The Wine Mapp Opens in Greenwich Ingredients Greenwich Specialty Market Wine Chat Wine Tasting Jessica Ryan November 17, 2011 The Wine Mapp, a unique wine and spirits boutique, recently opened its doors in Greenwich. The store is nicely sized, cozy and intimate. There’s a feeling of warmth at The Wine Mapp that eludes the larger competitors. The store is owned by Allyson and Charlie Do of Norwalk. It was Charlie who first had the idea of opening up such a shop after visiting a restaurant in New York City where a waiter came out with a list of wines that were stored on an electric tablet of some sort. He knew, at that moment, that he was going to open a wine shop that would incorporate technology - more specifically, he knew he was going to incorporate the iPad to give customers the best possible shopping experience. Read More
Butter & Herb Roasted Turkey with Madeira c/o Fine Cooking Features Entertaining Holiday Thanksgiving Recipe Fine Cooking / Anna Thomas November 16, 2011 Opening up the latest issue of Fine Cooking, we found it impossible to take our eyes of the cover. So who better to kick off our series of Thanksgiving Day recipes than the good folks at Fine Cooking who came up with this amazing-looking recipe and have let us share it with you. So if you've got the bird in your sights but are lacking inspiration, here is one recipe you may want to consider. Butter & Herb Roasted Turkey with Madeira Serves 10 to 12, with a good probability of leftovers Read More
Swiss Chard Calzones Features Entertaining Farmers Market healthy Recipe Melissa Roberts November 15, 2011 As we creep into November, the look of the greenmarket changes. More gourds, potatoes, and with the exception of collards and kale, less greens. I’m ready for a seasonal change but part of me is still holding onto warmer months past and long to see some leafy goodness. This week at the Imperial Avenue market I spotted some gorgeous rainbow swiss chard. Now chard and I have a history, one in which I could never imagine a future promoting it. Growing up in suburban New York, my parents maintained a good sized garden where swiss chard thrived; in fact, took over. Mom and dad couldn’t give it away fast enough, and the stuff that remained made its way to our dinner table just about every night. Later in life I renewed my relationship with chard. At Gourmet, our Executive Food Editor couldn’t stand the stuff, but to her credit, she was open minded enough to know that other people enjoyed it--or at least should eat it, and because I had more than a passing familiarity with it, chard crept into a few recipes I developed at the magazine. Read More
GotChef Gourmet Food Truck in Milford Features Restaurant Food Truck Italian Milford CTbites Team November 13, 2011 Biagio’s Barone’s is reinventing the wheel. Literally. His GotChef gourmet food truck, which is parked on the Eastbound side of the Milford, CT Metro North Station, is turning the mobile canteen concept on its head. From Monday through Friday, 11:00am-8:00 pm, and Saturday 3-7pm, Chef Biagio and his crew offer up-all natural, creative, delectable cuisine out of his neon yellow restaurant-on-wheels. You won’t find the typical taco, BBQ-grilled cheese-Belgian waffles-cupcake food truck fare on the GotChef menu. His selections, which vary with the season and change daily, are comparable to anything you can find in an upscale Italian bistro. Some of the recent chalkboard specials include: Capesante Farcito (Stuffed Scallop with Lobster, Shrimp, Sweet Bread Lemon Stuffing in a Scallop Shell, drizzled with Lemon Gremolata), Homemade Pumpkin Gnocchi, Slow Roasted Short Ribs--served over a mushroom truffle risotto, Wild-Grilled Salmone Agrodolce-- topped with a pineapple Sweet and Sour sauce and served over balsamic glazed green beans, and an Osso Bucco Read More
2011 Guide to Buying Local and Heritage Turkeys Ingredients Events Holiday Local Farm Specialty Market CTbites Team November 08, 2011
Curds & Brew Class @ 109 Cheese & Wine in Ridgefield Ingredients Restaurant Cheese Specialty Market Amy Kundrat November 08, 2011 To mark the conclusion of American Cheese Month, 109 Cheese & Wine in Ridgefield is pairing great American brews with great American artisan and farmstead cheeses. Curds & Brew class will be held on Sunday, November 13 at 5:30 p.m. and will be $45 per person. The class and tasting will kick-off with a beer fondue, followed by a pairing of six beers and six cheeses (see list below Read More
