What do brownies and superfoods have in common? Some of you might jump up and shout, “Why chocolate, of course!” while the rest of you might scratch your heads and wonder. What if I told you that the Free & Company Kitchen’s incredible baked goods are all super-food based? Additionally, every one of their items is gluten, dairy and refined sugar-free, sweetened only with organic maple syrup. Some of their products are also egg and nut-free. For those of you with food sensitivities or who have children who do, this small, newly launched company should be on your radar. It should also be noted that these edibles aren’t for just vegetarians, vegans or celiac patients; they’re truly for everyone.
Founded on the premise that snacks can be familiar and comforting and still good for you, Chef Lynne Pasquale sets out to prove this possible one brownie at a time. She has, so far, won over even the most discerning of palates, myself included.
I met with Chef Pasquale at her bakery last week where we had a chance to chat.
Cake Box, a bakery offering cakes, cookies, cupcakes and coffee as well as nut-free and gluten-free baked goods, will open Feb. 2 in the lower level of 10 Bay St., behind the former Post 154 Restaurant, according to Robert Byrnes, a Ridgefield resident, who co-owns the business with his wife, Jordan Gregory.
The couple also own two bakeries in Ridgefield, Cake Box at 1 Big Shop Lane since April 2010, and Swoon, a nut-free, gluten-free bakery at 109 Danbury Road.
It started well over 10 years ago in Boston. Two boyhood friends and a dream – a dream to open a restaurant featuring healthy, wholesome food. The company’s founders, Jon and Anthony grew up eating nutritious food from Anthony’s Uncle Faris’s kitchen. When the two friends went off to college they over indulged on fast food. While they loved this way of eating, they hated how it made them look and feel. And so the two decided to open a business together based on the simple premise that they would offer people “fast” food by making it “real” – Food “made by people, not factories.” As they embarked on this journey, they heeded Uncle Faris’ other pieces of advice: “Take it easy, Live life, and most of all ‘be good.’” And with this b.good was born.
With many successful restaurants already established in New England, North Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Toronto, Canada, the newest location has just opened in my town of Fairfield. (Greenwich will also open its door shortly.)
Fairfield has worked its way up the food chain, offering all sorts of great dining opportunities for those with even the most discerning palates. With all the new restaurant openings, there was one thing that was lacking in the town’s culinary offerings; a really good health-food based option. Until now - enter Freshii.
Sandwiched in between The Fairfield University Bookstore and Chef’s Table is Freshii, recently opened by owner Jonathan Blob who also owns the Westport location. Although word had not yet really gotten out, the restaurant was bustling the two times I went in, first to check it out, then when I returned to chat with Blob.
The store, long and narrow, airy and bright, evokes a fresh, healthy attitude. Bright green, leaf-colored chairs are neatly lined up against the long counter space on one wall just below a large mirror reflecting the words...EAT. ENERGIZE. from the opposing wall. The light woods and grass-like covered wall lend themselves perfectly to an eatery of this type. A large menu board lists many and varied options. There are choices for breakfast, smoothies, juices, salads, wraps, bowls, soups and burritos.
One of the first Paleo soup cookbooks to hit the stands, Bowls of Love by AliRakowski is a seasonal soup cookbook with dozens of fresh, healthy recipes that are 100% Paleo, gluten-free and dairy-free.
Bowls of Love takes the concept of holistic health from the stove to your bowl, combining vegetables, locally sourced meat and homemade stock to create a plethora of soups that are both healthy and delicious. Based on the Paleo Diet, the recipes in this cookbook consist of lean meats, fruits, vegetables, healthy oils, nuts and seeds.
Unlike other Paleo cookbooks on the market, Bowls of Love has one main distinction – it focuses on the fact that every food we eat has a story. Each meal has a memory attached to it, and every plate and bowl holds those stories.
