Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Today the Sunday Funday group is sharing recipes with okra. Thanks to Stacy of  Food Lust People Love , Sue of  Palatable Pastime , Rebekah of  Making Miracles , and Wendy of  A Day in the Life on the Farm  for coordinating this low-stress group.  And, this week, Sneha has asked us to share okra recipes. We love okra in this household. I have made  Okra Chips Two Ways . and Quick Pickled Okra . And it's an important ingredient in gumbo as that dish derived from the word 'gombo' which translates to 'okra' in many West African languages. In any any case, here's the okra line-up from the #SundayFunday bloggers... Baked Okra Fries from Culinary Adventures with Camilla Begova Corba from Bosnian Chicken Okra Soup from Pandemonium Noshery  Bhendi (Okra) Sabzi With Pickle Masala from Sneha’s Recipe  Crispy Oven Fried Okra from Food Lust People Love   Khoresh Bamia (Lamb with Okra) from Palatable Pastime  Okra Mexicana from A Day i...

Earlier this year I came across a book by George Mahood when I read Not Tonight, Josephine: A Road Trip Through Small-Town America . Find my thoughts about that book in my post - Road Trip Food + Jake's Scrambled Eggs . In any case, that cemented my admiration of Mahood's writing and when  Free Country: A Penniless Adventure the Length of Britain  by George Mahood* popped up in my Kindle suggestions, I ordered it immediately. On the Page This is another hilarious travelogue of Mahood's; this time he recounts biking from Land's End in the southern tip of England where he and his friend Ben started off with only their Union Jack boxer shorts. No clothes. No shoes. And, definitely, no bikes. They were relying solely on people's generosity to get them from one end to the other. "'We started this morning at Land’s End in a pair of boxer shorts and we have to get the entire way without spending a single penny.' 'Ok?' replied the man ...

It took my husband eighteen years to tell me that he doesn't really like parsnips. Seriously? What's not to like?!? Well, three years after that admission, he still has to eat them when they come in our CSA box; I try not to buy extra parsnips though. I'm nice that way. Sometimes. I decided to try them as oven-baked "fries." And, he liked them. Well, I think his exact words were, "These aren't terrible." I'll take it! Ingredients 1-1⁄2 lbs parsnips, peeled and cut into 'fry'-sized pieces 3 T olive oil 1⁄2  t freshly ground black pepper 1⁄2  t sea salt  2 pinches cayenne pepper Also needed: baking sheet, parchment paper or silicone mat Procedure Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Place parsnip fries in a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle with spices. Drizzle with olive. Use tongs to toss and coat parsnips evenly with oil and spices. Turn parsnips out onto parchment paper or silicone mat-lined baking sheet in single...

Foodie Extravaganza is where we celebrate obscure food holidays or cook and bake together with the same ingredient or theme each month. Posting day for #FoodieExtravaganza is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page  Foodie Extravaganza . We would love to have you! If you're a spectator looking for delicious tid-bits check out our  Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board ! This month - October - we're celebrating pumpkins, hosted by Lynda at Reviews, Chews, and How-Tos . Here's what the crew is sharing. The #FoodieExtravaganza Pumpkin Patch No-Bake Pumpkin Cookies from Caroline’s Cooking Butter Roasted Pumpkin Seeds from A Day in the Life on the Farm Vegan Malaysin Red Pumpkin from Sneha’s Recipe Pumpkin Saffron Rice from Palatable Pastime Roasted Kabocha (Japanese Pumpkin Fries) from Culinary Adventures with Camilla Low-Carb Pumpkin Scones f...

