Culinary Adventures with Camilla

from amazon.com Welcome to our September 2022 edition of Movies & Munchies, a relatively new group of film-loving foodies.  We all watch the same movie during the month, create a recipe inspired by the movie and post about it on our blogs and/or Instagram.  It is a lot of fun and anyone is welcome to join.  You can find out more on our  Facebook page .  I am excited to be hosting this month and would love for you to join us in watching the rom-com set in Italy called Letters to Juliet . From New York to Verona and throughout Tuscany, there is plenty of food and wine inspiration to be had. What begins as a pre-honeymoon trip for Sophie (played by Amanda Seyfried), a fact-checker from New York, and her fiancé, Victor (played by Gael García Bernal), a chef who is about to open an Italian restaurant turns into a multi-generational roadtrip across Tuscany that doesn't include Victor at all. Sophie has stumbled upon the Secretaries of Juliet, a group of women empl...

For the September French Winophiles' event of 2022, I am inviting the #Winophiles crew to explore indigenous or typical grapes from France with me. The twist: find a bottle of French grapes that are cultivated and made into wine somewhere else around the world.  Let's look at French varieties made into wines around the globe. Here are a few examples: Cinsault but made in Chile; Sémillon from Australia; or Négrette made in California.  Be creative. You can even do a comparison if you wish.  The bottles photographed above are a 50% Cinsault blended with Grenache and Cabernet Sauvignon from Lebanon's Bekaa Valley and a Spanish Alicante Bouschet. I know, I know, Spain isn't on a different continent from France. Just jump in with a French grape made anywhere other than France. I can't wait to share a white Carignan from Mexico soon! Details for participation This #Winophiles September 2022 event is Saturday, September 17th, 2022. Are you ready to jump in and participate?...

This month I am inviting the Wine Pairing Weekend group to join me in pairing veggies from their CSA boxes or local farmers' markets! I know that organic fruits and veggies are available in virtually every grocery store in town. So, what's the appeal of a CSA box? Let's review...right around the same time the Slow Food movement began to coalesce, the popularity of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) began to rise. CSAs are a popular way for us, as consumers, to buy locally-grown, organic, seasonal food directly from a farmer. Here are the basics and benefits...the farmers receive payment early in the season, which helps with the farm's cash flow and have an opportunity to get to know the people who eat the food they grow. We get weekly deliveries of fresh food, with all the flavor and vitamin benefits; we get exposed to new vegetables and new ways of cooking; and we usually get to visit the farm at least once a season so the kids see that food is grown in the ground a...

  As the year wraps up, I'm turning my eyes towards all of the fun we're going to have next year. So, I'm kicking off 2022's #ItalianFWT with an event that it wide open in its scope. I've invited the group to watch the movie From the Vine (available free on Amazon to Prime members). Then we are free to explore any Aglianico wine and pairings or recall any travel memories from Basilicata. Any combination or standalone focus is welcome.  Watch the movie to find out why I picked the Aglianico grape as our focus.  Buon anno! Happy 2022! How to Participate Details for participation Are you ready to jump in and participate in the Aglianico movie night #ItalianFWT event? Here are the details… Send an email to tell me you're in or post in the Facebook event group:  Include your blog url and Twitter handle. If you know your blog post title now, include that...but you can send me that a bit closer to the event, I'd like to get a sense of who's participating and ...

This month, October 2021, I am hosting  Food'N'Flix , the movie-watching, food-making group rallied by Heather of  All Roads Lead to the Kitchen . So to kick off the last quarter of the year, I chose  Only You* . I guess I should specify that I am referring to the 1994  Only You... not the 2018 one that I didn't know existed anyway. I know this is not a festive, Halloween flick that includes witches or monsters, but it is one of my favorite rom-coms and my family and I were just talking about the Marisa Tomei-Robert Downey, Jr. connection. The boys only know those actors as Aunt May and Tony Stark from the Marvel movies...but I told them that that pairing goes waaaayyy back. So, we popped it in. And, then, Jake said I should host it for Food'N'Flix. Done. This movie begins in Pittsburgh and then the characters traipse throughout Italy from Venice to Rome and down the Amalfi Coast. After watching it again there's not a ton of food. I mean, you see them at several...

