Friday Froth: Strong Drinks...Black Hog, Two Roads Brewery & Litchfield Distillery Features Beer Friday Froth Brewery James Gribbon February 01, 2017 The shadows seem to be growing this January. Winter daylight is all too brief, darkness glooming in through a window you swear was sunny the last time you walked by. It suddenly feels like it's gone dark all the time now. Maybe you feel it, too. And how long to go before the next sunrise? Ugh. The days ahead seem so stretch on to the invisible horizon. Maybe you could use a drink, a 16oz. weight to hang from time's pendulum to speed those dark hours on their way. Make it a strong one, because maybe we can clip off some of tomorrow's darkness while we're at it. Gravity shapes space, as we all know, and space is tied to time, so let's grab a few high gravity beers, and bend the long arc. Read More
Nibble: CT Food Events for Week of February 6-11 Features Emma Jane-Doody Stetson February 01, 2017 "First Fridays" kicks off this Friday, feb 3rd at the Aldrich Museum in Ridgefield, featuring a "Contemporary Cocktail Party" and nibbles via Festivities Events.86’D: A Culinary Collision is a surprise on many levels! Two surprise chefs will have a showdown at a surprise host restaurant while spectators feast on tasty appetizers and cocktails. The location will be announced just prior to the competition, which takes place on February 6 at 10pm. On Monday February 6, Wood-n-Tap in Newington presents a Victory Brewing Company Beer Dinner. Bill Covaleski, founder of Victory Brewing Company, will guide guests through a four course meal paired with five brews. Tickets are approximately $60 per person, with discounts for parties of 6 or more. Beer and chocolate? Don’t mind if we do! Still Hill Brewery in Rocky Hill will host a beer and chocolate pairing on Tuesday February 7 from 7-9pm. The event features Fascia's Chocolates of Waterbury. Tickets are $20 per person and can be purchased online. Read More
Gluten Free? Oui! at Garelick & Herbs (sponsored post) Ingredients Gluten-Free Special Dietary Needs Specialty Market Stephanie Webster January 30, 2017 Gluten Free? Oui! at Garelick & HerbsIt’s easier than ever to choose gluten free at Garelick& Herbs. We’ve been using gluten free labels in our prepared food case, and now we’re adding the labels to the food in our grab and go refrigerated case and in house bakery items!In the entrees, there are now pasta dishes such as Pasta Primavera with fresh basil and sun dried tomatoes, a fabulous Potato “pasta” with Pesto- positively addictive whether you are gluten free or not. We have translated our Chicken Francais and Chicken Cutlets recipes to make them GF too. Read More
Coconut Fudge Recipe via Marcia Selden Catering Features Recipe kids activity Kid Friendly Dessert Stephanie Webster January 29, 2017 Coconut fans get ready to find a new favorite treat. Made from shredded and desiccated coconut, this is deeply flavorful and almost "healthy." Warning: This fudge is so deliciously decadent that you may not be able to stop eating it. Read More
10 Questions with Peter Crawford of Darien Butcher Shop Ingredients Features Butcher Darien Amy Kundrat January 18, 2017 Darien native and chef Peter Crawford is the culinary braun behind lower Fairfield County's newest destination butchery, The Darien Butcher Shop. The shop focuses on high quality meat and gourmet specialty products, as well as events and catering, not to mention hot pressed sandwiches if you're looking for a new lunch option. We had a chance to chat with Peter, and wanted to know what this carnivore cooks for himself, his preferred cut of meat, and his most memorable meal. Why did you become a butcher? Read More
South Avenue Butcher Opens in New Canaan Ingredients Butcher New Canaan CTbites Team December 16, 2016 New Canaan, Connecticut is excited to welcome an old fashioned butcher shop to its already impressive culinary offering. South Avenue Butcher is the creation of businessmen, long-term friends and Darien residents Dermot Flynn, Alan Griffin and James Farrell. The friends grew up in southern Ireland where rural towns would have a butcher shop and locals would go in for special cuts of meat and advice. The concept, which was inspired by a nostalgic chat at the bar, is a direct nod to their farming heritage and reinforces that consumers care about their meat source. They strongly advocate the community and have plans to support local town events. The proper old-style butcher specializes in home-made sausages and burgers - they will even make some to a specific family recipe. Heading up the operation is Head Butcher, Michiel Hutten who hails from the Netherlands. He worked at Darien Butcher Shop, and has over 30-years of butchery experience. Inside the store he will serve prime cuts and order in specific meats. The meats are sourced from animals that are free to roam and will be organic wherever possible. Read More