A stack of gifts. Cards with cute holiday stamps. Family parties. Work parties. Kids’ parties. Cocktail parties. Concerts. Shopping. Even more shopping. And now you want me to host a party of my own or host eighteen relatives?? Your holiday to-do list is quickly making the song “The 12 Days of Christmas” look like a lullaby with all the items that are mentioned-that partridge atop that pear tree has nothin’ on you and your list. So...save yourself some gray hairs and a freak-out by booking one of these delightful, highly capable, and creative caterers to take over the food-portion of your entertaining obligations this season. They will do you proud and you can actually relax and enjoy an evening before you have to wrap that 200th gift. And with that, may there be peace on earth. + CTbites readers get special discounts. See below.
Here is our Guide To 9 Great Caterers in Fairfield County:
We are in the midst of a craft food and beverage movement. Craft cocktails, craft beer, craft butchers, so why not craft juice? The New Haven-based FreshBev Craft Juicery, best known by its RIPE bar juice and Project Fresh product lines, is seeking to define the craft juice movement, one cold-pressed bottle of fresh vegetables and fruits at a time.
I had the opportunity to visit the New Haven factory (read: I was nosy and curious, so I invited myself over) to meet the folks behind the juice, taste some juice, and was excited to find a Connecticut business succeeding in the emerging and highly competitive juice market. First a little history. In 2008, frustrated by the abundance of preservative-laden shelf-stable cocktail mixers, founders Michel Boissy and Ryan Guimond took to their kitchen to create a natural and fresh juice for cocktails, beginning with everyone’s favorite cocktail staple, the margarita.
With summer in full swing there are even more reasons to shop Walter Stewart's Market, a fixture in downtown New Canaan since 1907. This family run grocer features not only outstanding customer service and a great selection of everyday needs for your family, but also local producers and hard to find specialty goods in every aisle.
Get healthy this summer with several new delicious offerings at Stewart’s prepared food grab and go salad case: Daikon Slaw with Organic Vegetables and Ginger Dressing, Sesame Salmon, Fresh Burrata over Grilled Peaches, or Summer Corn and Edamame Salad provide the perfect start to a great meal. Beat the heat with their Chilled Melon Soup and home made Gazpacho.
It's never too late to add a few new Passover recipes to the menu. Here are two more great Passover classics from Marcia Selden Catering including a Nut Free Haroset and a delicious Matzo Kugel.
Milla Pospisil won’t say how she gets her biscotti wafers so thin! All she’ll say is that it’s a family recipe she learned from her Ukrainian grandmother – a secret technique that allows her to slice them paper-thin and turn them into what she and her business partner Carissa Gulyas call Thinscotti.
These “deliciously addictive” (that’s the warning on the packaging) baked treats have been on the market since January, but have been baked in Milla’s family for generations. Now the duo, who both call Connecticut their home, have taken space at a commercial kitchen in Westport and are mixing and baking and slicing and packaging them up for local stores and coffee shops in Fairfield county.
Because they’re made with only a handful of ingredients – all natural, and no preservatives - there is something a little nostalgic about Milla’s Thinscotti. They taste a little like the cookies your own grandma would have made, just a little crunchier, a little nuttier, a LOT thinner, and just as more-ish. And because they’re sliced so thin – “the thinnest on the market,” Carissa says, each piece packs a mere seven calories, so you can go ahead and eat half the package – and you ‘ll only have 110 calories to enter into your calorie counting app.
Thinscotti comes two flavors, Toasted Almond and Dark Chocolate Almond, with plans for a Toasted Pecan Thinscotti in the works.Both flavors come in both regular and gluten-free wafers. It’s hard to tell the difference between the two!
The fact that the old Westport Library building — opposite what will soon be the former Klaff’s — now houses a Starbucks is seen by some longtime Westporters as a symbol of how the town changes.
Another symbol is on the way. Freshii — a strangely spelled “fast casual” restaurant offering salads, burritos, wraps, quinoa and rice bowls, yogurts, breakfast, soups, juices and smoothies, all made with high-quality, fresh ingredients — opens soon in the same former library building.
The address is both 1 Main Street, and 19 Post Road East. There will be entrances on the Post Road, and Parker Harding Plaza.