For the July 2021 #WorldWineTravel event of 2021 - I know it's not wine, but with the founder of the group's blessing - I pivoted and am hosting an exploration of Spanish hard ciders, sidra , with a compare and contrast of a few other hard ciders from around the world. So, if you can't get your hands on a Spanish hard cider, feel free to pour and pair any kind of hard cider! Be creative. You can even do a comparison if you wish.  Sidra is tart, earthy, and dry and a traditional-style hard cider originating in the Asturias region of Spain. The region consumes more hard cider per capita than anywhere else on the planet. It's a mountainous area with unique soils and substrates. And with more than two hundred varieties of apples, traditional sidras are made from only about two dozen of those varieties. There are even places call Chigre  or cider bars! I think I am definitely putting that on the list of places to explore when I travel to Spain. Because of this deliciously au...

  You're Invited I am stepping in to host the July #ItalianFWT this month. The theme: Ramato wines. I wanted to give folks a little more latitude, especially since this invitation is a little late in the month. You still have about two weeks to pour and pair, but typically we have longer than that to source and prepare.  So, though Ramato wines will be our focus, feel free to share your favorite Ramato or any Pinot Grigio if you can't find a skin-fermented Pinot Grigio. I'll even take an Italian dish with origins in the northeastern province of Friuli Venezia Giulia or travel memories from that area, too. This is the Italian Food Wine Travel group after all. And if you want to be completely out of the box, find a wine made in the Ramato style from anywhere in the world. Be creative! Ramato?!? So, are you asking yourself, "What is Ramato wine?" Here's a quick primer to whet your appetite. Ramato is a skin fermented Pinot Grigio, but don't make the mistake o...

  This month, June 2021, I am hosting  Food'N'Flix , the movie-watching, food-making group rallied by Heather of  All Roads Lead to the Kitchen . So to kick off the summer months, I chose  The Pickle Recipe* . Pickles are a great way to preserve summer's produce and I, for one, can never have enough pickle recipes. The movie is available on Amazon prime for free. So, I hope everyone can access it. Or crash a friend's house who has Prime over the next few weeks. The movie's worth it! Foods and Family The Pickle Recipe is a heartwarming family comedy where the recipe is really just a metaphor for life: People in our lives are the ingredients that make us who we are.  This is particularly poignant for me as we just spent the weekend with Jake's family to celebrate his grandmother's life. Far removed from his immediate and extended family, those influences aren't always apparent. But this trip, the boys commented about how "Daddy and Uncle Isaac have t...

For the third French Winophiles' event of 2021, I am inviting the #Winophiles crew to explore indigenous or typical grapes from France with me. The twist: find a bottle of French grapes that are cultivated and made into wine somewhere else around the world.  Let's look at French varieties made into wines around the globe. Here are a few examples: Cinsault but made in Chile; Semillon from Australia; or Négrette made in California.  Be creative. You can even do a comparison if you wish. Details for participation This #Winophiles March 2021 event is Saturday, March 20th, 2021. Are you ready to jump in and participate? I hope so. Here are the #Winophiles’ details… Send an email to tell me you're in...or post it in the Facebook event group's title thread.  If you email, please include your blog url, Twitter handle, link to your Pinterest profile, and any other social media detail. If you know your blog post title now, include that...but you can send me that a bit closer to t...