Saugatuck Craft Butchery Opens in Westport Ingredients Butcher Home Delivery Specialty Market Westport Lou Gorfain November 05, 2011 “Americans eat way too much meat," Ryan Fibiger says, and then grins, "I guess that sounds funny coming from a butcher." No kidding. But then Fibiger is a butcher truly on the “cutting edge” -- one of the very few whole animal cutters in America, sourcing his organic meat from local sustainable farms and utilizing every part of the animal, from nose to tail. Once a Wall Street investment banker, he’s turned from issuing stock to butchering them. For the past two years Fibiger trained with the “moo-rus”” at Fleisher's Meats, a whole animal butcher shop in Kingston, NY. With his knives honed as keen as his business skills, Ryan decided to open Saugatuck Craft Butchery and join in Westport’s red hot culinary renaissance. Read More
Maple & Chile Roasted Acorn Squash Features Farmers Market healthy Recipe Melissa Roberts November 01, 2011 Quite honestly, I never met a roasted vegetable I didn’t like. I roast it all: carrots (the only way to eat them besides raw), onions, okra, even broccoli. So now we’ve come to squash. I don’t know why I’m initially reluctant to prepare it, especially this time of year when it’s everywhere and the varieties are endless. Squash is like a misunderstood pitbull, tough on the outside, but sweet and tender on the inside. It can be daunting to approach at first, but really it’s no big deal. I’ve been drawn to acorn squash this season. The flesh has a pleasant vegetal quality that’s a breeze to prepare and it’s equally delicious with fish, meat, and poultry. Sliced into crescent moons, tossed with butter, olive oil and chile flakes, it gets a drizzle of maple syrup towards the end which caramelizes the squash ever so slightly. A combo of sweet and sassy. The skin is tough and inedible (remember, it’s still part pitbull), but eaten with knife and fork, it’s Autumn on a Plate. Read More
Bumper Crop: Tuscan Kale Salad Features Farmers Market healthy Recipe Farm Fresh Melissa Roberts October 28, 2011 A recent Westport transplant from NYC, Melissa Roberts was a food editor for Gourmet for almost 9 years, where she toiled happily in the test kitchen developing and writing recipes for the magazine. She was also a cook and stylist in the Food Network's kitchen. Last Thursday’s Imperial Avenue Greenmarket in Westport fell on one of those perfect crisp and clear Fall days. The Greenmarket’s atmosphere was buzzing, complete with live music commemorating its 6th birthday. I joined in the celebration by treating myself to a Breakfast Pizza (pecorino, local bacon, fried egg) from Skinny Pines Pizza with Raus’ cold Roman Coffee to wash it all down. But my mission was not only to treat my belly, but to find inspiration amidst the produce, and it was there in spades beginning with a pile of deep green lacinato kale from Riverbank Farms in Roxbury, CT. Often with the freshest veggies the best way to treat them is the simplest. In this recipe, kale is shredded then tossed with a straightforward dressing of lemon and olive oil which brightens its earthy, mineral-like flavor, and a generous shower of nutty Parmigiano Reggiano. Read More
Go Waiter Restaurant Delivery Service Opens in FC Features Delivery Service Home Delivery Stephanie Webster October 27, 2011 How many nights have you sat at home wishing that dinner would magically appear on your doorstep? Well, maybe that's just me, but in Fairfield County the delivery options are generally limited to pizza and a few Chinese joints. Enter GoWaiter, a national franchised restaurant delivery service, who will for $3.99 pick up and deliver lunch and dinner from over 40 local restaurants. Check out the list of participating restaurants below (including Da Pietro's, Layla's Falafel, & Tabouli Grill): Read More
