Filtering by Tag: Gift Guide,Kids

Kids & Adult Cooking Classes @ Aux Delices

Features Cooking Classes Education Kids kids activity kids cooking party

CTbites Team

Aux Delices' 2015 Winter/Spring Kids & Adult Cooking Class Schedule has just been announced. Aux Délices offers cooking classes for adults and children at their professional catering kitchen in Stamford. Classes are generally held on Wednesday evenings for adults and Sunday afternoons for children. Classes are hands-on for children and both participation and demonstration for adults. 

Their focus is to teach easy, interesting and seasonal food preparation, utilizing a variety of cooking techniques. The chef instructors are from Aux Délices, as well as from well-known restaurants in Fairfield County and New York City. Lynn Manheim, the Cooking School Director does an incredible job engaging and challenging both children and adults, while teaching students the basics of cooking along the way.  

View the complete schedule below...For more information, click here. 


2014 CT Food Lovers Holiday Gift Guide

Ingredients Features Restaurant Entertaining Gift Guide Holiday Specialty Market Wine Shop Dessert

April Guilbault

Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more.-H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Gift giving-choosing a gift for another person that is resonant of their personality and interests-is a true art. How do we know this? We know this by the sheer number of Yankee Swap and White Elephant parties that we have all attended. You thought those salt and pepper shakers in the shape of ugly, primitive holiday carolers would be perfect for me...um, why? And thus, yet another odd gift enters the rotation of passed-along, re-gifted gifts. On the flip-side, we all hopefully have experienced the joy that comes when we do find that perfect gift. The thrill of watching the unwrapping and the smiles that follow! This holiday season, we would like to help you in your pursuit of That Perfect One....

We bring you the CTbites 2014 CT Food Lovers Gift Guide. Start shopping!


CTbites' Summer Intern on "Chopped Teen Tournament" via Food Network

Kids Bites Kids

CTbites Team

CTbites is pleased to introduce you to our summer intern, Hannah Bukzin. Hannah is a 14 yr old Staples high school student with a passion for cooking. Hannah has her own blog "Small Chef in a Big World," and is a contestant in the 2014 Chopped Teen Tournament on The Food Network. Please welcome Hannah to CTbites and watch her episode on July 29th!

Sixteen talented teenagers bring their extreme energy and ambition to the Chopped kitchen, with Chopped Teen Tournament premiering Tuesday, July 15th at 10pm ET/PT on Food Network. In this special, five-part stunt, sixteen culinary whiz kids are aiming for perfect appetizers, entrées, and desserts, as they navigate through three rounds. The teen cooks are given ingredients that could stump even top professionals, with a rotating panel of the Chopped judges, including  Amanda FreitagAlex GuarnaschelliMarc MurphyChris SantosGeoffrey Zakarian and special guest judge Alex Stupak determining who gets chopped each round. 

Watch Hannah's episode: Premiering Tuesday, July 29th at 10pm ET/PT


Doughnut Day: Best Doughnuts in Fairfield County & Beyond

Restaurant Bakery Kids Breakfast Best of CT Kid Friendly Dessert

Emma Jane-Doody Stetson

Friday June 6 is National Donut Day! Yes, it's an actual holiday... it started in 1938 and has been celebrated on the first Friday in June ever since.  Back then, making doughnuts proved a complicated ordeal, with people resorting to wine bottles as rolling pins and metal tins as cutting edges.  Today, however, several CT restaurants have made doughnuts an art form.

As a Stamford resident, I constantly heard people talk about the legendary donuts at the Lakeside Diner.  Their rounds are neither ornate nor revolutionary.  Instead, the old-fashioned donuts taste just like something Grandma would have pulled out of the oven.  The classic cake recipe has a dusting of granulated sugar that pleases children and adults alike.

On the other side of the spectrum, Orangeside of New Haven eschews tradition and bakes up SQUARE donuts.  It started out as an exercise in frugality; traditional round cutters proved expensive and the square shaped reduced the amount of scrap dough.  However, the original design became an instant hit, even recognized by Saveur Magazine as one of the top 50 donuts in the United States.


Guide to Kids Summer Cooking Camps & Classes in Connecticut

Kids Bites Features Restaurant Cooking Classes Education Kids kids activity kids cooking party

April Guilbault

Is May about the newly arriving crocuses (crocii?)? Or about the greening of our lawns after the longest winter ever? Nah. Let’s get down to business-it’s about finding camps for your kiddos before the summer hits and all of those spots are filled! The emails have begun flying and the scramble is beginning. What’s new? What’s fun? How about forgoing the traditional Camp Gitchigoomee canoes and bonfires and, instead, fan the flames of summer creativity in some area kitchens with cooking camps for kids! 

