DeRomo's Gourmet Market and Restaurant, Bonita Springs, Florida

Assortment of my holiday cookies from DeRomo's Bakery

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to wander the NYC city streets on my own and found myself in the epicurean paradise called Eataly.  Its a one stop shop for all things food - grocery, bakery,  fromagerie, deli, restaurant, coffee bar.  It had me at "hello".  I never thought I'd find any place close enough to my own backyard that would come close.  I'm very happy to stand corrected!  In the upscale shopping enclave of the Promenade now stands DeRomo's Gourmet Market & Restaurant, a little slice of Italian heaven in Bonita Springs, Florida.    

Set in old world rustic decor, DeRomo's offers a multitude of offerings.  The grocery offers a wide selection of items including produce, fresh breads and bakery items, homemade and specialty pastas and gourmet snacks.  DeRomo's also has a well stocked meat counter boasting beef, veal, pork and poultry cuts alongside house made Italian sausages and ready-to-cook specialities like braciola.   The variety of available selections makes DeRomo's an ideal shopping location for party hosts and home chefs.

Among my favorite sections in the market is the bakery.  Each trip to DeRomo's guarantees that I will leave with a box full of homemade cookies and pastries.  The pastry case rivals any authentic Italian bakery in Little Italy.  My go to selections include the amaretti and pignoli cookies, both of which have a soft chewy and lightly sweet center prefect to pair with an after dinner cappuccino or espresso.  But if you prefer a sweet with a bit more crunch, DeRomo's bakers do not disappoint with its assortment of biscotti.

In addition to grocery offerings, DeRomo's also boasts prepared foods and ready to order items from its deli area.  Sandwiches, pizzas, flatbreads and hot soups are all available for the lunch diner on the go.  Comfort foods like meat stromboli and Italian wedding soup will not disappoint you.  Don't want to "take out"?  "Eat in" and enjoy your meal on the outside patio.  In the springtime, on a nice temperate day, the patio makes for a nice mid-day lunch date.

For those looking for a more elegant dining experience, head through the market's back door and right into DeRomo's restaurant.  The menu features many of the traditional offerings of fine Italian dining, including my perennial favorite, eggplant parmesan so nicely breaded and sauced.        Those dining alone can also enjoy the upscale experience and set themselves at the bar situated between DeRomo's indoor and outdoor dining areas.





DeRomo's is a unique experience in the Southwest Florida area, one that I have been enjoying many times over since its opening in just over a year ago.   Admittedly, the quality of the fare is reflected in its prices.  But it is quite true that you do get what you pay for.  And when you are looking for something comforting and delicious, DeRomo's is an ideal place to go.

Anna's Mini Review: Peace, Love and Little Donuts, Naples, Florida

Hey! Guess what? I went to Peace, Love, and Little Donuts!
Honestly this is the best donut place EVER!!!!
Here they have awesome donuts!

They have lemonade flavored donuts, chocolate flavored donuts, vanilla flavored donuts and more!
They even have maple bacon donuts!!!!!! Awesome, don't you think?

We decided to get the pumpkin, the samoa, the lemonade, the cookies and cream, the chocolate salted pretzel, and the coconut donut.
They were DELICIOUS!!!!!!

The people that worked there were very nice and even recommend some popular flavors that we LOVED (for an example the pumpkin one was suggested)!!!!

I loved Peace, Love, and Little Donuts and I hope you do too!!!

I rate this FIVE SPOONS!!!!!

Bomboloni alla Nutella - Tony's Off Third - Naples, Florida

Bomboloni alla Nutella

I have never taste tested for the blog while attending a business seminar, but there's always a first time for everything.  And today was the day for a first!  You might be surprised (or not) to learn that I actually have a day job, and that I don't eat my way through food for a living.  While it might be a dream of mine to procure such delicious employment, this girl still makes a buck the old fashioned way.  I've got to keep my legal mind as sharp as a pencil, so every year I attend the Florida Bar's Attorney/Trust Officer Liaison Conference.  One of the nice things about this conference is that I get to network with a lot of non-lawyer colleagues who work in related fields.  Kristin Vaughn of the estate auction and appraisal firm, Leslie Hindman Auctioneers, is not only one of these fellow colleagues but also a fellow foodie.  Kristin is a fan of this blog's Facebook fan page and she must have seen the pic of that maple bacon doughnut I posted for National Doughnut Day.  Because as soon as I saw her we launched into an excited conversation about doughnuts.  And not just any doughnut, but the Bomboloni alla Nutella, the latest limited offering from Tony's Off Third, a popular wine and pastry shop in Naples' exclusive Third Street Shopping District.

Kristin's office happens to be just above Tony's Off Third so she had the skinny on this new sweet treat that trended on Naples Facebook feeds last weekend.  Created by shop co-proprietor and Naples' restauranteur/chef, Tony Ridgeway, the Bomboloni alla Nutella is an Italian doughnut filled with white chocolate mousse and Nutella cream.  Kristin didn't have spend a lot of time convincing me that I needed to try this.  She had me right at Nutella.  Hazelnut and chocolate.  Mmmmm.  Love that stuff.  I have ever since my cousin brought it back from a trip to the Netherlands while I was in my teens.  And now Nutella is as ubiquitous as ever.  So, it was only a matter of time before it made its way into a doughnut.