Dress Up Your Party with Garelick & Herbs Holiday Platters (sponsored post) Ingredients Recipe Gift Guide Holiday CTbites Team December 15, 2016 This holiday gift alert just in from Garelick & Herbs. Looking for a delicious present that will be joyously received? Check out one of Garelick & Herbs gift platters...or design your own. Take the guess work out of your next hostess gift. These beautifully curated custom gifts are perfect for any occasion. Stopping by your friend's for brunch? We have fabulous holiday housewarming gifts. Corporate Clients need a holiday gift? Send over one of our sweet-tastic dessert boxes or a signature Office Munchie Snack Basket. We can even send over a surprise lunch to your favorite client. Also, don’t forget your manicurist and hair stylist! Nothing warms the heart and soul more than something delicious from Garelick & Herbs. Having an impromptu celebration? Going away for the weekend? Your hosts will love our snacktastic gifts–customize salty, sweet, crunchy and colorful. We have everything you need served up on a platter. Read More
Stew Leonard's Christmas Cookie Milk Available For Limited Time! Ingredients Recipe Holiday Kid Friendly Stephanie Webster December 14, 2016 Check the shelves at your local Stew Leonard's TODAY because their first ever Christmas Cookie Millk will be available for a limited time this holiday season. Stew Leonard's Christmas Cookie Milk a sweet, creamy milk that has the same flavor as a sugar cookie that's been dunked in milk. It comes straight from their dairy farms in upstate NY and is free from artificial growth hormones (rBST) and antibiotics. This milk goes from the farm to each of our stores in as little as 24 hours, and is sold in a ½ gallon glass for $4.99. Stew Leonard's Christmas Cookie Milk is going to go fast. Go grab some now. Read More
Chef Susanne Berne's Ginger Cake with Poached Pears, Dark Rum Zabaglione and Cinnamon Whipped Cream Recipe Features Recipe Homepage Dessert CTbites Team November 20, 2016 In our ongoing hunt for the perfect Thanksgiving dessert, we sought out Chef Susanne Berne, who is, quite simply, one of the finest pastry chefs around. When she is not imagining treats for Match Restaurant, she is developing new ideas for Donut Crazy's doughnut lineup. She has shared her recipe for Ginger Cake with Poached Pears, Dark Rum Zabaglione and Cinnamon Whipped Cream. Enjoy! Read More
2016 Local and Heritage Turkey Guide via Fairfield Green Food Guide Ingredients Recipe Holiday CTbites Team November 09, 2016 Are you looking to celebrate Thanksgiving with a locally grown, Heritage breed or Broad-Breasted white turkey? Supplies are limited, so order your turkey as soon as possible following the instructions given by each farmer or retailer. It feels good to support our farmers this time of year, give thanks for those who feed us, and opt out of buying an industrial turkey, which doesn’t taste like much anyway. View the complete list of local CT Heritage breed or Broad-Breasted white turkey here. Read More
Friday Froth: Stone Brewing's Enjoy After 10.31.16 Comes Of Age Ingredients Beer CT Beer Friday Froth James Gribbon November 04, 2016 Fresh beer isn't always the best beer. As arguments for freshness go, you could make one for juicy, resinous IPAs, and you certainly don't want to drink any hot can of Busch Light which rolls out from underneath a car seat, but as the American craft beer industry matures, it's beginning to make beers meant to do the same. Stone, the Escondido, California brewer of undeniable arrogance, will shy away from claims of being the first to put "born on" dates on their bottles and cans, but they were the first to use "Enjoy By" as the actual name of a beer. The Enjoy By series of IPAs (followed by a date on each) was to be taken so seriously Stone would come and retrieve any unsold beers from retailers. This is why it was so interesting when Stone Enjoy After 10.31.16 hit shelves - in 2015. This week I opened the bottle I bought over a year ago. Here's what happened. Read More