Friday Froth: Buck The Trend...Drink Good Beer Ingredients Friday Froth Beer James Gribbon October 21, 2011 Modern hipsterism is a weird and annoying thing. Here's how it goes: people had settled into a fairly stable fashion landscape by the time the millennium rolled around so they naturally started looking around for the next big thing. Lacking any creativity or new ideas of their own, they decided to take the most hideous and outdated clothing they could find and wear it as publicly as possible because "Haha, aren't I funny and clever and please oh god look at me." Since wearing ugly clothes is easier than actually being interesting, and neon hats from 1992 were cheaper than water, it caught on. Then everybody found out about The Cobrasnake and now the landscape is littered with "Aren't I cool for not looking cool but really that's what's cool about it but I'm too cool to acknowledge I actually really think this is cool." It's the Inception of pop culture trends, and somehow beer got caught up in it. I'm sure PBR doesn't mind that every idiot with an ironic mustache and Ladyhawke on their iPod has to have a Blue Ribbon tallboy in their hand, but this is the acid reflux disease of trends. It was ugly the first time, let's not have it again. Let's try something new, and let the revolution start with beer. Read More
Spiced Dark Chocolate & Pumpkin Seed Bark with Sea Salt Features Holiday Recipe Kid Friendly Dessert katie vitucci October 20, 2011 I am dubbing this treat "Halloween Candy for Grown-Ups." It's my kind of candy - a perfect combination of just enough sweetness, crunch, saltiness and a touch of spice. While the super dark varieties of chocolate aren't really my thing, I love bittersweet chocolate. Not only for it's purported health benefits but for, as it's name suggests - it's slightly bitter, not too sweet taste. I know I'm probably not the only one who can get a bit overwhelmed with the sickeningly sweet candy overload that comes with Halloween. This treat is perfect for folks like us and it's a fun treat to whip up for a teacher goodie bag, a hostess gift, or to serve if you're entertaining during the upcoming weeks. Read More
For the Love of Cheese Part 2: Cato Corner Farm Ingredients Local Artisan Local Farm Specialty Market CTbites Team October 20, 2011 Cato Corner Farm in Colchester, Connecticut produces a dozen styles of hand-made farmhouse cheeses from milk produced by their pasture-fed, hormone- and antibiotic-free Jersey cows. Elizabeth MacAlister, owner of the farm since 1979, began making cheeses in 1997. Her son Mark Gilman joined the operation in 1999 and is the head cheese maker. They make cheeses four days a week at Cato Corner; Dianna Sadowski works as a cheese maker one of those days. She wears a white hair bonnet, long white lab jacket and knee-high shiny white rubber boots when she works, an outfit that underscores her role as scientist in the cheese making process. While touring the operation’s underground cheese cave–which was pungently acrid from thousands of wheels of cheese ripening–she described that cheese makers must understand microbiology, pH values, bacteria and ammoniating. “But, you have to use your senses, too,” she said. “You can smell when a culture changes. That’s an art.” Read More
Going "Grüner"... Wine Notes from Barcelona Restaurant Ingredients This Week In Wine Wine Chat Gretchen Thomas October 18, 2011 Nearing the end of the summer, I always crave what’s ahead in the coming Autumn. I’m dying for some butternut squash, I’m researching fall fashion trends, and I’m assembling my line-up of brooding red wines to pour by the glass. Every now and then something shows up on my desk that brings me back to the present, and most recently it is this amazing white wine that can combat every humid day we have left in this season. Truly, it was a tough summer; I found it hard to reach for a glass of anything other than water on some days, but I have found the solution in the 2010 Grüner Veltliner (pronounced GREW-ner VELT-lee-ner) made by Gustav Winery in Austria. If you are new to this varietal, here’s the scoop: Grüner Veltliner has been the darling white wine of nerdy sommeliers (like myself) for about 5 years now. Read More
Friday Froth: Nelson's Red Oktober Ingredients Friday Froth Beer James Gribbon October 14, 2011 On October 21, 1805, Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson lead a British fleet against the combined power of the French and Spanish fleets miles off the coast of Trafalgar, Spain. Napoleon wanted a French hegemony in Europe, the British, not so much. Nelson had twenty seven ships at his command against thirty three in the Franco-Spanish fleet. By the end of the battle twenty two ships would be destroyed and Nelson would be dead. Twenty eight ships would eventually sail on to England - every single British ship, plus the French flag vessel Bucentaure, and its Admiral, Villeneuve. The British hadn't lost a single one. As for Admiral Nelson, his body was placed in a barrel of "spirits," likely rum, and Nelson became one of the biggest heroes in British history. The story goes that when the barrel was opened back home it was found to be empty of liquid - the sailors had drilled a hole and drank it all. Thereafter rum was given the nickname "Nelson's Blood" on ships of the Royal Navy. Honestly though: this column has almost nothing to do with any of that. I just like the story. Shall we? Read More
