Culinary Adventures with Camilla

This is a sponsored post written by me in conjunction with the upcoming October #Winophiles event. Wine samples were provided for this post and this page may contain affiliate links. This is a pairing that I made on the second night of pouring the Château du Cèdre Extra Libre 2018 Malbec which I received for the upcoming October French Winophiles event. So you'll have to wait to hear about the wine, but I will share this amazingly simple, yet delicious dinner. Everything is done in one bowl and on one sheetpan. I love it for a busy weeknight evening. Ingredients  serves 6 to 8 Baby Kale Pesto  (makes more than you need, but depends on your preference) 4 C baby kale greens, rinsed and dried 1 C fresh herbs (I used basil and parsley) 1 T crushed garlic 1/2 C ground almonds 1/2 C shredded parmesan olive oil freshly ground pepper freshly ground salt Also needed: a blender or food processor Sheetpan Cod 6 to 8 boneless pieces of cod 3 to 4...

Today I am starting off the #TastyParTEA online event. You can read all the details - meet the other bloggers, view our posting schedule, and enter the giveaway - at my kick-off post . I love incorporating tea into dishes. So cooking with tea isn't new to me. I've  poached pears in Earl Grey , folded  mint tea into shortbread , made  Matcha Ice Cream , used  Earl Grey in brownies , and  marbled eggs in black tea ...just to name a few.  Lapsang Souchong adds smokiness  to dishes without using, say, bacon! This recipe used items from the event sponsors* - the Green Tea Magnet and Infuser Set and 2-Cup Poppy Tea Pot from Charles Viancin and Brain Boost Super Green Tea from The Republic of Tea . And it was a quick, delicious lunch on a busy Sunday afternoon. Ingredients 1/4 to 1/3 lb fish per person (I used Pacific cod) freshly ground salt freshly ground pepper 4 C water 2 green tea teabags or 2 T green tea (I used The R...

This month Elizabeth from  The Lawyer's Cookbook  is hosting  Food'N'Flix . Here's  her invitation . She invited us to watch  Popeye .* On the Screen... Just like last month's selection, this one was completely new-to-me. I mean, I do know who Popeye is, but I've never seen this movie. After a long day of unpacking, I asked if the boys would want to watch it with me; and they did. Almost immediately, there was groaning involved. "Mom, I can't understand what he's saying. Why does he have to talk with that pipe in his mouth?" "Mom, the singing is not so great." But they sat through it, though my husband declared definitively, "'Baghead' is no longer the worst movie I've ever seen." Great . So, I won't talk too much about the movie as we really didn't enjoy it. Sorry, Elizabeth! Popeye (played by Robin Williams) lands in a strange seaside town called Sweethaven. There he rents a room fro...

While I loved the idea of bacon wrapped fish, I clearly need a do-over. I call 'mulligan!' Or maybe I should actually follow someone else's tried and true recipe instead of winging it blindly. I figured: How hard could it be? Let's just say my fish was overdone and the bacon was not done enough. Ugh. So, apparently it's harder than I thought. But I am posting this because as much as I love sharing my kitchen successes and triumphs, I find it equally important that we share those flops, too. It makes us human and encourages us to embrace the fact that we aren't Martha Stewart...at least not everyday, right? And if any of my dear readers has a recipe for bacon-wrapped fish that they adore, send it over. I'll give it a try. Thanks in advance.

Welcome to the May event for The French Winophiles, a wine-swilling, food-loving group coordinated by Christy of  Confessions of a Culinary Diva . We've made it around France. And by c licking on the following regions you can read my recipe post that includes the #winophiles round-up as well. So far, we've traveled - by tabletop and goblet - to  the Loire Valley ,   Corsica ,  the Southwest ,  Languedoc-Roussillon ,   Côtes du Rhône ,   Bordeaux ,   Champagne ,   Burgundy , and  Alsace . To Vouvray Today we're headed to  Vouvray. Located in the heart of Touraine, Vouvray - having been granted A.O.C. status in 1936 - is one of France's oldest, but the grapes themselves have been grown there since the 4th century. Vouvray's single grape varietal, that thrives in the region's clay and limestone soils, is Chenin Blanc, known locally as Pineau de la Loire . The Conversation Join us for a live Twitter Chat Sat...

Spring break has been fantastic for my Foodie Reads 2016 Challenge , I've been able to cross half a dozen books off my to-read list. While the boys worked on their movie, over the past few days, I packed a book and read in between takes and sledding with D. On the Page... Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food by Paul Greenberg* was my book of choice when we went to Desolation Wilderness and when we were at the summit of Mt. Rose.  Paul Greenberg is a lifelong fisherman and talented writer. And in  Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food he provides the reader an entertaining and informative natural history and social commentary on the state of commercial fishing, aquaculture, and fisheries management around the world.  His book focuses on four fish: salmon, sea bass, cod, and tuna. He uses those species as jumping off points for further exploration. In the section on salmon, Greenberg visits the Yupiks on the Yukon River, details the ...

When I started talking about what to make for this month's  Food'N'Flix  which is a double feature with  Cook the Books  of  The Hundred Foot Journey* , the Enthusiastic Kitchen Elf really wanted to re-do his Spiced Coconut Sea Urchin Soup . You can read the invitation by  Deb of  Kahakai Kitchen   for the Cook the Books portion. Here's  her  invitation ;   here's what D and I made for that event:  our version of  Sungta ani Bende Kodi . But, in our attempt to re-do the urchin soup, we were foiled in sourcing urchin locally. I heard buzzings about an echinoderm epidemic; I also heard it was due to the oil spill in Santa Barbara earlier in the year. Whatever the cause, there have been no urchin to be had. I did think we caught a break when a local seafood purveyor was taking advanced orders for urchin. I placed my order, but kept getting emails - "not this week, maybe next week." I was holding out, hoping that we wo...