Culinary Adventures with Camilla

This month, the Wine Pairing Weekend bloggers are looking at wines from the Mid-West. Jill of  L'Occasion  is hosting. Read her invitation  here . If you are reading this early enough, feel free to jump in on our Twitter chat. We'll be live on Saturday, July 10th at 8am Pacific. Just follow the hashtag #WinePW and be sure to add that to anything you tweet so we can see it. Here's the line-up of articles from the Wine Pairing Weekend writers about the Mid-West wine region... A Taste of Michigan: Pasties, Black Star Farms, and a Generous Foodie Friend by Culinary Adventures with Camilla Exploring Vitis Vinifera at Vermilion Valley Vineyards by Food Wine Click! Get Over Your Skepticism about Illinois Wines at August Hill Winery by What’s in that Bottle? Indiana’s Oliver’s Surprising Fruit Wines Paired with Roasted Peach Salad, Berry Galette by Wine Predator Missouri's Traminette Wine and Crab Rangoon Burgers for #WinePW by Our Good Life Rock'n Wines in Arizona...

    #ItalianFWT Writers Look at Ramato Wines 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, the writers might be sharing a favorite Ramato or  any  Pinot Grigio if they can't find a skin-fermented Pinot Grigio. I'm even taking an Italian dish with origins in the northeastern province of Friuli Venezia Giulia or travel memories from that area, too. And if they want to be completely out of the box, they may have found a wine made in the Ramato style from anywhere in the world.  The Line-Up Another BIPOC Celebrity Wine that I'm anxious to share with you by A Day in the Life on the Farm Bibimbap and Pinot Gris Ramato, Sort Of by The Quirky Cork Fregola Sarda Con...

As we inch towards the end of the  Foodie Reads 2016 Challenge , I cracked the cover on a copy of The Mad Crush: A Memoir of Mythic Vines and Improbable Winemaking by Sean Christopher Weir* for my thirty-first foodie read. Yes, I just might be able to get through thirty-eight foodie books this year. I'm going to give it my best shot. On the Page At less than 150 pages, this was the perfect book for me to hide from the world on a cold, grey morning.  As resident of California's central coast, I love the vineyards and vintners of this area - from Sonoma to Santa Barbara. I was immediately intrigued when I first heard about this book. And I wasn't disappointed.  Weir is a wonderful storyteller and his recounting the true story of the 1995 crush shows just how grueling the winemaking business is. "For the layperson, here's how red wine is made," he details. Preparation, Controls, Filtration and Bottling, Pick Grapes, Sort and Process Grapes, Ferme...