Culinary Adventures with Camilla

  This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Dineen Vineyards .  Complimentary wine was provided for this post and this page may contain affiliate links.  However, all opinions expressed here are my own.     Next month the Wine Pairing Weekend bloggers are working with different wineries to showcase the wines of Washington state's Yakima Valley. And I received a selection of wines from  Dineen Vineyards ,* including their  2017 Viognier .  I was able to spend some time on a Zoom call with Marissa Dineen, Owner, and Amanda Conley-Bagge, Dineen Vineyards' Tasting Room Manager. With the on-going pandemic and shelter-in-place orders, this seems to be a way we are all connecting. Obviously it's not the same as tasting wine with them in person, but it was so informative and so much fun. When Jake and I make it to the Yakima Valley, I will be stopping there for sure! I will share more information about the vineyards for the #WinePW event. For ...

Earlier in the year I saw a post from one of my favorite bloggers - Wendy at  A Day in the Life on the Farm  - and I realized that they've been having a muffin party for years without me. LOL. I emailed the host, Stacy of  Food Lust People Love  and got the scoop: "...last Monday of the month and no themes. We've been baking together since August 2015! Only one rule, you must use the muffin method (folding wet ingredients with dry - no creaming butter and sugar, etc.) to bake muffins." I've been happily joining in for months now. This month, this is the muffin line-up... Banana Mocha Chip Muffins from Jolene's Recipe Journal Cranberry Orange Pistachio (Vegan) Muffins from Food Lust People Love Creamed Corn Muffins from Palatable Pastime Lemonade Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories Scotch Bonnet Cornbread Muffins from Passion Kneaded Simple Summery Squash Muffins from Culinary Adventures with Camilla Soft Blueberry Muffins from Maki...

When I put a call out for book recommendations to the hive mind - for books either written by French authors or set in France - my friend Joselyn suggested Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love, and the Search for Home by Kim Sunée.* She actually hadn't read it, but I'm always game to read foodie memoirs. On the Page I'll be honest: It's tough for me to read memoirs from people whose decisions just make me want to scream or shake some sense into them. This was one of those. Kim Sunée was abandoned in a marketplace in South Korea when she was three years old. Then she was adopted by an American couple who raised her in New Orleans. And she ended up living in Europe for a decade, with a stint in Sweden but most of the time in France. While her descriptions of food and travel were beautifully written, her relationships with men - particularly her lengthy affair with Olivier Baussan, the founder of L'Occitane en Provence - were maddening in their self-destructive ...

I still don't remember how I ended up with  The Caliph's House: A Year in Casablanca  by Tahir Shah* on my to-read stack. I don't recall if a friend recommended it, or it was just one of those 'people who bought  x  also bought this' suggestions that always gets me on Amazon. Always. But, after I finally kicked jetlag from our holiday trip to Denmark, I picked this book up off my shelf. On the Page Unfortunately, I liked the idea of the book more than the actual book. British travel writer Tahir Shah uproots his family from the gloom of London and buys a house in exotic Casablanca. He has dreamt of making Morocco home since he traveled there as a child. In the same tradition of Under the Tuscan Sun  by Frances Mayes or A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle - that the French Winophiles will be reading next month! - Shah details his trials and tribulations about being a foreigner making a home in a new country. He acquired Dar Khalifa , a crumbling seaside ma...

This was the main dish from my "Top of the Central Coast" Beaujolais dinner party when Katie and her friends came to town. The sweetness of the dried fruits were tempered with the fresh herbs. And this was a hit. I paired the Domaines Piron - Morgon Côte du Py 2015 with this dish. The Morgon was the only bottle empty at the end of the night. I know we were all pacing ourselves to make sure that we tasted all wines. But this was the Beaujolais that had people returning for second - and third...and fourth - pours. The wine was delightfully complex with rich aromas, structured tannins, and a distinct minerality. Ingredients  serves 6 2 T olive oil 1/2 C dried dates, pitted and halved 1/2 C dried cherries, pitted 1 white onion, chopped 1/4 C balsamic vinegar 1/4 t ground black pepper 6 chicken thighs (bone-in, skin-on) 1 t freshly chopped thyme 1/4 t ground cinnamon 1/2 C chicken broth (plus more, if needed) roasted, salted, shelled pistachios, f...

A couple of weeks ago, the latest issue of Food & Wine  arrived in my mailbox. On the cover was a pie; the description read: "This recipe with ruin you for every other pecan pie. Find out why on [page]...." Okay. I'm intrigued. Pecan pie is one of my favorites. Here's the recipe from their website: here . But days went by and eventually, the boys asked, "What about that pie?"  What pie?  "The pie that will ruin us for all other pies."  Oh, that pie. Since I needed a dessert for a birthday party, I asked the Enthusiastic Kitchen Elf if he'd make it for me while I worked on all the other dishes. He agreed. We made slight modifications: we made it gluten-free; we swapped out the corn syrup for bourbon maple syrup; we used instant coffee instead of instant espresso; we toasted the pecans on the stovetop instead of in the oven; and we added a vanilla salt. Otherwise, he stayed mostly true to the recipe. After ...

Some people when faced with a new-to-them fruit or vegetable will run the other direction. The Manns? Nope. We scoop it right up and wonder how we're going to eat it. I'm on the email list for a website - Local Harvest - that assists in my desire for culinary adventure. This week, I ordered some fresh khalal dates from Pato's Dream Date Gardens . Check these out! They're gorgeous. These Mariana dates - in the Khalal stage - are raw, fresh, and not fully ripened. They will soon enter the Rutab  stage as they deepen to a deep gold color. And by the time they reach the Tamar  stage, they'll have a firm chewy sweetness.  I only hope that we can stay away from the bunch long enough to see it through all the stages. Or, I'll have to order more!