Nutmeg Nuggets 2025

One of our favorite places to go for a walk is Topsmead, a 510 acre state forest in Litchfield. While there are numerous walking trails, a butterfly garden, and places to watch a variety of wildlife, the main attraction is an English Tudor style  summer home  that was built in the 1920’s.  Edith Chase’s father, who ran the Chase Brass and Copper company in nearby Waterbury, gave  her 16 acres of land  in 1917, and over the years, Edith built the cottage and gardens, established a working farm,  and bought an additional 500 acres of surrounding land. When Edith died in 1972, she left the property to the state to be used as a state forest. Today, the cottage, including its contents and gardens are pretty much what they were when Edith lived there and you can tour the cottage twice a month when it is open to the public.  Connecticut has a number of state forests and parks and Topsmead is just one of many in the area which are fun to visit.  Interesti...

Three years ago, new owners took over the Stonybrook golf course which is just a few miles up the street from us in Litchfield. We had heard that the restaurant was quite good so when my sister  Susan visited with us for the July 4th weekend, we decided to go there for lunch. It was a beautiful, sunny, but hot afternoon so we ate inside rather than  on the deck which offers a great view of the course and countryside. Given it is a 9 hole public course, we were pleased to find a casual, yet upscale dining room and a menu with a number of interesting options. The chef is a fan of Asian infused food so there are a number of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean dishes.  As a shared appetizer, I  selected pork belly bites as this is not something you usually see on a menu in New England. It was crispy bites of pork belly in a soy, sesame peanut sauce, which were quite tasty, but also quite heavy- probably better suited for the winter.  For our main courses, Sunny had the su...

One of our favorite places to go for lunch is Yia Yia’s Greek Kitchen in nearby Torrington. It is  a small, unassuming place on a busy street that you wouldn’t even know was there if someone hadn’t recommended it. While it has plenty of choices,  we had our usual - dolmades ( stuffed grape leaves)  as a shared appetizer with Sunny having a beautiful Greek salad with chicken, and I had the lamb gyro platter. Sunny’s salad came with  tasty Kalamata olives, a large slice of delicious feta cheese, and like  a real Greek salad, just onions, peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers- no lettuce!  The gyro was a pita stuffed with  grilled lamb, onion, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and topped with homemade tzatziki sauce. The crunchy fries and Mythos beer added a nice twist. As usual, service was great, everything was delicious and we have found that by going after the noontime rush, it is quieter and a little more relaxed. Yia Yia’s is a rarity in today’s dining scene-...

Ever since we bought our place in Litchfield three years ago, the Bakehouse,  which is right in the center of town, has been my go to bakery. I have told Jeremy, the owner and baker, that his croissants and baguettes are as good as any that I have had in Paris and that he should rename his place The French Bakehouse. When asked the secret for such delicious, flaky croissants, he said - butter, lots of butter. In addition to the croissants and baguettes, he has a wide variety of  other baked goods-  different breads and rolls,  muffins, cookies, cakes, pies as well as sandwiches. I often get a chocolate croissant and latte and sit outside on his patio which overlooks the town green. Jeremy supplies many of the local delis and restaurants which means he does their baking first and we have to wait until 11 AM for the second batch of baguettes to come out of the oven, although on occasion he has snuck me one out the side door!  Looking for a great a bakery, stop by ...

  As America gets ready to celebrate its 250th anniversary next year, Litchfield is starting to erect signage around town describing significant events. One of the more interesting ones is entitled Melted Majesty. In 1770, the New York assembly paid to have a 4 ton statue of King George III sculpted out of lead by British sculptor Joseph Wilton and erected in what is now the financial district of New York. On the evening of July 9, 1776, General George Washington read the declaration of independence to a crowd in New York, and after hearing it, the crowd marched down to lower Manhattan and   toppled the statue after several attempts. Among the crowd was General Oliver Wolcott  who  was leading  the Connecticut militia  and who happened to own a foundry in Litchfield. It was decided to have  large pieces of the statue brought to Litchfield and melted into musket balls for the American militia. As men were off to war, the women and  children of Litc...

  As our cleaning lady came this morning, Sunny and I decided to go to The Milk and Honey Grill in nearby Goshen for breakfast. The Grill is typical of breakfast/ lunch diners you find throughout New England - cozy, one menu, open 6 AM - 1 PM with mostly local customers. The menu offers lots of options with a few daily specials.  Sunny had a beautiful, fluffy omelette with fruit on the side, while I decided to go big with a real New England favorite, eggs and hash that come with home fries and toast. I also ordered a large blueberry pancake which you can get with real local maple syrup. I should have asked how big the big pancake is as it is very big. You are probably thinking that is a lot of food, but hash and blueberry pancakes are two of my favorites breakfast dishes, so in order to support my blog, I ordered both, and finished everything with the exception of the toast. The only weak spot was the coffee -  much harsher than Dunkin,  but all of these di...