2 Hours @ The Craft Beer & Chili Challenge Ingredients Events Beer Comfort Food Stephanie Webster August 24, 2010 Last Sunday thousands of beer and chili loving CT residents descended upon Mohegan Sun for the Craft Beer and Chili Challenge. Thirteen restaurants traveled from across the state to throw down their winning recipe for the great American classic. There was enough heat to keep you warm through winter and the sweet smell of cumin wafted all the way up to the slot machines. And what to wash down this fiery feast? Certainly water was not the proper pairing. 40 breweries with over 100 beers were present to quench our thirst, some local, some National, but all pouring. Here are some of the highlights: Read More
What's New @ The Westport Farmers Market Ingredients Liz Rueven August 14, 2010 Chef Cecily Gans, Main Course Catering, will present arugula salad with fresh fruit vinaigrette on August 19 between 10-2, at the Westport Farmers’ Market. Always the communicative and generous instructor, she will provide hand outs of her recipe and tips on composing summer salads. As a chef who has touched so many young hearts in Westport, she will surely be greeting lots of her former students and their parents as they stop by to taste and visit. Ask a sampling of student at Staples High School in Westport, which class they loved the most, or hoped to enroll in but couldn’t get into because it was oversubscribed, and many will say it was CULINARY ARTS, taught by Cecily Gans. Read More
Beer & Chili Challenge @ Mohegan Sun Ingredients Events Beer Stephanie Webster August 11, 2010 Chefs are always talking about wine pairings, but for all of you who prefer a cold one to a glass of vino, here's your chance for sample some of the best beer CT has to offer. The Craft Beer & Chili Challenge will be held at The Mohegan Sun Arena on Sunday, August 22 from 12-4 p.m. What's better than 100's of beers & dozens of chilis? Really, nothing, but if you require added appeal, attendees will get to vote for their favorites as they crown the best official beers and chilies in Connecticut. Chili will range from from hearty and meaty, to hot and spicy, to vegetarian, and everything in between, so there's something for every eater. Participating breweries include… Read More
4th Annual Shoreline Wine Festival Ingredients Events Wine Chat Stephanie Webster August 11, 2010 Wondering what to do this weekend? Why not join the party at the 4th Annual Shoreline Wine Festival? Saturday, August 14th • 12 noon to 7pm Sunday, August 15th • 12 noon to 6pm Come and celebrate over 10 Connecticut Wineries and sample the fruits of their labor. Enjoy food from local restaurants. Meet and sample products from local businesses. Enjoy and purchase crafts from local artisans. Expand your knowledge of food and wine at seminars offered by local experts. Enjoy all of this while listening to the sounds of live music from renowned bands around New England. Location: Bishop's Orchards Farm Market & Winery 1355 Boston Post Road, Guilford Read More
CT Taste Organic Festival 2010 Ingredients Kids Bites Events Organic kids activity Kid Friendly Stephanie Webster August 09, 2010 Save the Date. Join CT National Organic Farming Organization to celebrate the 10th annual TASTE! ORGANIC CT 2010 on September 19th at Manchester Community College from 10 am to 4pm. Experience the only LOCAL & ORGANIC festival in Connecticut offering a farmer's market, fresh prepared food, live music, sustainable vendors, artisans, free workshops and free kids activities! Head Chef, John Turenne is busily sourcing the finest and freshest ingredients from Connecticut Farms to be on the event's menu. Three local celebrity chefs are designing recipes that will showcase our local and organic food. Chef John Turenne, fresh from his recent TV stint with “The Naked Chef” Jamie Oliver, will be cooking and running the NOFA Food Booth show. Read More
What's New @ The Westport Farmers Market Ingredients Liz Rueven August 07, 2010 A taste of the Mediterranean will arrive at the Westport Farmers’ Market on August 12 when Chef Pedro Garzon steps away from Cafe Manolo to present chilled gazpacho to shoppers. As the summer’s steamy weather continues, we welcome the opportunity to eat our soups chilled and avoid turning on the stoves. Chef Garzon will be demonstrating his method of preparing this summer treat on the spot. He will use a simple, traditional, Andalusian recipe, sourcing perfectly ripe tomatoes, firm cucumbers, brightly colored peppers, mild onions and garlic from the vendors that morning. SONO bakery will provide the bread which will be blended into the raw vegetable soup. Read More