Two Roads To Build Second Brewing Facility & Tasting Room Ingredients Restaurant Beer CT Beer Stratford James Gribbon November 01, 2016 Two Roads Brewing of Stratford has announced their plans to add a 25,000 square foot expansion to their brewery specifically to create sour and barrel-aged beers. Situated on 2.5 acres of newly acquired land adjoining the existing brewery's hop yard and music venue, the brewhouse will have a 120-person capacity tasting room overlooking both the brewing operations, and a wetlands preserve. Sour beers such as Framboise Noir Black Raspberry Lambic, Urban Funk Wild Ale made with yeast from Superstorm Sandy, and Worker’s Stomp White Wine Barrel-Aged Saison will see increased production, along with Hexotic Tropical Lambic, which won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colorado this October. Hexotic spends 28 months in oak, and was fermented with "Brett C" (brettanomyces clausenii). Six different types of fruit were added during fermentation, including orange, passion fruit, mangosteen, soursop (aka gaunabana), guava, and mango. Read More
The Westport Winter Farmers’ Market Opens Nov. 12th At Gilbertie’s Ingredients Restaurant Farmers Market Specialty Market Westport CTbites Team November 01, 2016 Folks in Fairfield County have no need to put away their farmers’ market bags or head to the grocery store just yet. For while the temperatures might be dipping and leaves dropping, farm-fresh food is still in abundance. The Westport Winter Farmers’ Market will return for its 6th season to Gilbertie’s greenhouses at 7 Sylvan Lane beginning Saturday, November 12th and continuing through March 11th from 10 to 2. Read More
An Interview w/ Chef Zac Young, PieCaken Creator + more! Ingredients Recipe Chef Talk Dessert Emma Jane-Doody Stetson November 01, 2016 Last Thanksgiving, the PieCaken took the world by storm! A sweet tooth’s twist on the “turducken,” the all-in-one dessert includes Pecan Pie, Pumpkin Pie, and Apple Upside Down Cake layered together with cinnamon buttercream. Kelly Ripa loved it so much that she featured it several times on her show. CNN and The New York Times quickly followed suit. This year, the PieCaken is upping the ante with nationwide shipping! https://www.foodydirect.com/restaurants/the-piecaken-shop/dishes CTBites had the opportunity to sit down with the mastermind behind the PieCaken, Chef Zac Young. Creative and outgoing, it’s fitting that he came up with such a whimsical idea. Young appeared on Top Chef Just Desserts, was named a “Top Ten Pastry Chef in America,” and currently serves as Pastry Director of Craveable Hospitality Group. Here are excerpts from our conversation. Read More
10 Questions with Fjord Fish Market's Jim Thistle Ingredients Interview Recipe Chef Talk Fish Seafood Specialty Market April Guilbault October 18, 2016 Oh so many fish in da sea! And that’s only the beginning....what kind of fish do you want to prepare? Do you know how to prepare it? Oh, yeah, and where should you go to get this fish, short of heading out into open waters yourself? And wait, and here’s the $100,000 question: is the fish you are buying everything it says it is? Good grief. It’s almost easier dating and looking for *those* fish in the sea. Well, fear not, CTBites sat down recently with one of the Big Fish out there, Jim Thistle of Fjord Fish Market, and he helped guide us through seemingly murky waters... Read More
How Long Can You Store Beer? Featuring 2014 OEC Phantasma Ingredients Beer CT Beer James Gribbon October 14, 2016 In which I hope to survive this column's publishing. Most beer is best when it is as fresh as possible. The ability to buy beer at the source of its manufacture has completely changed how Americans interact with their brew, and it's given brewers the chance to utilize ingredients with increasing fragility of flavor. The concept is not a new one, really. In order to ensure quality, macrobrewers have spent untold dollars figuring out how long their beer lasts under different conditions, and have been printing Born On dates on their cans for well over a decade. On the other end, small brewer whale-chasers have approached a lunatic fringe in threatening to pour their own IPAs down the drain should they have been bottled and sold in more than the space of a workday. For the next few weeks in this space I'll be attempting to find out how long certain beers can be cellared like fine wines. What happens to them? How do they change, and what's it like to drink them? I'll be trying beers from several brewers; some which have been made specifically to drink after resting, but most decidedly not. Read More
