gingerbread Archives – Eat Drink RI

Easy Entertaining’s Devorah Weinstein

Current news releases—Eat Drink RI is not the source for these items—please follow any links for more information.

Easy Entertaining Inc.

International Flair Comes to Local Café: Easy Entertaining Inc. Appoints New Event Coordinator

Easy Entertaining Inc. announced today that Devorah Weinstein has joined the Farm to Table Catering and Events service to further develop and grow the events side of the full-service hospitality business.

Weinstein comes to Easy Entertaining with a wealth of both local and international hospitality experience. With culinary arts degrees from the acclaimed Apicius International School of Hospitality in Florence Italy, and Johnson & Wales University, complemented by an additional degree in Hospitality Management from Syracuse University, Devorah is well-versed in all aspects of the hospitality industry.

Joining Easy Entertaining Inc. in advance of the busy holiday season, Weinstein has transitioned immediately into working with clients. She will be the main point of contact and the coordinator for large-scale event and wedding planning.

Devorah commented: “I am excited to start working at Easy Entertaining and look forward to working with a team of hospitality professionals. I am fortunate to have the opportunity to join a female owned-and-operated company that prides itself on delivering excellent service and top-quality farm to table products to its clients.”

Kaitlyn Roberts, owner and executive chef of Easy Entertaining Inc. said Weinstein’s passion for event coordination and for the clients make her the perfect person for the job. ” With the recent departure of our events person, it was a logical choice to have Devorah fill this necessary roll in our growing company. She is wonderful and personable with our clients and fits in perfectly with our team as well. I am confident that Devorah will play a key role in providing our clients with top notch event planning services.”

For more information please contact 401.437.6090 or email [email protected].

Sin’s New England Fruitcake

Sin

Sin’s holiday menu is out! Every year Sin offers a twist on a classic, this year it’s the Gingerbread House! This year they’re offering a decorated gingerbread house that contains a real gingerbread cake! Enjoy a moist, fragrant gingery cake as well as the ginger house pieces. This special cake is $80. You could also purchase a kit that you can put together with your family. The kit contains house pieces, royal icing, bags, tips, recipe, fondant and a board for $24. Or, you can let Sin do the decorating for you. A decorated gingerbread house is $48. Please provide 48 hours notice for the kit and the decorated house, 72 hours for the cake version. Contact Sin at [email protected], or call 401-369-8427. Sin will also be offering last year’s classic, the New England Fruitcake for $35. Check out their full menu on-line at www.eatwicked.com.

Pawtucket Wintertime Farmers Market

Pawtucket Wintertime Farmers Market Opens for 2013-2014 Season
Saturday Market expands to fill two hallways of historic Hope Artiste Village.

The Pawtucket Wintertime Farmers Market, located in Hope Artiste Village at 999 and 1005 Main Street, opens on Saturday, November 2nd for the 2013-2014 season. The Saturday Market will be open from 9am to 1pm, and will run from November 2nd through May 10th. The Wednesday Market, open from 4 to 7pm, will be held from November 6th through January 29th. At both markets customers will find fresh produce from local farmers, prepared food vendors, food trucks and food-related activities.

Saturday Wintertime Farmers Market:
The Saturday Market hosts over 65 local farms and food producers that will fill both the 999 and 1005 Main Street hallways of Hope Artiste Village this year! Stroll through the historic mill building amidst a diverse medley of local farmers and vendors, listen to live music, sample fresh products, and enjoy lunch on the spot from the area’s favorite food trucks – this year located in the center courtyard. In addition, several of Hope Artiste Village’s stores will remain open for shoppers during the market, including New Harvest Coffee in the 999 Main Street hallway and The French Tarte in the 1005 Main Street hallway.

Wintertime market-goers can expect a variety of locally grown fruits and vegetables – apples, beets, cabbage, carrots, cranberries, greens, potatoes, radishes, winter squash, and more. Vendors will also be offering: locally-raised eggs, pork, chicken, beef, fish, charcuterie and shellfish; locally-produced applesauce and apple butter, jams, jellies, pickles and cheese; granola, bread, cupcakes, crepes, pies & other baked treats including dog biscuits.

New vendors and products this year include:

Mystic Cheese Co, partnering with Connecticut dairies to produce farmstead cheeses.
Humble Pies, baking pies in Providence with local ingredients from the market.
Wild and Scenic, providing customers with seasonal wreaths and centerpieces for the holiday season.
Daniele, Inc., offering locally made, nitrate/nitrite-free dry cured charcuterie, sourced from RI, MA and CT hogs.

Wednesday Wintertime Farmers Market and Workshop Series:
The Pawtucket Wintertime Farmers Market returns on Wednesdays for the months of November, December and January, and will be packed with fresh veggies and fruits, plus locally inspired dinner options. Bring the whole family for cooking demos from many of our community partners and a workshop series that builds community through food, farming, and fun! Workshop topics include: composting, urban chicken keeping, canning, plus a wine & beer tasting event. For the schedule of workshop topics and dates, please visit our website: www.farmfresh.org/winter.