But Tony's doughnut, available only on Fridays, is no run-of-the-mill doughnut.  This brioche style doughnut, with its light bread-like texture, is generously filled with delicious mousse.  The bread itself is not sweet so that this treat is sweetened exclusively by the cream.  I like my desserts sweet but not overly sweet, so this doughnut fits the bill for me.   With that being said, there is a generous amount of cream in these pastries.  So it's best to eat one over a plate or at least a napkin lest some of that sweet cream become a new adornment on your lap.  Not a good way to waste such deliciousness!

Many thanks to Kristin for commandeering someone to pick up a box of these Bomboloni and ferrying them down to us at the conference.  I will definitely be paying her back with lunch sometime very soon, maybe at Ridgeway Bar & Grill.  :-)

Baked Goods #2: Apple Walnut Fig Bread

My favorite fig products ... before my late summer taste test.   Ambrosia for the gods!

I absolutely adore figs.  Fresh figs, dried figs, fig preserves, fig spread, fig butter … whatever its form I'm seriously in love with this fruit.  So, imagine my delight when I discovered Adriatic fig spread at Whole Foods.  That stuff on crostini with a soft sliver of brie is the equivalent of my kryptonite.  I didn't think anything could come close, until I found Trader's Joe's fig butter.  That was like striking gold!  Now mind you, the Whole Foods spread is still my ultimate favorite, but this comes seriously close.  So, when a Facebook friend posted a pic of her traditional fig cake, my inspiration was sparked. After finishing a batch of honey banana bread loaves and finding myself without bananas to spare and quite a few names left on my holiday gift giving list, apple walnut fig bread was born.  And what a beautiful baby it is.  Here it is now for your tasting pleasure.

Apple Walnut Fig Bread

¼ c. minced dried figs

½ c. honey

½ c. butter, softened

2 eggs

½ c. fig butter

1 c. unsweetened applesauce

1 tsp. vanilla

1 c. old fashioned oats

1 c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. nutmeg

½ tsp. salt

¼ c. chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 325°.   Add minced dried figs to honey and allow to sit for 10 minutes (so that figs can soften).  Cream softened butter and honey fig mixture together in a mixing bowl.  Add eggs, fig butter, applesauce and vanilla extract.  Mix until all are well incorporated.  Set aside while you work on dry ingredients.

Add oats to a food processor and process oats to create a course powder.  (If you have oat flour, you can skip this step and substitute with the same amount of oat flour.)   Add remaining dry ingredients to the powdered oats and blend together (which can be done in the food processor). 

Add walnuts to wet ingredients and mix to incorporate.  Slowly add dry ingredients into wet ingredients until well mixed.  Spoon batter into a buttered and floured loaf pan.    Bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. 

These may not rise like the banana bread, but they are wonderfully moist and delicious.  Hope your version is just as tasty as mine! 

Baked Goods #1: Honey Banana Bread

As much as I love cooking, baking has never been my forte.  While I admit to having developed a passable skill of improvising dinner dishes, I've never dared to try my luck at improvising sweets.  There's much more science involved when it comes to baking that I haven't quite grasped and it's been a long time since I've made my way around a chemistry lab.  I still am not quite sure that I understand the difference between baking powder and baking soda.  Nonetheless, as a mom, it's necessary for me to have a few baked goods in my repertoire.  For me, banana bread is just that thing.  

We love bananas in our house and tend to have an overabundance of the potassium-rich fruit on hand at any given time.  Although my children usually make fast work of a bunch, every once in a while a straggler finds itself at the bottom of my fruit basket.  Once it develops those freckles, my kids turn up their noses.  Lucky for me, I know that ripe bananas can be frozen and, when thawed, soften to the nice consistency perfect for banana bread.

This holiday season, I was lucky to have a whole bunch of frozen bananas.  So, naturally, my first day of holiday baking was dedicated to my ever faithful standby.  And this year, I made a few adaptations to make this holiday version a bit more special.  The addition of oat flour here reduces the gluten content while the use of organic honey eliminates the use of processed sugar.  The result is just as yummy and a tad bit healthier.  I will definitely be making this again, and perhaps will try my luck at making this entirely gluten free!  But that will be a post for another day.  In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this new recipe.  Comments and critiques are welcome!

  

Honey-Banana Bread

½ c. butter, softened

½ c. honey

2 eggs

2 c. mashed bananas

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 c. old fashioned oats

1 c. all-purpose flour

1 ¼ tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

¼ tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 325°.   Cream softened butter and honey together in a mixing bowl (or preferably the box of a stand mixer).  Add eggs, bananas and vanilla extract and mix until all are well incorporated.  Set aside while you work on dry ingredients.

Add oats to a food processor and process oats to create a course powder.  (If you have oat flour, you can skip this step and substitute with the same amount of oat flour.)   Add remaining dry ingredients to the powdered oats and blend together (which can be done in the food processor to save yourself a cleaning step). 

Slowly incorporate dry ingredients into wet ingredients until well mixed.  Spoon batter into a buttered and floured loaf pan.    Bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.   This recipe should yield one loaf.

For gift giving, I use baby loaf pans purchased from my grocery store.  This recipe will make 3 baby loaves.  I doubled the recipe to yield 6 baby loaves, each of which I slipped into a printed holiday cellophane gift bag.  I found the gift bags pictured above at Michael's in their baking aisle.  On the underside of each bag, I affixed a label to direct my friends to the honey banana bread recipe here on my blog.  You, however, are welcome to print my recipe on a larger label and make this a gift that keeps on giving.  Happy holidays!