Here is a list of 8 Kids Cooking Classes & Summer Camps for 2014:


The Jamie Oliver Food Revolution is coming to New Canaan

Restaurant Celebrity Chef Kids New Canaan

CTbites Team

Designed to educate children about healthy eating while getting them to try something new, a Pop Up Park will be created (off Elm Street) on Saturday May 17th between 9:30 – 11:30am. Kids can register for a fun food trail, and be entered into a drawing to win a special prize.

New Canaan residents Silvia Baldini, Founder / Chef Strawberry & Sage and Rachel Lampen RLPR Ltd, have volunteered their time to be the 2014 Food Revolution Ambassadors as one of four towns participating across Connecticut, as New Canaan joins Branford, Meriden, and Middletown.


Valentine's Day Roundup: CT Gifts, Eats & Vacations for Your Loved One

Ingredients Features Restaurant Gift Guide Holiday Travel Dessert

April Guilbault

“My love for you is like a red, red rose” said the venerable Robert Burns, but maybe, just maybe it’s like a truffle making class or a sassy, classy Valentine cocktail. Every love is different, right? Valentine’s Day typically bubbles over with all things red, pink and sparkly. Boxed chocolates abound (some left in the box, half-bitten into) and romantic dinners are de rigueur. But, as with everything in life, it’s good to mix it up a bit to keep things fresh-dare to be different! This year, maybe try something new with your Valentine that will create a memory for years to come; take a cooking class together, go to a theme dinner, try a salt cave, stay overnight at a local, romantic hotel. Sometimes, a mini-vacation in your own backyard can be the most fun and deliciously decadent. So start with a red, red rose and branch out from there...


Foodie Gift Guide: CT & Beyond...Part II

Ingredients Features Gift Guide Holiday Specialty Market Wine Shop

Emma Doody & Gina Cunsolo

The turkeys are gone and the radio stations have started playing seasonal tunes... The holidays are officially here!  If you're looking to gift friends and family with awesome foodie presents and local treats, we've compiled some of our favorites for your perusal. We also enlisted the help of a prominent local chef, Mario LaPosta of Tarry Lodge in Westport, CT who offered his picks. 

Here are a few more gifts for your foodie loved ones. [See our Ultimate CT Gift Guide Part I here].

Happy holidays... And happy shopping! 

Cranberry Walnut Olive Oil, New Canaan Olive Oil

For that one foodie in your life that seems to already have everything – consider shopping at newly opened New Canaan Olive Oil. Their wide assortment of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Vinegar flavors will entice even the most spoiled cooks, specifically their Cranberry Walnut Olive Oil. Great for salads or sautéing veggies, this seasonal flavor will add a toasty and tangy taste to any dish. And for our beloved bacon lovers, try their Bacon Flavored Extra Virgin Olive Oil – an easy way to add bacon flavor to almost anything! 


Ultimate CT Foodie Gift Guide 2013

Ingredients Features Coffee Entertaining Gift Guide Specialty Market

April Guilbault

This year, Thanksgiving is coming late, Hanukkah is arriving early and the Christmas holiday almost seems shortened before it has even begun. Have no fear, though, your holiday shopping will not bear the brunt of this crazy calendar...not with some of our suggestions. From unique food products, photographs, jewels and books, there is just about something for all the folks on what seems to be your never-ending list. How could so many people have been so good this year? Buy them some of these goodies and they’ll know...oh, they’ll know....


Culinary Gifts @ Clarke Culinary Center in South Norwalk sponsored post

Ingredients Features Gift Guide Holiday Norwalk SONO

CTbites Team

Culinary Gifts? No Problem.

Tucked inside Clarke, New England's Official Sub-Zero & Wolf Showroom and Test kitchen in South Norwalk, is a culinary boutique that every foodie will want to visit - Savoir Fare. This is the perfect place to purchase unique holiday gifts or a new set of champagne flutes for entertaining in your own home. 

With a name that is creatively based on the French for "knowledge of food," Savoir Fare offers an evolving collection of cookware, bakeware, stemware, cooking tools and fine French linens. 

With an impeccably curated assortment from these fine brands, you are assured that only the highest quality items are in this collection:


Ultimate Holiday Gift Guide for the Connecticut Foodie

Cookbooks Cooking Classes Entertaining Gift Guide Holiday

April Guilbault

As is always the case, one holiday ends and another is launched into our consciousness almost instantly. Those crumbs from the pumpkin pies are just being swept away, but The Holiday Season is officially here and Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa shopping has begun. What to get? Where to get it? It’s the annual quest. We’d like to make things a wee bit easier for you, as we’ve found some great items for the food lovers on your list. Buy one, buy several! Either way, you will seen as one of those “good gift givers”!