To celebrate the opening of the Wednesday Wintertime Market on November 6th, Whole Foods Market and Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution will host a free screening of the documentary Orchards in the Ocean State at 7:30pm, followed by a Q&A.

Vendors and products at the Wednesday market this year include:

Sharon, MA based Ward’s Berry Farm, offering a full range of local produce including rhubarb, broccoli, and winter squash.
Rocket Fine Street Food and Mijos Tacos, two local food trucks, rotating every other week with delicious local dinner options.
No stranger to our summertime markets, The Coffee Guy will be serving up hot and iced coffee and tea beverages for thirsty customers.

At both the Wednesday and Saturday markets, customers may use cash, checks, credit, debit cards and EBT/SNAP at the market. Those wanting to use a credit card or EBT card can purchase Fresh Bucks – farmers’ market tokens – at the Farm Fresh RI table. Fresh Bucks also make a great gift for friends and family.

And, bring your food scraps to the farmers markets! Farm Fresh Rhode Island will collect your scraps and distribute to local farmers for compost.

Moveable Feast with Fine Cooking

The sixth episode of the first season of Moveable Feast with Fine Cooking features Chef Matt Jennings of Farmstead, Inc. in Providence. It begins airing on Sunday, October 27 at 4:30 p.m. on RI PBS WSBE channel 36. It will air again on Saturday, November 2 at 1 p.m. on Boston’s WGBH channel 2, Sunday, November 3 at 1:30 p.m. on Boston WGBX channel 44 and Wednesday, November 6 at 5 a.m. on Boston’s WGBH channel 2. Check your television provider for more channel information.

In this episode of Moveable Feast with Fine Cooking, host Pete Evans joins forces with two of the East Coast’s best chefs—Matt Jennings, of Providence, Rhode Island, and Ken Oringer, who now has restaurants in Boston and New York. The chefs and their good friends take Pete on a voyage of discovery around the city of Providence, where they gather ingredients for the evening’s pop-up feast. With pork belly from Patrick McNiff, of Pat’s Pastured meats, and herbs and veggies from Eva Sommaripa’s Eva’s Garden, the trio spins a menu of beet salad, grilled pork belly with razor clams, and panna cotta with locally foraged sassafras. Delighted diners gather on a roof deck with a stunning view over downtown Providence to dig into a feast that’s ripe with local flavor.

You can view a preview clip here.

Components of the Gracie's Gingerbread Man Decorating Kit (icing tube not shown)

Looking for a fun gift, that’s also a craft project for a child (or adult), helps out families in need and is completely delicious? Then you’ll want to get over to The Miriam Hospital in Providence where for the next few weeks you can purchase a deluxe gingerbread man or woman decorating kit, freshly baked from Gracie’s restaurant kitchen, with 100% of the proceeds benefiting families in need.

Gracie’s Pastry Chef Melissa Denmark oversees the baking and kit building process and I visited the kitchen during cookie kit production for all the gingerbread information. Denmark told me they’re making 150 pounds of cookie dough to produce 1,000 cookies this year, up from 700 cookies sold last year. Gracie’s has also purchased 36 pounds of decorating candy which includes red & green sprinkles, gumdrops, mini-chocolate chips and more. Then there’s also 1000 packages of icing (which wasn’t in yet when these photos were made) which will come in easy-to-squeeze tubes.

eat drink RI: This is the second year for the gingerbread decorating kit project. How did it come about and who does it benefit?

Melissa Denmark: Our good friend Joe Conlan, Co-Director of Men’s Health at Miriam Hospital, approached Ellen [Gracyalny, Gracie’s owner] with the idea last year. The proceeds go to families in the local community. Joe works with a liaison in the community who matches this project with families in need. They come up with a list of goods that are needed. At the end of the project we take all the funds and go to Target and Kohl’s and have a big shopping spree to present to these families, which is such a nice, warm feeling.

edRI: How does the process work?

MD: Production is divided into three realms. We have the cookie production, which starts with Danielle [Lowe] and I making a big batch of gingerbread cookies over and over again. We roll those out and stamp them out and we bake them in waves depending on Joe’s sales at the hospital. Then we get the staff here at Gracie’s involved. They are helping us package all the little goodies, all the candies, all the icing—we have a variety of six different candies and icing that we tuck away into packages.

Then it all gets picked up by Joe. This year, the actual box assembly with tissue paper and ribbon is happening over at Miriam Hospital. Joe is the conductor of this project and has invited all of his elves over at the hospital to help with the packaging. He has about 10-15 people involved. [The kits] are sold in the cafeteria to gain buzz from the staff at the hospital and they’re also selling them at the entrance of the hospital.

edRI: What’s included in each kit?

MD: You get one giant gingerbread cookie, two ounces of icing and six bags of candies for $8. It’s a really fun project to do. It’s a lot of work, but it’s exciting because it gets a lot of different people involved, and it’s during the season when everybody has all this spirit and it’s good to give back.