It's The Challah-Days at Garelick and Herbs (sponsored post) Ingredients Recipe CTbites Team September 28, 2016 Garelick & Herbs is the place to go for all holiday celebrations. For Rosh Hashanah we have our family recipes of Briskets, Our Chicken Soups are made with organic chickens, and simmered with organic vegetables. Served of course with our fluffy matzoh balls and all the sides that you need. We have traditional holiday foods such as Gefilte Fish and Chopped Liver, and have lightened up the classics with our Turkey Stuffed Cabbage with our golden raisin sweet sauce. We are known for our Potato Pancakes and make a wonderful Sweet Potato Pancake as well Our philosophy is to celebrate deliciously and our goal is to make your holidays special and easy. Read More
14 Farms For Pick-Your-Own Pumpkins in CT Ingredients Local Farm Pick Your Own kids activity Kid Friendly Emma Jane-Doody Stetson September 26, 2016 Autumn is here and Connecticut Farms have delicious seasonal produce ready to be harvested! Last week, CTBites told you where you can pick your own apples. While apples are delicious, pumpkins truly epitomize the fall. From jack-o-lanterns to pies to pumpkin flavored everything, the gourd has many uses. Here are 12 places that offer pick your own pumpkins! Be sure to call ahead to confirm availability. Harris Hill Farm, New Milford: On weekends during the month of October, Harris Hill Farm in New Milford opens the farm and its pick-your-own pumpkin patch to the community. Castle Hill Farm, Newtown: Castle Hill Farm in Newtown has a 4 acre pumpkin patch. They also have hay rides and a corn maze. Lyman Orchards, Middlefield: Lyman Orchards in Middlefield has a 24 hour hotline so that you can get updates on the crops and conditions. Bishop's Orchards, Guilford: Great picking of all kinds at Bishop's + a corn Maze on the weekends from 10-5. Holmberg Orchards, Gales Ferry: Pumpkins are in season from September-October at Holmberg Orchards in Gales Ferry. On weekends, enjoy a corn maze, tractor rides, cider donuts, and a wine Read More
Friday Froth: Half Full Brewery, Oktoberfest & Other Fall Beers Ingredients Recipe Beer Brewery CT Beer Friday Froth James Gribbon September 16, 2016 You may have noticed we've been playing around with the structure of Friday Froth for the past several months. This space has been everything from event coverage, to brewpub openings, to a travel diary, but this week we're going back to something more like a classic Froth. I began writing this column way back in ye olden days of 2009 with the idea of expressing a renaissance. The growth of American craft brewing was every bit as compelling as the culinary scene in terms of new ideas, personalities, and dedication to ingredients and flavors, but most people were still pretty lost when it came to picking out something new to try. Glance at the patrons in front of the craft case at the rare well stocked liquor store at the time, and they'd be wearing expressions like someone at MoMA trying to decide if what they were looking at was the intentional work of an artist, or construction debris. I started Froth just to give people a heads up. So, without going on too long I hope, that's what we're doing today. Read More
Eastern CT Beer Sampler: A Trip to Beer'd, Outer Light Brewing & Moxie Ingredients Restaurant Beer Beer Garden CT Beer James Gribbon August 31, 2016 Last Friday, around the time the afternoon crowd was clicking on last week's column, I was overflowing with the desire to get out of town. A neighbor of mine, a semi-recent immigrant from eastern Europe, was heading home. In the years of our acquaintance I'd only known him to go two places: his day job as a carpenter, and his back yard. His whole idea of Connecticut, his entire concept of the U.S., for all I know, would be worksites, the highway, and a quarter acre of manicured grass. He was utterly unconcerned, but I was tragedy stricken - and determined to get out and do... something.Just like in a movie script, that's when the phone rang."Sorry this is last minute, man," the caps lock Wisconsin accent told me who it was immediately. "But I need a trip to the casino. I got the room paid for, you just bring your liver." I didn't really have the money to play with, it was Friday rush hour on I-95, and I try to avoid casinos in general."Sure. Let me pack." Let's see what happens, I thought. I am a leaf on the wind.Although the end results were largely indistinguishable, the casino was marginally more entertaining than feeding those same $20 bills to sea gulls. I was neither keen to go back the next day, nor on the prospect of a two hour, day-wasting drive home. It was my turn to provide the inspiration:"Let's hit a brewery I know." Read More
