WineCanine

Last Friday I had the pleasure of attending a book-release party for Home Grown Indiana, by Christine Barbour and Scott Hutcheson. Fun was indeed had by all, and it was good to see some familiar people and connect with some new ones. And it was quite a treat to get to sample the Pork and Sweetbread Terrine and the Caprese salad drizzled with 15-hour Balsamic reduction that Reneé made.

As good as the food was (and the wine, and the beer), the star of the evening was the book. It’s an amazingly complete guide to Indiana’s food producers, farmers markets, shops, wineries, brew pubs and locally-owned restaurants, with some tantalizing recipes thrown in for good measure. For those who like to travel around the state to the various food festivals (Evan, this means you) they’re in there by region with a few highlighted in the back. (Dangit, I missed the Perogi Festival again this year!) Putting together a guide of this type is like trying to hit a moving target, so some of the information will inevitably go out of date as new places spring up, others close, and hours and names change. Fortunately, the authors promise that there will be future editions, so we can look forward to this guidebook growing and evolving over the coming years.

This would be a good book to keep in the car — but the recipes and restaurant guides make it a good reference to keep in the house, too. Maybe it would be better to buy two. It’s $16.95, and available from bookstores and from the publisher, Indiana University Press.

Normally we don't let dogs near the buffet table, but you kept wagging your tail so endearingly, we relented.

Well, thanks. I try to be good when I'm out. But if people hadn't been standing around the table I would have eaten at least half of that terrine all by myself!