The Cake Box Expands and Relocates, Swoon Takes Over: Gluten free gourmet treats and cupcakes to live for...
As a mother of a child who has Celiac disease and cannot eat any gluten or wheat, I’ve struggled with finding cakes and desserts that actually taste like the real thing. I’ve found some good options at local markets but need an occasional splurge for a special event or party, or just because. Thankfully, there is good news if you’re in Fairfield County: a new gluten-free, nut-free bakery has opened. Soon after Cake Box of Ridgefield moved to its larger location, the same team opened Swoon.
Cake Box owners Robert Byrnes and Jordan Gregory, whose bakery is known for its variety of gourmet cupcake flavors and custom cakes, decided to open a gluten-free and nut-free bakery when Cake Box outgrew their Copp’s Hill Marketplace location. They explain, “We have been making gluten-free treats for customers that requested them. Now that we have a dedicated gluten-free and nut-free location, and can offer our customers the highest guarantee of no cross-contamination with other ingredients that may be problematic for them. Which means they can relax and enjoy a cupcake like everyone else!”
When I first walked into Embody Fitness Gourmet after it opened last September, it was a hot sticky day, the kind that melts the asphalt in the road. I could barely breathe and was in the midst of my usual daily stress. My car had almost died and the AC was acting quirky so I rolled into the parking lot off Riverside Ave across from the gas station. I ordered a GT Surge, a blend of crushed ice, green tea, freshly pressed lemon and agave nectar accented with fresh mint. Suddenly, my mind drifted off as the cool mojito-like flavors hit my tongue. I was transported to some palm-tree beach far away. Now, that the days of hot sunshine are long gone, I pull over and grab a homemade bean and kale soup as well as another GT Surge, if only to return to the summer in my mind. It seems these days, after much bad news and crazy weather, I need to escape often.
Mike Geller likes that he can tell his customers stories about how the food he delivers is grown and about the farmers who grow it. Conversely, he states, “There are no stories to tell with big agricultural suppliers. No one wants to know about thousands of chickens crowded in a small space with no room to move and no access to the outdoors.”
Mike started Mike’s Organic Delivery in June 2010 with a mission to reconnect people in Fairfield and Westchester Counties to where, how, and when their food is grown. After careful research, he selected 12 farms from the Hudson River Valley, Westchester County and Western Connecticut to become the suppliers for his nascent farm to home delivery service. The farms all use practices many of us look for when supermarket label gazing: organic, sustainable, free range, pesticide-free, no added hormones, no steroids, and no antibiotics. While we may find some of these methods on supermarket labels, Mike guarantees that his produce is picked no more than 36 and usually less than 24 hours before it reaches your door. That is not likely the case with the produce we cart home from the grocery store.
Finally, A healthy nutty snack that is doesn’t taste overpoweringly of high fructose corn syrup! I’m talking about the new 8 To The Bar snack bar that a pair of Connecticut cousins have recently brought to Fairfield county markets.
Made of a medley of eight different organic nuts, oats, dried fruit, honey and coconut, the bar has a great taste and texture. I particularly love the sour cherries that give the snack a tanginess, which, married with the sesame and coconut and the crunchiness of the nuts, translates to a taste that is deliciously more-ish.
The bar hits the mark for post exercise recharging. I tried my first bar after a five-mile run and found it both satisfying and energizing (not to mention delicious) – a fact that local fitness studios have cottoned on to. The bars are now available at Joyride, Kaia Yoga and the Saugatuck Rowing Club in Westport.
Wherever you are from, a meal at RUSTICO is like coming home. From the kitchen of Chef Miguel Angelo D'Onofrio, exquisite and thoroughly Italian dishes are only a heartbeat away. This family owned and operated establishment has been open for a year showcasing Chef Miguel's talents and passion for Italian cuisine.
