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Thanksgiving Wine Pairing & Shopping Guide

Ingredients Holiday Thanksgiving This Week In Wine Wine Chat

Kathleen Hall

Thanksgiving presents a special challenge in wine pairing. 

Think about the typical foods served for Thanksgiving dinner:  salty roasted turkey, savory turkey gravy, tangy cranberry sauce, creamy mashed potatoes, herbal chestnut stuffing, sweet candied yams, rich butternut squash soup, vegetal green beans…. so many contradictory flavors and textures !  Which wine should you choose? 

Well… you will need a wine that is not too high in tannins because that will overwhelm the mild flavors of the turkey.  A wine with medium to high acidity to cut through the fatty and creamy textures.  A wine with an abundance of fruit flavor to complement the sweet side dishes. 

The answer is:  there is no ONE wine !   It’s all a matter of personal preference.  The key is to pick a versatile wine that will harmonize with the many flavors of the meal.

Here are a few wine suggestions that I believe might just do the trick complete with a handy local FC buying guide for easy holiday shopping:


Kids Reviews: The Lumberyard

Kids Bites Restaurant Redding Lunch Kid Friendly

CTbites Team

Carly is a 10 year old from Redding, CT with a passion for eating & writing.  She has joined the team as our youngest reviewer and she hopes she will inspire kids to be a little more adventurous in their FC restaurant choices.  She has developed a restaurant rating scale of 1-5 pickles, 5 being the best. This is her first review. 

The Lumberyard

Are you craving some juicy meat and some fun?  Drive down to The Lumberyard in Georgetown, CT.  The huge menu sounded delicious. I had to look it over twice. The kid’s menu was the usual cheeseburger, grilled cheese, hot dogs and chicken tenders, so I decided to choose something off their regular menu. 


Ad: Seasonal Burgers & Shakes @ Filling Station Co.

Kids Bites Restaurant Advertisement

Stephanie Webster

In the month of January,  Filling Station Company is presenting diners with a healthy start to 2011. Sticking to those New Years resolutions = one great tasting burger. This month, The Filling Station Co. is featuring "The Resolution Burger," a chickpea burger with Greek salad trimmings and tahini dressing.  Pair this with their January milkshake in smooth bold flavors of Chocolate Mint, and suddenly 2011 is looking mighty fine. 


Thanksgiving Guide: Buying a Local Turkey

Ingredients Features Holiday Local Farm Thanksgiving

CTbites Team

Thanksgiving is a wonderful harvest feast and there’s no better way to honor the spirit of the holiday than celebrating with a locally raised turkey. Locally grown turkeys are highly coveted and in short supply, so anyone looking for a local turkey from a nearby farm should place their order immediately. Fresh and frozen broad-breasted whites and Heritage turkeys are available for purchase directly from the farmer, but lucky for consumers, you don't have to go to the farm to pick it up.

Here are the best local resources for buying that perfect centerpiece to your Thanksgiving meal. 


Whole Foods Market Re-Opening Party in Westport

Ingredients Events Special Dietary Needs Specialty Market

Stephanie Webster

For anyone who shops Whole Foods Market's Westport location, you've likely noticed a bit of work underfoot. Renovation has been going on for months to transform Westport's Whole Foods into their classic prototype, no longer bearing any resemblance to the Wild Oats from whence it came. 

The facelift is complete and in honor of this "re-opening" Whole Foods Market will be hosting a celebration on Wednesday, November 10th from 4:00pm-8:00pm at the newly renovated store located at 399 Post Road West in Westport.  Whole Foods Market will offer storewide holiday tastings, turkey carving demonstrations, door prizes, and live music from local singer/songwriter Bern McWain.

5% of the total sales for the day will be donated to The Connecticut Food Bank. 


This Week In Wine: Viñedo de los Vientos Dessert Wine

Ingredients Features This Week In Wine

Kathleen Hall

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!


Gingerbread Contest: Part 2

Kids Bites Events kids activity

Stephanie Webster

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.  


Belgique Chocolatier Opens in New Canaan

Ingredients Kids Bites Restaurant Specialty Market New Canaan Kid Friendly Dessert

Liz Rueven

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.


Gingerbread Contest: Part 1

Ingredients Kids Bites Education Events

Stephanie Webster

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? 


Calcutta Kitchens: Home-Style Indian

Ingredients Farmers Market Indian

Sarah Green

Move over Jack and Diane-  Here's a little ditty about Aditi. Aditi Goswami, that is. She's the diminutive heart and soul of Calcutta Kitchens, a phenomenal one woman cooking company where taste and quality are anything but small! Aditi, born in Calucutta and raised in a house full of women - aunts, cousins, etc - was an only child, surrounded by and learning from a loving family where cooking food was not just a means to feed but more a way of life. She now lives in Fairfield County and her goods have solely been available at Farmers' Markets across Ct, NY and NJ. All that is changing with the launch of Calcutta Kitchen's product lines at the new Fairway Market in Stamford. Her fabulously flavorful sauces, vegetables, and soups are a hit wherever she purveys and there's good reason for that. All Ms. Goswami's ingredients come fresh from local farmers' markets and everything she sells is always vegetarian and most often vegan. Cooking for Aditi is much more than a job -it is an art form, it is a way of life, and it is Ayurvedic. Huh?