Today I'm hosting the Festive Foodies as we celebrate National Beer Day. Though I typically uncork wine as a food pairing, I do love a good beer. And I, especially, loved the challenge of coming up with a recipe that included beer. First, please take a look at what my fellow foodie bloggers posted for the celebration The Line-Up Beer Battered Onion Rings with Spicy Dipping Sauce by Cindy's Recipes and Writings Beer Braised Beef Short Ribs by Everyday Eileen Beer Brats with Caramelized Onions by Amy's Cooking Adventures Hatch Pepper Beer Chili by Palatable Pastime Mexican Beer Chili by A Day in the Life on the Farm Stoverij + Our Favorite Belgian Beer by Culinary Adventures with Camilla Our Favorite Belgian Beer Over the past few years, I have been lucky enough to meet and interview Fabrice Rondia, a Belgian transplant here on California's central coast and the owner of Belgian Pacific. Most recently I visited him at the beginning of the su...

As I was getting ready to test some burger creations for my #BurgerMonth posts, the boys asked about fries. What?  "Mom, you need to make fries to go with the burgers." Of course... Turns out that I didn't have any potatoes in my vegetable bin, but I did have Murasaki sweet potatoes. Have you ever had a Murasaki? It's a purple-skinned Japanese sweet potato with pale creamy-colored flesh. And what we love about it is its distinctive nutty flavor...and the fact that it stays firm when cooked. So, it's perfect for fries. Ingredients 4 to 5 Murasaki sweet potatoes, scrubbed and dried olive oil freshly ground salt freshly ground pepper Procedure Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Cut the sweet potatoes into thick wedges, approximately 6 to 8 wedges per sweet potato. Place the wedges in a large mixing bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat. Turn the sweet potatoes out onto the...

Another week, another recipe for the Kitchen Matrix Project, named after Mark Bittman's  Kitchen Matrix  cookbook. You can read about it:  here . This month, I picked the recipes for the month am I'm very excited about the dishes and the bloggers who are joining me. And I am thrilled with how simple these recipes are to make.  This week, I picked 'Miso+ 4 Ways' for the group. If you don't have the cookbook, Bittman's miso recipes are available online at the New York Times:  here . I had a tough time deciding because I was intrigued by the Miso Spice, Miso Butter, and - especially - the Miso Butterscotch! But I ran out of time this weekend, so those will be for another day. Stay tuned. More Miso An InLinkz Link-up Ingredients slight adapted from Bittman  because it was just "to mayo-y" according to my trio Miso Mayo 1/2 C mayonnaise 1 T miso 1 t soy sauce 1/2 t sesame oil Oven Fries 4 to 5 organic potatoes,...

We had a fabulous End-of-Fall-Break dinner in the backyard last night. We stayed out till we needed candles, sipped champagne, enjoyed the company, and just took deep breaths because today it's back to the scheduled grind of school, work, homework, projects, and early bedtimes. Here's the genesis of the dinner. I received a phone call from the Enthusiastic Kitchen Elf earlier in the day... D: Mom, I'm going to make mussels and fries for dinner. Okay? C: Okay. D: And garlic bread. This is something we ate on the cruise. C: So, I need to stop at the store on my way home from work? D: No, I already went with Daddy. Also, the garlic bread is going to be garlic bread like Daddy likes - a lot of butter and a little bit of garlic. Not like your garlic bread - a little bit of butter and a lot of garlic. Daddy says that your garlic bread can kill vampires. So, almost 18 years into this love affair and Jake still hasn't gotten on board with my lev...

Okay, reserve judgment, folks. This is not a traditional poutine. I'll be the first to admit that. It's not deep-fried and there are no cheese curds involved. But it is poutine-inspired...and it is delicious! I can't remember where I first heard the word, but I definitely had no idea what it was. Poutine. So, I did some reading. Then I asked one of my favorite Canadian foodie bloggers - Isabelle at Crumb - for a recipe. Here's hers . I loved that she used a duck confit and skipped the curds. I have nothing against curds; I just don't know where to find them and haven't had any reason to make my own. In case you don't know what poutine is...it's a sticky mess of french fries, doused in a light brown gravy, and topped with cheese curds. It's a popular hangover cure in Quebec. Peasant fare peddled out of food trucks. That is until recently. It's moved into the mainstream, a new culinary darling in swanky bars from New York to San Francisco. I...