  imdb.com Next month, February 2021, I am hosting  Food'N'Flix , the movie-watching, food-making group rallied by Heather of  All Roads Lead to the Kitchen . So for the second month of the new year, I chose  Spirited Away . I was able to access the movie on Amazon Prime. I hope everyone who wishes to participate can find a way to access it.  Let me start with this: I had never heard of this movie until my boys purchased it on Amazon. They have long been fans of Studio Ghibli movies though I have never watched any of the movies with them. However, the first time they watched it, both commented that I should suggest it to my foodie movie group. I largely ignored that suggestion until I was reading through a list of top twenty-five films that food lovers have to watch. Okay. I was convinced and asked Heather if I could host it for a month. Done. To Whet Your Appetite For those unfamiliar, as I was, Hayao Miyazaki is the Japanese animator, writer, director, produce...

photo by my Precise Kitchen Elf, Lake Tahoe's north shore   As we just wrapped our first #ItalianFWT event for 2021, I'm posting the theme for the February assignment, inspired by some cold winter nights: Italian Wines with Braised Meats or Stews. I wanted to give folks a little more latitude than tracking down a single varietal or event limiting them to a particular region. For February's #ItalianFWT, we're going uncomplicated and, hopefully, easy to source. And you have just over a month to prepare, so breathe easy. You may post about Italian wines that match your favorite comforting braises or stews be they Italian recipes, or not. I'm picturing foods such as  Braised Beef Cheeks over Garlic Gnocchi + Statti Calabria Gaglioppo 2015 . You can share your favorite Italian wine that you sip while curled up in front of the fireplace. Or tell us what wines do you open after a day on the mountain. Though we did just cover Italian sparkling wines in December, if you were...

  As we are wrapping our final #WinePW event for 2020, I'm posting the theme for the January 2021 assignment: Saké & Other Pairings for Asian Foods. I wanted to kick off the 2021 #WinePW line-up with something a little bit different, but really flexible, too. Not Only Saké  I've long been interested in learning about saké (a fermented rice wine). So, if you would like to taste and pair saké with foods, great. Or if you want to share your favorite (grape) wine that you pair with Asian cuisine, that's wonderful, too. And you have just over a month to prepare, so breathe easy. Details for participation Are you ready to jump in and participate in the Saké & Other Pairings for Asian Foods #WinePW event? Here are the details… Send an email (or post in our Facebook event) to tell me you're in:  Include your blog url, Twitter handle, link to your Pinterest profile, and any other social media detail. If you know your blog post title now, include that...but you can sen...

As we head into our December Italian Food Wine Travel bloggers' event, I'm posting the theme for the last #ItalianFWT post of the year: An Exploration of Italian Sparkling Wines for the Holidays. I wanted to give folks a little more latitude than tracking down a single varietal or event limiting them to a particular region. So, for next month's #ItalianFWT, we're going uncomplicated and, hopefully, easy to source. And you have just under a month to prepare, so breathe easy. There are a few bloggers who have received a selection of Prosecco Superiore from the Consorzio of Prosecco Superiore DOCG, but feel free to explore any and all sparkling wines from Italy. Frizzante and Spumante are common to see on bottles of Italian sparkling wine, is there a difference? Those terms are used to describe varying levels of bubbles. 'Frizzante' is usually used to describe a lightly sparkling wine while 'spumante' usually refers to a fully effervescent wine. A...

Fall Break, Oahu, October 2017 For June, I am hosting  Food'N'Flix , the movie-watching, food-making group rallied by Heather of  All Roads Lead to the Kitchen . This week, my older son was supposed to graduate from high school and we were supposed to leave on a family vacation to the Big Island. But, as enter our eleventh week of being sheltered in place to flatten the curve of the coronavirus, all of our summer plans were canceled, including this long-planned graduation trip to Hawaii. Boo. I understand the need to self-isolate. And we are abiding by the social distancing guidelines put in place by our state. But, boo, nonetheless. Oahu, October 2017 So for this month's Food'N'Flix, I chose to open up the field and let all of the food bloggers take a (virtual) Hawaiian holiday.  My boys have been to Oahu several times with my parents in recent years as my dad grew up there and wanted to spend some time on the island with his grandsons. Ke...