Jane and I love food and wine so in between photo news we wanted to write some food-related posts….here are three items to kick it off:

First, for my recent birthday Jane gave me the new Barcelona Cookbook written by the the owners of the Barcelona Wine Bar tapas restaurant group in Connecticut.  It’s a nicely written and photographed book with a great wine section in addition to the tapas recipes.  Jane also booked a date to go to Barcelona in West Hartford Center to a “Cook the Book” night hosted by Executive Chef Adam Greenberg.  We and 40 others enjoyed everything from his potato latkes with applesauce to the churros with chili-chocolate dipping sauce.  Barcelona also has restaurants in Greenwich, Stamford, South Norwalk, Fairfield and New Haven…they’ve got a very cool urban and relaxed atmosphere along with great tapas and wine…and live music some nights.

Second, Jessica and James Vanderberg, the very talented and fun couple whose wedding we photographed at the Hill-Stead Museum in ’08 have started an outstanding  foodie blog called “Plated” out of their Brooklyn home.
“Plated” features classic and eclectic recipes as well as dinner parties that you can sign up on their blog to attend.  Jessica and James (photo below) are great writers and their love of food, wine, traveling and people really shines through in their blog.  Check them out at http://brooklynplated.wordpress.com.

Lastly, I love food markets and I’ve been meaning to check out Hartford’s own CT Regional Market down under the highways past the old Colt Firearms factory (the address is 101 Reserve Road).  A few Saturdays back I headed down there at 6am and 15 degrees and saw a small group of customers shopping at several of the mostly fruit and vegetable purveyors selling from their shipping docks.  Even within this small group in 30 minutes I met people from Bosnia, Portugal and Jamaica…highlights the great diversity of recent immigrants in the Hartford area.