Bite Into The Tastiest of Treats

If you haven’t heard, Utica has gained a newly beloved bakery. With its grand opening being shy of just one month ago, Bite Bakery has captured local Utica residents tremendously fast. Operated and owned by Jason Allen-Leonard, Douglas Allen-Leonard and Angela Brown. These three entrepreneurs teamed up to deliver more than an average bakery. With coffee shops and bakeries located all over, Bite Bakery has everything all in one setting. Not to mention their rustic modern cafe style makes you feel like you’re in a New York City setting with the view of Genesee street and downtown Utica in plain sight.

Specializing in breakfast, lunch and coffee cuisine, Bite also offers numerous baked goods including soft delicious cookies, a variety of different flavored cupcakes, including seasonal deserts, just in time for holiday celebrations, scones and pastries and everyone’s favorite; delicious warm cinnamon buns, that will surely melt in your mouth.

Trust me, they will. The aroma of coffee grounds mixed with cookies and bread when you first walk in will leave you itching for a cup to wash all the baked goodness down. But the menu doesn’t stop there. If breakfast isn’t what your looking for Bite offers lunch specials from wraps and sandwiches to fresh soups and salads. With their motto being simple, fresh and delicious, they sure live up to those standards. Stop in today and try it our for yourself. Bite Bakery is open 7 days a week and is located on 53 Franklin Square.

Halloween Flashback

Basketball is right around the corner and so is Halloween. The Utica college men’s basketball team started practice on October 15 and will be kicking off their season against SUNY Cortland at home on November 14. Ivan Iton is one of the team captains and below is a brief bio on him as well as a question and answer, Halloween style…

Name: Ivan Iton

Position: Power Forward

Class: Sophomore

Studies: Biology

Number: #22

How do you feel about Halloween? I like it, I feel it’s a time for the kids to have fun and get candy, everyone loves candy.

Do you remember your first time Trick or Treating? I’m not sure I remember my first time ever, but I do remember going when I was about 9 or so, I was a blue power ranger.

Do you still go Trick or Treating? No, I wish though, I may step out this Halloween as a professional basketball player or something.

What’s your favorite Halloween movie? I would have to say any movie of the Halloween series with Michael Myers, those are crazy and scary, but I love them.

What is one memory that you will never forget about Halloween? When I was young I went trick or treating and it was this huge white house. The owner had dug up a ditch in the front yard and covered it with leaves. So, when I walked forward to knock, a person rose up from the ditch and jumped out at all the kids, I almost peed my pants. I would say that memory is the craziest, ever!

Check out some spooky Halloween pics!

Homemade Pizza

Here at Utica College, the Resident Assistants (RA’s) host fun events for the students that live in their assigned dormitory. These events can be arts & crafts related, educational-based, but most importantly, they can also be food related. The RA of my floor hosted a “Make Your Own Pizza” event. I was slightly skeptical to try it at first because I’ve never done something like this before, but it’s actually really simple and when it comes out of the oven, it tastes great. I made one plain pizza and a pepperoni pizza. But, we all know that there are an endless amount of pizza toppings.

The ingredients include:

Pre-made pizza dough (there are numerous brands available in any supermarket)

Mozzarella cheese

Any other topping of your choice

How To Make it:

Spread the tomato sauce onto the pre-made pizza dough, put your toppings on and preheat the oven to 350 and bake for about 15 minutes. This is really easy to make and is great for lunchtime.

Bacon-Wrapped Barbeque Chicken

This dish made by a Utica College student, Alliyah McClellan, has bacon wrapped baked chicken, smothered with honey barbeque sauce. The side of cheddar & bacon mashed potatoes adds even more bacon flavor to the plate and the more bacon, the merrier. With simple ingredients and a reasonable cooking time of about 2 hours (at most), this dish is very simple to make and comes out tasting great. Though it was her first time making this dish, Alliyah mixed the perfect amount of seasonings together to make a delicious dish.

The ingredients she used a very simple and are as follows:

Purdue chicken breast (using chicken breast makes it easier to wrap the bacon)

Idahoan Applewood Smoked Bacon Flavored Mashed Potatoes (available in any supermarket)

Larry’s Seasoning Salt

Goya Adobe

Oscar Mayer Naturally Hardwood Smoked bacon

Honey barbeque sauce (or any bbq sauce of your preference)

How to make bacon wrapped chicken:

Preheat your oven to 400

Cook the bacon about mid-way, on the stove top

While chicken is baking, take the half-cooked bacon and wrap it around the chicken and let it bake together until both are fully cooked

This dish is simple and fun to make, so why not give it a try at home.

Battle of the Bras

Some Utica College students had a little push-up to their days as the school’s Womyn’s Resource Center (WRC) hosted what’s known as “The Battle of the Bras” yesterday to raise awareness for breast cancer.

Students got the chance to decorate and paint a bra while learning more about breast cancer. This event is free and at the end, people were able to cast their votes to their favorite bra that was designed that day. The goal of the event was to have the UC community educated more on breast cancer. WRC hosts this event every semester.

Senior Laura San Juan, who’s also a part of WRC, said her favorite part of the event is watching the painting and designing process and what the initially plain bras turn out to be.

One in eight women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. See link

Another member of WRC senior Qwelan Dopwell said a couple of her favorite bra designs she’s seen from previous years were bras decorated with pearls and one with a butterfly design on it.

(Left to right) senior Kia Della and sophomore Janelle Simmons

Bass Pro Shops’ Halloween Fun

October may be wrapping up, the Utica community is looking forward to unwrapping the Halloween candy they will be receiving this weekend. The Bass Pro Shops in Utica has something special in store for young, crafty, nature lovers and the Utica community in general, and is free.

Tonight, Bass Pro is hosting an arts and crafts table from 6-8 p.m. Photos can also be taken. Don’t despair if you can’t make it tonight. The celebration isn’t over until Halloween’s over. Those who attend can expect to decorate trick-or-treat bags, trick-or-treat buckets, and make their own decorations.

Trick or treating begins tomorrow Oct. 30 from 6-8 p.m. Bass Pro is also holding a costume parade for those who are 12 and younger at 6 p.m. and the store’s associates will be judging the attendees’ costumes during the parade and the winner will receive a $10 Bass Pro gift card.

More information can be found here

More info

2015 Halloween Event