Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Welcome to the inaugural Burger of the Month event hosted by Kita of Girl Carnivore . Each month, she will be sending out a list of secret ingredients to inspire a new burger recipe. What delicious, carnivorous fun! You know I was in immediately. This month's line-up needed to include: radishes, spinach, lemon, and cream. Someone asked, "Do we need to incorporate all the ingredients? Or do you need to include just one of the ingredients?" The answer - yes, the challenge is to use all of them in your recipe, but they can be toppings, or accoutrements to the burger, so you can get all the components in a single bite. So, I decided to make lamb patties flecked with preserved lemon and stuffed with feta cheese on a bed of butter-braised spinach topped with pickled radishes. Needless to say, I did not have a good name for this crazy creation. So, I posted a photo to social media and asked the hive mind for their opinions. Lots of 'likes' and 'yums', ...

Susannah of Avvinare invited us to dig deeper into Valtelinna area and wines. Here's her preview post . If you are reading this early enough, please join us on Saturday, February 3rd, for the Twitter chat and use the #ItalianFWT to find and get involved in the discussion. from wikipedia.com Valetellina + Chiavennasca The Valtellina region lies in the extreme north of Lombardy, against the border with Switzerland. Wine production dates back, at least, to the Etruscans who were fermenting grape juice in the area long before the Romans. Because of the topography, mechanization is virtually impossible and everything in the vineyards is done by hand - from cultivating the grapes to harvesting from the vines. The predominant grape in the region is Chiavennasca, the local name for Nebbiolo. Unlike their Barolo or Barbesco relatives, the resulting Nebbiolos of Valtellina are softer, more delicate, less tannic, and more refined.  To qualify as a Valtellina Superiore...

I rarely make the same thing twice. That's just the truth. I always adjust based on what I have in the kitchen. So, if I use apples one time, but only have pears the next...well, I use the pears and skip the store.  But I have this Precise Kitchen Elf who lives in my house. Read about when I should have known he was a Precise Kitchen Elf . So, when he asked when I planned to make homemade empanadas again ("exactly the same way as last time, please"), I told him that I had capers, but not caper berries. He insisted that I get caper berries; I suggested that he make them - especially if he wanted them to be exactly the same. And he did.  We had enough for dinner last night, enough for lunches today, and enough to share with the  Nonni . The funny thing, which I did not share with him, was that he liked the egg and caper berries combination that he thought made these more typical of Argentina. When we were at the store, getting ingredients, I ran into a friend ...

Wine Pairing Weekend - #winePW - happens on the second Saturday of the month. And this month David from  Cooking Chat  is hosting a recap of what we opened for Open That Bottle Night (OTBN)*. Click to read his invitation:  here . *Note OTBN was on February 28. Today, we’re sharing what we uncorked and what we paired with it. I had never heard of OTBN before this year. The idea is that you open a special bottle that you've been squirreling away for one reason or another. If you've been saving a special bottle for an equally special occasion, here's your excuse! It just so happened that I was in Paso Robles with my friends and my husband - exploring Halter Ranch Vineyards - for that day and everyone else seemed to know about the event! People in the tasting room were buzzing about what they planned to open, and pair, that evening. It was inspiring. In My Glass Almost a year ago I interviewed a local-to-me winemaker named Ian Brand who ...