Visions of Gingerbread @ The Stamford Museum

Kids Bites Education Events kids activity Kid Friendly

Stephanie Webster

CTbites is proud to be this year's media sponsor for the 2nd annual "Visions of Gingerbread: The Sweetest Architects" exhibit at the Stamford Museum and Nature Center.  Opening November 6th, this show will feature unique and amazing gingerbread creations by many of your favorite bakers. Check out the lineup: CakeSuite, Sugar & Olives, DiMare's Pasty Shop, SoNo Baking Company, Karin Krumpelbeck, and (are you sitting down?) CTbites will be working on an entry. (If you are a baker and want to help team CTbites, contact us!

Here's the best part...You can bring one of these incredible edibles home to your family. These sweet structures will be put up on the silent auction block, with proceeds going to the Museum's educational programs.


Ghoulishly Delicious Wines to Drink this Fall

Ingredients Holiday Wine Chat

JoAnn LoGiurato

It’s autumn, the leaves are turning crimson and sienna, and there’s a chill in the air. This is the time of year that I look forward to making stews, comfort foods and slow-cooked meals. It’s also my favorite weather for cracking open some hearty, full-bodied wines.  I love to curl up next to the fireplace with a good book, a bowl of chili and a fantastic glass of wine. 

With Halloween (one of my favorite days of the year) just around the corner, I’ve made some suggestions for wines to drink this fall and perhaps while you’re handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters. After all, the kids can’t have all the fun!!

Ghoulishly Delicious Wines

Sokol Blosser Evolution 

A fantastic aromatic white wine made from 9 different grapes, this is like the “kitchen-sink” of blended wine, and, is oh so tasty! The wine expresses a creamy, yet lively palate of pear, spice and dried fruit.


Great Programs for Kids & Adults @ Ambler Farm

Ingredients Kids Bites Events Holiday Local Farm kids activity Kid Friendly

Stephanie Webster

Don't miss these spooky, educational, & tasty activities @ Ambler Farm. 

Fright Night: Friday, October 29 & Saturday, October 30 

Drop off the kids (grades 3-5) for haunted activities and frightful (and not so frightful) storytelling. Those who were present last year are still talking about the ghost dog who frequents the Farm! Creepy sights and mysterious sounds abound when the moon rises at Ambler Farm. Refreshments included. Enrollment limited. 

Haunted Halloween Ride, Guessing jar to win the Farm's largest pumpkin, Games, if you dare play... 

Launch the Trebuchet: Sunday, November 14 

If you've been to Ambler Farm Day, you've probably fired the apple slingshots, taken a hay-ride or two, and witnessed pumpkins flying through the air. If the pumpkin-launching trebuchet has intrigued you, now's your chance to get a closer look at this medieval-inspired machine. 


Sweet Stuff: Halloween Candy Bark

Kids Bites Features Holiday kids activity Recipe Kid Friendly Dessert

Nicole Straight

My girlfriend and I were thumbing through our monthly cooking mags and we both noticed the cover picture of a very decadent looking Halloween themed candy bark.  I thought, “ this looks like fun, but I can do better than that!”  So off I went to our local grocery store that is stocked with bins of interesting looking sweets and nuts.  10 mini bags later, here’s what I came up with!  Alas, it's not healthy, but Halloween only comes once a year, and it's a great activity for a kids Halloween party.  The making is (almost) the best part of this recipe!

Halloween Candy Bark for Kids


Sport Hill Farm: Caring for the Land & the Community

Ingredients Kids Bites Easton Local Artisan Local Farm Organic Farm Fresh

Jessica Ryan

Sustainable, seasonal, local, organic, and green might be popular phrases these days among the media and the masses, but to those who truly care about where their food comes from, whether they contain pesticides and want to support their communities, these are very powerful words indeed. By buying locally, seasonally and organically, the consumer never has to worry about food recalls. More importantly, the consumers know not only where their food comes from, but get to know their farmers by name. These are the people who also truly care about the future of their children and of children for generations to come… These are the people who truly care about preserving the world around them.

Patti Popp of Sport Hill Farm is just this type of person.


SoNo Chef Shoot-Out Crowns a Winner

Ingredients Events

Amy Kundrat

“The secret ingredient is ... ROOT VEGETABLE!”

And with that, the first ever iron chef-style competition was kicked off at the Clarke Culinary Center in South Norwalk. The event pitted two of the neighborhood’s most well known chefs, Fritz Knipschildt of Cafe Chocopologie and Knipschildt Chocolatier against Matt Storch, chef and partner at Match who have collectively been serving up some of South Norwalk’s best meals for over 22 years. This event was an unforgettable evening of inventive food, chef personalities and culinary surprises that will stand as one of my favorite food moments this year.