Culinary Adventures with Camilla

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Bush's Best Beans in conjunction with  The Women Bloggers, LLC .  Compensation for this post was provided and this page may contain affiliate links. My family and I eat beans all year long, but during the colder months, bean soups are a family favorite. Minestrone, Black Bean Soup, and Chili are always in the menu rotation. So, when the opportunity arose for me to create a recipe using  Bush's Best Beans  -  showcasing Fall flavors -  I was excited.  After reading a book about the Islamic Revolution in Iran, I started researching recipes. I was intrigued by a comforting Persian soup and looked at different versions of the recipe.  Aash-e Reshte is a healthy, flavorful soup. It's filled with aromatic herbs, warming spices, hearty beans, and delicious noodles. My version also includes meatballs, but I saw some recipes that were strictly vegetarian, too. I love that beans are hig...

When we weren't hiking, kayaking, or playing poker during our 10-day camping trip last week, I found myself in the hammock, enjoying my books. It was the perfect opportunity to get through more books for my  Foodie Reads Challenge . I finished four books and started a fifth. It was a good vacation! Today, I'm sharing  Everything We Keep  by Kerry Lonsdale* which is not a foodie book per se . But it was a book that I read long into the evening by flashlight after everyone else had snuggled into sleeping bags. And, since the main character is a baker and owns a c afé , I'm counting it! On the Page Right there, on the first page, I was riveted. Aimee is in a church on her wedding day. Except, instead of wearing her wedding dress and marrying her childhood sweetheart, she's clad in black and there for her fiancé's funeral. Everything We Keep  is rife with plot twists and turns as well as love, pain, and healing. I rarely chatter about the books I'm ...

Foodie Extravaganza is where we celebrate obscure food holidays or cook and bake together with the same ingredient or theme each month. This month Wendy of  A Day in the Life on the Farm   is hosting. She urged us: "Let's continue our celebration of the New Year with delicious, fiber filled, heart healthy recipes. How are you going to sneak more fiber into your diet?"  She even suggested some soluble fibers - barley, oats, beans, figs, and sweet potatoes - along with some insoluble ones - lentils, avocados, strawberries, and apples. 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 ! Looking for our previous parties? Check them out  HERE . The Heart-Healthy Round...

I wanted to do a tamale with a Poc Chuc f eel to it for our Pre-Popul Vuh Picnic .  Poc Chuc is a traditional dish from the Yucatán peninsula in Mexico, the home of the Mayans. Nacatamales are from Honduras. But we love how steaming them in banana leaves imparts a smoky flavor.  Poc chuc is made up of two Mayan words: poc which means 'to toast', especially on hot embers, and chuc which is 'charcoal.' Traditionally it's made with pork;  Poc chuc , the way the Mayans did it, was a means of preservation. Wild pig was pounded to tenderize the meat and, then, cured with a salt brine and sour orange juice. It could last in the salt for months, then, it was roasted over an open fire. I opted to braise ours instead. And since I couldn't find any sour oranges, I mixed orange juice and lime juice. Read this recipe all the way to the bottom before making your shopping list. There are two parts! This made 2 dozen nacatamales. Poc Chuc Ingredients 2 p...

Inspired by the bounty in my WE Cooperative CSA box from Fogline Farm  - and some leftover couscous in my fridge - I whipped up a quick dinner that would bake during my afternoon run in the sweltering Indian Summer heat: stuffed peppers.* 1 C cooked couscous 1 sliced tomato 1/2 bunch dandelion greens 1 leek, trimmed and thinly sliced 1 C cooked black beans 1/2 C sheep's milk fromage blanc from Garden Variety Cheese freshly ground sea salt freshly ground pepper olive oil 2 poblano peppers, halved and deseeded In a small sauce pan, saute the leeks and tomatoes in a splash of olive oil until they soften and begin to caramelize. Add in the dandelion greens and cook until just wilted. In a large mixing bowl, toss together the cooked couscous, cooked black beans,  fromage blanc , and leek-tomato-dandelion mixture. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir until completely combined. Spoon the mixture into the poblanos and place on a baking dish. Preheat the ov...

Even though I wrapped up my review of Miche Baker's  Cooking with Flowers , I am still relishing adding blossoms to my culinary creations. So, tonight I made some cheesy black bean quesadillas with chicken and nasturtiums for dinner. So fast, so easy, and so tasty. Lightly butter a large flat-bottom pan. Lay tortilla in the pan. Cover with shredded cheese. Add slices of roasted chicken, cooked black beans, and nasturtium petals. Cover with more cheese. Top with a second tortilla. Heat until the tortilla is lightly toasted. Flip over and complete toasting the other side. Serve hot with a side of salsa.

New year. New letter. Tonight we venture into the Ls of the world with some table top travel to Laos. Laos is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia and nearly three-quarters of the country is covered in mountains and forested hills that are too steep to live on. Fast Facts Official Name: Lao People's Democratic Republic Form of Government: Communist Capital: Viangchan (local name); Vientiane Population: 6,677,534 Official Language: Lao Laos is one of the poorest nations on the planet. Although the Lao have few possessions beyond their food, their Buddhist beliefs help them to find happiness through a simple life. Most of the people live in small rural communities near the river. I chuckled when I read this: the Lao like the sport of rhinoceros-beetle wrestling. People bet on which beetle will stay standing the longest. If only I could wrangle something like that up tonight. The boys would get a kick out of it! I am not a big fan of fried any...

This week's challenge for the  Food Matters Project inspired a dinner teeming with Asian flavors with the assigned Vietnamese-style rolls with peanut sauce as the centerpiece. So delicious! Mark Bittman describes these as "nothing more than salad wrapped in moistened rice paper." Taking that to heart, I used whatever fresh veggies I had in my fridge. What I used... spring roll wrapper / rice paper green leaf lettuce, rinsed and dried carrots, julienned cucumbers, julienned enoki mushrooms, rinsed and rootball trimmed avocados, peeled and sliced extra firm tofu, cut into long strips fresh mint, chopped fresh cilantro, chopped What I did... Submerge the rice paper in cool water until softened and pliable. It took about a minute or two per piece. I made two rolls per person. Lay the salad on the softened rice paper. I did lettuce, carrots, cucumber, enoki mushrooms, tofu, avocado, mint, and cilantro.  Fold the ends...

Two years ago we attended our friends' 4th of July Chili Cook-Off...and my Chili al Diavolo was dubbed 'Grand Champ.' Since we missed last year's event, I'm not the defending champion this year, but I still wanted to make a chili that dazzles. This chili - Peck O' Peppers Chili - features beer-braised chunks of beef, caramelized onions and shallots, four different kinds of chilis, and a chili beer! Sadly, my plan to use buffalo meat got nixed by my 10-year-old. This took hours of simmering and thousands of chops, but it was well worth the effort. 1 pound of beef 1 pound of ground beef onions shallots 1 T minced garlic 1 bottle of beer (I used a summer wheat, with honey and orange, for this part) 1 bottle of Rogue's Chipotle Ale (1 pt+) 2 shots of espresso 2 T unsweetened cocoa powder 5 C pureed tomatoes paprika cumin sea salt 2 fresh poblano chilis 1 fresh Anaheim chili 3 fresh goldspike chilis 1 crushed tepin chili 1 fresh red ...