Get Close to the Source: The Easton Farm Tour 2010 Ingredients Easton Education Events Local Farm Farm Fresh Stephanie Webster August 03, 2010 Don't miss the second annual Easton Farm Tour. This celebration of Easton's local and sustainable farming community is a self-guided tour taking place on August 14 from 10am to 2pm. This free event begins at the Easton Firehouse Green on Sport Hill Road (Route 59) where visitors will sign in and receive a copy of the beautiful Easton Farm Map – “Easton is a Farmers’ Market.” This great guide will serve as your road map and pass to enjoy the many farming delights that Easton has to offer. Gilbertie’s, Sport Hill and Sherwood Farms are a few of the highlighted destinations. Skinny Pines – the Easton-based wood-fired pizza truck - will be on site with their mobile wood-fired oven, using locally sourced Easton produce. Who doesn't love that? Come have lunch, listen to music and learn where your food comes from. Read More
Chef Talk: Barcelona's Blood Orange Margarita Ingredients Features Chef Talk Cocktails Spanish Recipe Amy Kundrat August 02, 2010 Everybody loves a good adult beverage. This fairly safe assumption has inspired this recent Chef Talk mini-series focusing exclusively on uncovering and sharing some of Fairfield County's best cocktails. You're going to need to break out the shaker with this first cocktail, the Barcelona Blood Orange Margarita. The margarita is one of the most popular picks at the restaurant known for a bustling happy hour and hearty Spanish tapas menu in its four locations in Fairfield County and now an outpost in your house. Cheers! Read More
The Cakebox: Let Them Eat Cake! Ingredients Bakery Catering Ridgefield Special Dietary Needs Dessert Sarah Green July 26, 2010 Eat, Pray, Love - you’ve heard of it, right? Well in the words of Willy Wonka, “Strike that, reverse it” - The CAKEBOX in Ridgefield has it all in the correct order - Pray (if you must), Eat (as many cupcakes as you can), and Love (absolutely!) This ESSENTIAL new dessert-stop in the Copps Hill Commons shopping center in Ridgefield is a cake and cupcake lover’s Shangri-La. Ridgefield native Jordan Gregory and her partner, Robert Byrnes, opened The Cake Box in April and have been whipping up extraordinary cakes for all occasions (including, eventually, custom wedding cakes), cupcakes by the dozen, and individual cupcakes, cookies, and macaroons at the store for your perusal and MASS consumption! Ms. Gregory received her pastry training at the Institute for Culinary Education in NYC and Mr. Byrnes, who has a degree in hotel and restaurant management, designs the custom cakes. Trust me, they know their stuff! Read More
Ancona’s Market is 90 Years Young Ingredients Events Ridgefield Specialty Market Amy Kundrat July 20, 2010 A familiar fixture in Ridgefield for the past ninety (!) years, Ancona’s Market will celebrate their anniversary this Saturday, July 24 with an open house and evening benefit. The day-long open house will be “in full-swing by noon” and feature activities for children, live music and tasting stations from many vendors including Ola Granola, Simmons Family Farm Yogurt, Arethusa Farms Milk, and Wave Hill Bread. You can also stop next door at Ancona’s Wines and Liquors to sample their usual Saturday tastings from 12 noon to 3 pm and 3 to 6 pm or stroll through what has to be one of the most diverse and well-stocked walk-in coolers around (and also where you’ll find me). Read More
CT Berry Picking is On!! Ingredients Kids Bites Local Farm kids activity Farm Fresh Kid Friendly Dessert Stephanie Webster July 19, 2010
A Truly Excellent Apple Pie @ Stew Leonard's Ingredients Features Specialty Market Farm Fresh Dessert Stephanie Webster July 15, 2010 It's a few hours before your guests arrive for that big family BBQ. You're scrambling to get the prep done before the doorbell rings….and oh no…you realize you forgot the dessert!! Fear not my brave Fairfield County residents. Stew Leonard's has the perfect solution for you…and you'd never guess it wasn't homemade. Named "best pie in America" by Gourmet Magazine as well as the Wall Street Journal (a dubious food critic, but we'll go with it), Stew's is now carrying The Elegant Farmer's "Apple Pie Baked In A Paper Bag." I know what you're thinking. 1. Stew's? Really? and 2. Doesn't the bag go up in flames? Yes and no. We were introduced to this gem by a CTbites reader, and had to check it out for ourselves. This Wisconsin based pie shop uses apples fresh from their farm, and they make their pies just how I like them. Read More
Top Summer Cocktails: A Connecticut Blogger Round-up Ingredients Features Amy Kundrat July 08, 2010 The summer cocktail season is in full-swing and rather than mindlessly reach for the shaker and ice we decided we needed a lesson or two (or ten). We asked ourselves, what are all the cool people drinking? To answer this we went to the source and rounded up a few of our favorite food and drink bloggers in Connecticut to share their favorite summer cocktails with CTbites. I guarantee these cool summer drinks will have you planning meals AROUND your drinks. And if you feel inspired, please share your favorite summer cocktail as a comment below. Cheers! Read More
