Vegetable Stuffed Turkey and a special Espresso Pannacotta. 

For those Fairfield County residents who have enjoyed Chef Scotti's inventive creations for over 20 years, this is your chance to cook side-by-side with this acclaimed Connecticut chef. Take this opportunity to learn from a master in this unique and beautiful setting. The class will run from 6:30-8:30pm. 

The cost of each of Chef Pietro’s classes is $85 per person and includes all food, supplies and tastings. Pre-registration is required by calling 800-842-5275, Ext. 206 or online at www.clarkeculinarycenter.com

Reheated: Events, Thanksgiving Help & Momofuku

In Connecticut...

Silverstar Diner in Norwalk is celebrating 30 years with a $30 for a family of 4, family meal during the month of November.

Foxwoods Food & Wine Festival is this weekend featuring a walk-around food & wine tasting with over 40 culinary presenters, over 600 wine, beer & spirits and demonstrations. Info CTbites.com.

Colman Andrews, Greenwich resident, acclaimed cookbook author speaks tonight, Nov. 2 at 7 pm at Greenwich Library. Info: GreenwichLibrary.org.

Fairway's grand opening is November 3 on Canal Street in Stamford. CTbites.com.

Mark your calendars! CTbites is participating in "Visions of Gingerbread: The Sweetest Architects" exhibit at the Stamford Museum and Nature Center, opening November 6th. Info: StamfordMuseum.org.

The Avon Theatre will present the film Kings of Pastry on Nov. 30th with a post-film Q&A with the directors, presented with Alliance Française of Greenwich & Versailles Pâtisserie. Via LunchBreakChronicles.org

....and beyond.

Click to read more ...

Gingerbread Contest: Part 2

Gingerbread House Day 3: After a fitful night full of dreams involving houses crashing down with disastrous effect, we gathered to set the foundations and raise the walls for our edible CTbites farm stand. For those late to the game, this exercise in amateur baking is all part of a plan to raise money for The Stamford Museum's "Visions of Gingerbread" Exhibit" where professional bakers will show and then auction off gingerbread houses far more spectacular than ours.  

Click to read more ...

Behind-the-Scenes at Stamford's Fairway

With over 80,000 square feet, a staff of 500 passionate employees and 77 years of experience, Fairway Market’s newest location in Stamford at Harbor Point is poised for success and sure to draw the grocery-getting masses. The store will officially open on November 3 with a grand opening party but we were lucky to get an early behind-the-scenes tour with CEO Howie Glickberg, the grandson of Fairway founder Nathan Glickberg. 

Click to read more ...

Belgique Chocolatier Opens in New Canaan

Chocoholics pay attention! Next time you have that hankering for serious chocolate,  run over to treat yourself and your best friends to the extraordinary Belgian style, hand filled, preservative free chocolates at Belgique Chocolatier.

Belgique is familiar to some chocolate lovers in Fairfield County who have enjoyed the chocolates, fine pastries and ice cream at Susan and Pierre Gilissen’s first location in Kent, CT. After searching for a storefront in Fairfield County, they landed on a jewel of a space set back from Elm St. in New Canaan.  This location opened in mid-September and is 100 % about the chocolate.  Before opening in Kent in 2001, Chef Pierre Gilissen served as Executive Chef and Manager at the Residence of the Netherlands Ambassador to the U.S. in Washington, D.C.  There,  he prepared all meals, receptions and teas for the Ambassadors, their families and up to 1,000 guests.  His passion for chocolates began during his years there.

Click to read more ...

90 Seconds with Bobby Flay

It's the classic 2 girls meet boy who met grill story. Celebrity chef and generally good guy, Bobby Flay, greeted a comically long line of fans while signing his new cookbook BOBBY FLAY'S THROWDOWN! today @ Stew Leonard's.

Don't miss Norwalk's own outstanding local pie baker Michele Albano of Michele's Pies on page 263 in her throwdown with Bobby for the best Pumpkin Pie recipe. 

Coming soon: We'll be giving away a signed THROWDOWN cookbook in the next month.  We'll keep you posted. 

[In photo, left to right: Stephanie Webster, Bobby Flay, Amy Kundrat]

What's New @ The Westport Farmers Market

Too early to start planning your Thanksgiving menu?  Think again. Stop by the market this Thursday November 4th as BLOODROOT RESTAURANT presents vegetarian stuffing fit for your holiday table or any really any table. Their CHESTNUT STUFFING with shitake mushroom gravy starts with their own bread crumbs (don’t even think of NOT eating their bread when dining there) from the previous day’s choice of house baked potato rye, oatmeal sunflower or whole wheat loaves. They combine those precious crumbs with chopped and roasted chestnuts, bright orange squash, pumpkin seeds and gently sauteed onions and shallots.  This combo would be perfect on its own or alongside your holiday entree.

Celeriac apple puree is the base of the luscious filling in BLOODROOT’S FILO PASTRY SHELLS.

Click to read more ...

Gingerbread Contest: Part 1

The phrase that keeps going through my head as I painstakingly roll out sheets of fondant to recreate wood siding for the CTbites entry in the Stamford Museum's Gingerbread Exhibit is "What was I thinking?" I'm a professional eater, not a professional baker. Knee deep in food dye and frosting, I am so far out of my element, I could be in another country. Obstacles aside, team CTbites is up for the challenge, and driven by the desire to raise money for Stamford Museum's educational programs, we embrace our inner cake decorator. (And thank you Michele Klem of CakeSuite for not screening my distress calls.)

Day 1: 

After a 1 hour planning session with our staff baker and contributor Deanna Foster and our own Chef Nicole, we decide to go with a local CT farm stand theme. Fruit, veggies, grass…with the added bonus of a structure that only requires three walls. How hard could this be? 

Click to read more ...