Too Little Thyme’s Pickles & Preserves: Pickling to Perfection

Jane Costello of Too Little Thyme has mastered the art of pickling to perfection.  Based out of her home in Westport, Costello has been sharing her old family pickle and preserves recipes with Connecticut for the past 15 years.  “I am a foodie,” says Costello.  “I am always in the kitchen and I am happy to be turning this hobby into my career.”  

Growing up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Costello spent her weekends browsing the rows of stalls at the Lancaster Central Market, America’s oldest operating farmer’s market.  “I was used to produce not wrapped in cellophane,” says Costello.  “My mother always had something fresh on the counter.”  It was from her childhood days in the market and in her family garden that Costello developed her love for fresh ingredients.  “It sounds like the old story, but everything I learned in the kitchen was from my mother and grandmother,” says Costello, “including my pickle recipe.”

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Knipschildt & Red Bee: Chocolate & Honey Tasting Event

Fritz Knipschildt of House of Knipschildt/Chocopologie and Marina Marchese of Red Bee Honey are teaming up for a very unique evening of tasting and pairings. Marina and Fritz will present tasting flights partnering Artisan Chocolate & Single-Origin Honey at Chocopologie's SoNo location. Sweet! This event includes hors d’oeuvres & Cava, in addition to the tasting flights seen below. 

Tasting Flights Include:

• Farmhouse Honeycomb Enrobed in 96% Dark Chocolate
• Orange Blossom Honey Drizzled Over Cocoa Nib Brittle
• Buckwheat Honey Ganache Truffles 
• Red Currant Honey Drizzled Over a Raspberry and Pink Peppercorn Bonbon
• Goldenrod Honey and 71% Ecuadorian Single Bean Dark Chocolate Fondue 
• Creamed Honey Spread Over Chocolate Hazelnut Shortbread

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Calling All Pepperheads: Salemme Peppers

If you are the type who scoffs at the red pepper flakes provided at the local pizza parlor, screwing off the top to be able to pour the maximum number of flakes on your slice while saying loudly enough for tables nearby to hear, “Ha!  You call this hot?”, then you really need Tom Salemme.

Along with his extended Italian family residing in and around Cheshire CT – and to be fair, Brooklyn - Tom keeps the Salemme tradition going. It started a couple of generations ago, great-great-grandparents growing peppers for their own use, but friends and neighbors had to have some, too. 

The tradition lived on long after the first and second generations passed away and the family farm was sold. Salemme peppers stayed, sowed and harvested on local farmland owned by T&D Growers, dried in nearby greenhouses, and, finally, the tiny peppers are plucked by hand from the dry plants at long tables in Tom Salemme’s backyard on an autumn afternoon.

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Artisanal Tasting Event @ Trinity Church in Southport

Get your taste buds revved up for Saturday, November 3rd from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in the Parish Hall at Trinity Episcopal Church in Southport. Artisanal foods and beverages will be available to swish, swill, sniff, and savor. 

Sample all kinds of goodies from Fairfield Cheese Company, Red Bee honey, Olivette oils and vinegars, Wave Hill Breads, Izzy B’s cupcakes, The Pop Shop cake pops, and Tea-RRific! ice cream. And when you get thirsty, try Henri's Reserve boutique champagnes or the latest brews from Beaver Beer. Need a hot beverage to soothe your savage soul? No problem! Try Babycat Milkbar’s fabulous teas. Sure to be a crowd pleaser!

The artisanal tasting is meant to not only explore those foods and beverages that are unique and extraordinary, but it is also a great way to support local businesses.

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Nothin' But Granola Bars Make it Big @ Le Pain Quotidien

Big news for a local baker whose career CTbites has followed from the very beginning. Westport based NOTHIN’ BUT Premium Snack Bars have just announced that they have created a specialty blend granola bar for Le Pain Quotidien, an international chain of bakery cafes. Several months ago Nothin' But CEO, Steven Laitmon, and Jerri Graham, the founder and creator of the company, approached Le Pain with the idea of making a proprietary blended granola bar. Receptive about a Premium Snack Bar that could capture their commitment to excellence, the team at Le Pain readily agreed. Back home in Westport, Jerri and Steven set to work and started the process of crafting various combinations until they achieved what they felt was perfection. 