Make the Perfect Pie with Fritz Knipschildt Ingredients Chef Talk Cooking Classes Holiday Amy Kundrat October 12, 2011 "Making the perfect pie is an art." Master Chocolatier Fritz Knipschidlt, owner of Café Chocopologie in South Norwalk uttered these words that inspired his upcoming October 20 class at Clarke Culinary Showroom. "This is the time of year that everyone starts thinking about pies and baking. The holidays are coming, and thoughts turn to Thanksgiving and what to make for dessert to serve after the turkey," continues Knipschildt, who will share his secrets of creating fabulous pies during his class at the The Clarke Culinary Center on Thursday, October 20th from 6-8PM. Pre-registration for this and Clarke's impressive fall class line-up are required and can be done online at www.clarkeculinarycenter.com or by calling 800-842-5275, ext. 206. Read More
Butchering Demo @ Westport Farmer's Mkt. October 13 Ingredients Butcher Specialty Market Westport Stephanie Webster October 07, 2011 Ryan Fibiger, owner of Craft Butchery (opening soon in Saugatuck, Westport) will be making a unique appearance at The Westport Farmer's Market on Thursday October 13th. He will be walking guests through two butchering demonstrations at 11am and 1pm. Ryan feels passionately that for anyone who loves food, understanding where food really comes from is an integral part of the culinary experience. The demos will be on a side (half) of a heritage breed, pasture-raised pig sourced from the Hudson Valley. Throughout the demos Ryan will be hosting a discussion and Q&A on the following topics: -Basic butchering techniques and tools -Overview of the animal (farm, breed, age, feed, slaughter, primal cuts, etc.) -Demonstrate break down of basic primal cuts -Demonstrate break down into the case-ready cuts that everyone recognizes Read More
Support Fresh Food Campaign @ Westport Farmers’ Mkt Ingredients Farmers Market Stephanie Webster October 03, 2011 Wanna help? Members of the community are requested to donate fresh, healthy produce and non-perishables to their neighbors in need as part of CT Food Bank’s fresh food campaign. This Thursday, October 6th, come on down to the Westport Farmers’ Market and participate in a food drive to benefit Connecticut Food Bank, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Westport Farmers Market was thrilled to learn of the CT Food Bank’s fresh food campaign. “We’re encouraging shoppers to grab some items from their pantries before heading over to the market,” said Lori Cochran-Dougall, Director at Westport Farmers’ Market. “They then can fill their bag or grab a free one from MXenergy and then top it off with fresh produce and other market products. Just think how far $20.00 can go…” Read More
Breakfast Quinoa via The Parsley Thief Features Recipe Breakfast Kid Friendly katie vitucci September 29, 2011 When I saw this recipe Breakfast Quinoa with Berries & Bananas in the current issue of Whole Living magazine, I was very intrigued. Quinoa is technically not a grain because it's not part of the grass family {it's a relative of chard, and spinach}...but, because of it's grain-like texture it's marketed as one. It seems I'm always hearing about how good it is for you, and I've had the good intention to use it more in my cooking...but, really don't all that often. It's very high in protein, making it an ideal breakfast choice for me, or my kids. This recipe is very adaptable. You can substitute any fruit for the raspberries, blackberries and bananas I used here. I used 2% milk, but you can use whole, skim, soy, or almond milk too. Quinoa is low on the glycemic index...if that's important to you, you can use agave nectar, or stevia as the sweetener. I used maple syrup, but brown sugar would also be delish. If you like a bit of crunch in your hot cereal, chopped nuts would be great. Read More
