Culinary Adventures with Camilla

  This month Jill of L'Occasion is hosting the World Wine Travel bloggers as we dive into the food and wine of the Basque region...the Spanish side. You can read her invitation here . If you are reading this early enough feel free to jump into our live chat on Twitter on Saturday, June 26th at 8am Pacific time. Just follow the hashtag #WorldWineTravel and be sure to add it to anything you tweet so we can see it. Here are the articles that the writers are sharing... Basque Country Means Pintxos and Txakolina by Jeff at Food Wine Click Fish Friday in the USA with a Spanish Txakolina Rosé by Wendy at A Day in the Life on the Farm Two Versions of Txakoli, Perfect Summer Wines from Susannah at Avvinare Pintxos and Txakoli - a celebration of Basque Country from Robin at Crushed Grape Chronicles Almejas en Salsa Verde (Clams in Green Sauce) + 2019 Zudugarai "Amats" Getariako Txakolina from Camilla at Culinary Adventures with Camilla Basque Country Wines for Beginners and Gr...

This month, the Fish Friday Foodies, with Karen of  Karen's Kitchen Stories , is serving up a virtual  La Vigilia  which is short for  La  Vigilia di Natale . You can read more about that in my round-up I'm sharing for the event at the end of the week. But this is what I am offering as my fourth (fish in pasta) course. Yes, I am aware that clams are not fish... But this is a family favorite. Well, it's a favorite with me and Jake. The boys often complain about the wine taste. So, to appease them, I sometimes make 'sober' clams . However, for La Vigilia , we're going with the whole shebang! Ingredients 2 pounds clams, soaked, scrubbed, and dried 1 stick of butter, divided in half splash of olive oil 3 to 4 whole juniper berries, crushed 1 fennel bulb, trimmed and diced (approximately 1 C) 1 leek, trimmed and thinly sliced 1 red onion, diced (approximately 1 C) 1/4 C freshly squeezed lemon juice 1/8 C water 1/8 C Sambuca or other licorice...

This is a sponsored post written by me in conjunction with the February #WinePW event. Wine samples were provided for this post and this page may contain affiliate links. Ahead of the Wine Pairing Weekend's focus on wines from Uruguay in February, I received four bottles of wine from Elixir Wine Group * out of Bend, Oregon. I received two bottles of Albariño and two bottles of Tannat from  Bodega Bouza . While this is not my official pairing for #WinePW this month, I wanted to share this because it was delicious! Bouza 2017 Albariño The Notes From my reading, this Albariño began as an experiment for Bodega Bouza. And it has ended up being one of the more popular bottlings! The Albariño  cuttings planted in the Melilla and Las Violetas vineyards originated in Rias Biaxas, Spain - from the rural family-owned plots of Bouza family relatives. These were harvested on two days in February with a majority of the wine fermented in stainless steel ...

Here we are at the kick-off for 2019's Food'N'Flix . And this month, my friend Evelyne of  CulturEatz  is hosting. You can read her invitation  here , but she's invited us to watch Book Club.*  I had heard of the movie and even had the chance to watch it on a trans-Atlantic flight from London to California earlier this month. In fact, I think I clicked on it, read the description that the book club reads Fifty Shades of Grey,  and clicked right off onto another movie. I might be alone in this, but I do not get the appeal of Fifty Shades of Grey . It certainly didn't appeal to me as a love story much less a love story worthy of three books and three movies. Ugh. But, had I known that Book Club was our January movie pick, I would have watched it on that plane ride. But, alas!, I didn't see the invitation until I had returned home. Then add jetlag, the launch of the new robotics season, and a general blur of post-holiday days, and I completely blitzed on ...

My parents' birthdays are five days apart. Well, two years and five days. Kinda funny that Jake and I  also celebrate our birthdays within a week - again, two years and a week. So, our family birthday celebrations are slightly easier to schedule because we have joint dinners for them and for us. This year, my parents were in Hawaii for my dad's birthday; I scheduled a party when they came back. Happy birthdays to Nonna and Nonno! While they were in Hawaii, I asked my mom if they wanted lasagna or paella for their party. She didn't even hesitate...and she didn't ask for my dad's input either. "Paella!" she declared. Perfect timing, too, because I knew I needed to post a paella dish for this week's #KitchenMatrixCookingProject. Before I get to our paella party, here's what the other gals are sharing this week... An InLinkz Link-up For years, my paella pan languished in the cupboard, collecting dust. Then a friend fr...

This month Susannah of  Avvinare  asked the Italian Food Wine Travel bloggers to come together to focus on the Vermentino grape. You can read her invitation: here . The #ItalianFWT Posts  Gwen from Wine Predator shares  You Need To Know Vermentino: Paired with Carbonara . Lauren from The Swirling Dervish writes  Vegetarian Plates and Pigato from A.A.Durin: Perfect for Your Summer Table . Jill from L’Occasion adds  Vermentino from Maremma, Land of The Butteri Tuscan Cowboys . Jane from Always Ravenous pens  Which Vermentino to Pair With Shrimp & Fresh Herb Pilaf? Lynn from Savor the Harvest contributes  One Italian Island White Wine You Must Try . Katarina from Grapevine Adventures dishes on Vermentino by Antonella Corda – An Expression of Sardinia Terroir . David from Cooking Chat gives us Salmon with Lemon Olive Relish and a Vermentino . Jennifer from Vino T...

One of the most dangerous aspects of Amazon - for me anyway - is the "customers who bought this item also bought..." section. Their suggestions never fail to lure me into just one more book purchase! And that's how I ended up with Eating Vi ệ t Nam : Dispatches from a Blue Plastic Table by Graham Holliday* on my to-read pile. I wasn't familiar with Graham before reading this book, but I am now avidly following his blog noddlepie . You can also find him on Twitter and on Instagram .  In this entertaining memoir, Holliday takes you on a colorful, gastronomic tour between north and south Vi ệ t Nam. You almost feel your elbows getting sticky right alongside his. On the Page Best opening line of a book ever...and it set the stage for the tales of culinary adventure that awaited me in the book. "As the pig's uterus landed on the blue plastic table in front of me, I knew I'd made a mistake" (pg 1). Down the back alleys where vend...