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Walter Stewart's Market Fall Shopping Guide (sponsored post)

Fall is here and Walter Stewart's Market, a fixture in downtown New Canaan since 1907, is celebrating the season with great products for your whole family. For those who haven’t shopped this local gem, take a a trip down the aisles of Walter Stewart’s Market, where you’ll find an amazing array of local, seasonal and specialty items...not to mention the Stewart’s wine shop.  Finally one stop shopping. 

How better to enjoy in these crisp Fall months, than with local apple and apple cider from Lyman Orchards in Middlefield CT or the exceptionally delicious Cider donuts from Blue Jay Orchards in Bethel. 

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Ad: What's In Season @ Walter Stewart's Market

With summer in full swing there are even more reasons to shop Walter Stewart's Market, a fixture in downtown New Canaan since 1907. This family run grocer features not only outstanding customer service and a great selection of everyday needs for your family, but also local producers and hard to find specialty goods in every aisle.  

Can't get to the farmers' market? Browse through Walter Stewart's produce section where local CT farmers from Wagner Farm in East Windsor, Millstone Farm in Wilton, and Dzen Farm in South Windsor, are delivering the very best of the CT harvest. What's in season right now? Here is the lineup: corn, yellow and green squash, green beans, blueberries, apricots, sugar plums, and green cabbage. Beautiful beefsteak tomatoes will be coming soon. 

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Dine With Design @ The Glass House: Chef Update

The second annual Dine with Design will happen June 9, 2012, on the magnificent and incomparable grounds of Philip Johnson’s Glass House in New Canaan. With the tremendous success of prior year’s food presentations, the afternoon will again feature incredible tasting menus designed and prepared by some of the most renowned and respected chefs in America. Several of the chefs are featured in Darryl Estrine and Kelly Kochendorfer’s cookbook, Harvest to Heat and this year’s day and evening lineup will create one of the most delicious culinary experiences of the season.

The participating chefs include three locals, Jeremy McMillan from The Farmhouse Restaurant at The Bedford Post Inn, Frederic Kieffer from Artisan in Southport, and Tim LaBant from The Schoolhouse at Cannondale in Wilton; two chefs from Cambridge, MA, Tony Maws from Craigie on Main and Ana Sortun from Oleana; plus Missy Robbins from A Voce in New York City and Gabriel Rucker from Le Pigeon in Portland, OR. The last two of the featured chefs, Missy Robbins and Gabriel Rucker present two vastly different paths up the culinary ladder and as well as approaches in their current restaurants. 

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Sweet & Simple® Cookies...Baked Locally, With Love

Cookies are, by definition, hard to resist.  Fairfield resident Michelle Jaffee has made resistance even more difficult with her new line of cookies, Sweet & Simple, adorable in their individual cellophane wrappers, brown and white labels and retro daisy logo.  What’s more, the label proclaims, they’re “baked with love.”

We at CTBites like to support the local, entrepreneurial spirit. (Plus – let’s face it -- we don’t hate eating cookies.)  So we set out to sample the sweets.

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First Annual Wakeman Town Farm Chicken Coop Tour

Wakeman Town Farm is giving local backyard chicken fans something to cluck about! Announcing the First Annual Wakeman Town Farm Chicken Coop Tour, in which local chicken coop owners in Westport and lower Weston will open their unique henhouses to the public.

Wakeman Town Farm threw down the gauntlet to local chicken-keeping aficionados. We asked: Who wants bragging rights for building the Hautest Henhouse...the Cadillac of Chicken Shacks...the Coop De Ville? The result is Wakeman Town Farm's First Annual Chicken Coop Tour, Saturday, May 5 from 10 a.m.-2 p.m., a fun-filled afternoon touring approximately 15 chicken coops in Westport and Weston and enjoying a casual After-Tour Sundae back at the farm, with ice cream generously provided by The Farmer's Cow!

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