Gin Tasting @ NRG Wines Ingredients Cocktails Events Amy Kundrat July 06, 2010 If your preferred cocktail is a gin martini or the summer staple, a gin and tonic, there is an event happening this week you will not want to miss. Peter Troilo at Nicholas Roberts Fine Wines will be hosting a gin tasting this Friday July 9 beginning at 5 pm at their shop located at 1053 Boston Post Road in Darien. Usually known for a great selection of wines, NRG is mixing it up and will be presenting four gins with equally different styles and approaches to taste. If you’re on the fence about the juniper substance, you may want to read my love note to the stuff as inspiration, Bringing Back the Martini. Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, let’s meet our contestants. Read More
This Week @ The Westport Farmers Market Ingredients Farmers Market Liz Rueven July 04, 2010 On July 8, from 10-2, Bill Taibe, executive chef and owner of LeFarm in Westport, will be offering some special dishes at the market. Taibe’s commitment to local growers and artisans is the concept upon which LeFarm is built. This 30 seat, cleaned up barn-like dining room in Colonial Green offers its diners meticulously sourced, deceptively simple, always exceptionally excellent fare. Taibe will be wow’ing visitors to the market with Nasturtium Honey Blunts. You got it! Taibe cleverly refers to rolled cigars here. For this preparation, Taibe sources the largest leaves of the Nasturtium flower (no more than 2-3 inches across), rolls them around a filling of chopped black olives, La Quercia prosciutto, Red Bee honey and Beltane Farms goat cheese. The variegated, bright green leaf has a peppery, arugula -like flavor which contrasts unexpectedly against the creamy cheese and the sweet honey. How’s that for finger food? Taibe will also offer pickled veal tongue served with bright, local tomatoes. Read More
Honey Tasting @ Sport Hill Farm Ingredients Easton Events Local Artisan Local Farm Farm Fresh Dessert Stephanie Webster July 01, 2010
Great Wine Buys for An All American 4th of July Ingredients Features Holiday Wine Chat JoAnn LoGiurato June 30, 2010 Our nation’s birthday brings out the patriotism in me. I like to make a toast to American winemakers by celebrating with all American wines on the 4th of July. Whether you are at the beach, the pool, picnicking in the park or on your boat, here are some wine recommendations and things to consider before the fireworks get started: 1~The wine needs to quench my thirst—for that I prefer wines with good acidity and crispness. I’m thinking-- a crisp, juicy Sauvignon Blanc. I like these California producers Girard ($16), Merry Edwards ($35), and LEED certified, organically grown Hall Napa Valley ($20). I also really enjoy the smokiness of Ferrari Carano Fume´Blanc ($17). Sauvignon Blanc is great with green salads, vegetarian dishes and anything with goat cheese or fresh tomatoes. Read More
100% Gluten-Free @ Cafe Cogolulu Ingredients Restaurant Bakery Special Dietary Needs Lunch Kid Friendly Amy Kundrat June 29, 2010 Most of us don't think twice about trying a new restaurant, taking a night off from cooking with takeout or browsing the aisles of a grocery store. But for a small percentage of Americans, these simple and daily rituals can be excruciating. Celiac disease is a digestive disorder that affects, by some estimates, 1 in 133 children and adults by compromising the ability to process certain proteins found in gluten. An oasis for sufferers has emerged in Fairfield County in the form Cafe Cogolulu, a reopened and 100% gluten free cafe in Wilton offering families suffering from this inherited autoimmune disease some much-needed respite. Read More
Meet Michel Nischan @ The Westport Farmer's Market Ingredients Cookbooks Events Farmers Market Stephanie Webster June 28, 2010
This Week @ The Westport Farmers Market Ingredients Events Farmers Market Liz Rueven June 27, 2010 Kausik Roy, Executive Chef and owner of TAWA, Stamford, will be the guest chef at the Westport Farmers’ Market on Thurs. July 1st, from 10-2 Roy will offer two of his restaurant patrons’ favorite dishes. This self described “rule breaker” seeks to present authentic ethnic cuisine while incorporating an abundance of locally grown veggies, which are not commonly found on menus in Indian restaurants. His desire to alter how his customers think about Indian cuisine is evidenced in his re-creating many traditional dishes. A bright and crisp chilled native corn and asparagus salad will highlight the tail end of the asparagus crop Read More