Chef Miguel was born in Brazil and his mother is from Spain, but he is all ITALIAN on his father's side and these roots run deep. From traditional recipes, handed down from generation to generation yet modernized by Chef Miguel's creativity, a meal at RUSTICO is a delicious culinary experience. Using only the highest quality meats and fish - no hormones or antibiotics of any kind - and sourcing only the freshest ingredients, Chef Miguel prepares each dish to perfection. For 25 years he worked as an executive chef in Connecticut and was most recently co-owner of Finalmente Trattoria, also in Westport. Now in his own space he prepares dishes that originate from the passion that is Italia, RUSTICO is an extension of Chef Miguel's history.
Six Main will close their doors as of September 27, 2014. From their website announcement: "Thank you to all of our loyal customers for a wonderful 2 1/2 years, and most of all we would like to thank our farmer, Baylee Drown and her team at Upper Pond Farm for providing us with such inspiring food."
Elegantly prepared, nuanced preparations of vegetarian, vegan and raw food dishes are the expert domain of Six Main Restaurant in Chester, CT. Housed in the former Chester Savings Bank, a stately 100-year old landmark situated at the center of this quaint central Connecticut town, Six Main helps to usher in the slow momentum of “contemporary plant-based gourmet cuisine” into the state.
Open since summer 2012, Six Main is the result of a serendipitous collaboration between owner Bill de Jonge and award-winning raw chef Rachel Carr. Looking for a chef who would hold the same passion for healthy food, de Jonge hired Carr who happened to find herself in the Northeast after many years on the West coast at the helm of the well known Los Angeles raw vegan outpost, Cru. Their partnership also led to the cultivation of de Jonge's Old Lyme home, Upper Pond Farm, for produce specifically raised for the restaurant they were building.
Years ago, around the time The Brady Bunch was infiltrating almost every T.V. set in America, it was unlikely that your mom would have picked up dinner in lieu of cooking a homemade meal. While it’s true that familiar words in your household at the time may have included Wendy’s, Burger King and Arby’s, you weren’t pulling up to the drive-in window to order healthy, gourmet food. At home it may have been a casserole or a roast while mom always remained neatly coifed, and eating meals at the table as a family were normal.
Fast - forward 40 years and life is a lot different. In our fast paced world today we often find ourselves in a pinch, pressed for enough time to prepare a well-balanced meal for our disappearing family dinners due to time constraints. Enter Cinch, Fairfield’s newest “Gourmet Food Market.” A market where you shop for high quality meals that you just heat and serve in your own home. “Eat your heart out Carol Brady, let me tell you a little bit about the life of a 21st century family on the go.”
Fall is here and Walter Stewart's Market, a fixture in downtown New Canaan since 1907, is celebrating the season with great products for your whole family. For those who haven’t shopped this local gem, take a a trip down the aisles of Walter Stewart’s Market, where you’ll find an amazing array of local, seasonal and specialty items...not to mention the Stewart’s wine shop. Finally one stop shopping.
How better to enjoy in these crisp Fall months, than with local apple and apple cider from Lyman Orchards in Middlefield CT or the exceptionally delicious Cider donuts from Blue Jay Orchards in Bethel.
Good news for people with Celiacs Disease or those going gluten free. Turns out...bartaco Restaurant is almost completely gluten free! We sent our roving reporter, 9 year old Maizy Boosin, who suffers from Celiac, to test out the menu. See what she found out below...
When bartaco opened its first location in Pt. Chester, NY last year, the goal was to serve simple, tasty food in a stylish yet relaxed environment. After having expanded to locations in Stamford, CT and West Hartford, CT, bartaco continues to fulfill its original goal with a considerable bonus: the vast majority of its menu happens to be gluten free.
What do brownies and superfoods have in common? Some of you might jump up and shout, “Why chocolate, of course!” while the rest of you might scratch your heads and wonder. What if I told you that the Free & Company Kitchen’s incredible baked goods are all super-food based? Additionally, every one of their items is gluten, dairy and refined sugar-free, sweetened only with organic maple syrup. Some of their products are also egg and nut-free. For those of you with food sensitivities or who have children who do, this small, newly launched company should be on your radar. It should also be noted that these edibles aren’t for just vegetarians, vegans or celiac patients; they’re truly for everyone. 
