Culinary Adventures with Camilla

This post is sponsored  by Adagio Teas .  I received complimentary product for the purpose of review . All opinions are mine alone.   I received a care package from my contact at  Adagio Teas ,* and was excited to receive a limited release herbal tea called Bella Luna Blue . Only available during a blue moon, this is on their website right now; it will not be available again until August 2023. I'll talk more about it, but the color is stunning and the flavor is beguiling. Bella Luna Blue This is a blend of lemongrass, blueberry flavor, and blue butterfly pea flowers. It's that latter ingredient that gives this tisane its brilliant blue hue. Blue butterfly pea flower is not only brightly colored, but it changes color when pH changes. You can see that in this post: Color-Changing Nam Dok Anchan (Butterfly Pea Flower Lemonade) ; and it always makes me feel a little bit like a culinary magician or a kitchen witch! I toyed with different recipe ideas for this herbal tea a...

It's hard to believe that we are inching our way towards the end of summer. Our younger son has already gone back to school and our older son is getting ready to head off to college. Yikes! Welcome to the August installment of our #EattheWorld project, being spearheaded by Evelyne of  CulturEatz . Here's  her challenge .  This month, we are sharing Native American recipes. Here's the #EattheWorld line-up... Sneha’s Recipe: Three Sisters Soup-Native American   Magical Ingredients: Succotash   A Day in the Life on the Farm: Celebrating the Algonquin Indian Tribe with 3 Sisters Casserole Skillet   Amy’s Cooking Adventures: Wild Rice, Squash, & Corn Soup   Culinary Adventures with Camilla: Purple Corn and Api Morado   Cultureatz: Indian Navajo Taco with Fry bread Back in 2010, I went with a 'How the Other Half' eats for our Thanksgiving theme. I made and served... Wild Sage Bread , Pueblo (New Mexico) Corn Soup with Venison , Oneida (New York) Bak...

  Today the Sunday Funday group is celebrating dairy. Thanks to Stacy of  Food Lust People Love , Sue of  Palatable Pastime , Rebekah of  Making Miracles , and Wendy of  A Day in the Life on the Farm  for coordinating this low-stress group. Today Rebekah is hosting and she's given us the following prompt: January 11th is National Milk Day, so in honor of National Milk Day let's celebrate dairy! Milk, butter, sour cream, cheese, yogurt, etc. What's your favorite way to celebrate dairy? (If you have dairy allergies in your household, feel free to use a non-dairy alternative)! In any case, here's the line-up of how the #SundayFunday bloggers are celebrating dairy... Blackberry Peach Overnight Oats by Palatable Pastime Cheesy Eggplant Pork Roast Rolls by Food Lust People Love Chocolate Pots de Creme by Karen's Kitchen Stories Creamy Asparagus Soup with Ham Stock by Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice Creamy Steak Fettu...

  Earlier this year I discovered the writing of George Mahood when I came across  Not Tonight, Josephine: A Road Trip Through Small-Town America . You can read my thoughts about that book in my post -  Road Trip Food + Jake's Scrambled Eggs . In any case, that cemented my admiration of Mahood's writing.  Then, earlier this month, I read  Free Country: A Penniless Adventure the Length of Britain  by George Mahood and made a California Chip Butty . So, when  Travels with Rachel: In Search of South America  by George Mahood* popped up in my Kindle suggestions, I ordered it immediately. On the Page photo from amazon.com As usual Mahood seamlessly fuses the informative and the hilarious when he recounts his and Rachel's belated honeymoon through South America. In typical Mahood-fashion, much of the hilarity ensues through the couple being frugal in their spending. One example was then they wanted to save three dollars on a tour which had them hunt...

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of JoyJolt and Dixie Crystals, #ChristmasSweetsWeek sponsors.  I received complimentary product for the purpose of review and recipe development, but all opinions are honest and  they are my own.  This page may contain affiliate links. This recipe is intended for individuals ages 21 & up. Please drink responsibly. Welcome to the first day of #ChristmasSweetsWeek! Much gratitude to Terri of Love and Confections and Christie of A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures for coordinating this amazing event. Not only did they keep all of us bloggers organized, but they lined up some great sponsors. Please visit my kick-off post for information about the prizes and to enter the giveaway. You may also enter at the bottom of this post. One of the #ChristmasSweetsWeek sponsors - Joyjolt* - sent me these double-walled mugs that I knew would be perfect for a hot holiday drink. While I adore the design - because they are ...

Horchata was the other drink that Team Mexico prepared for their camping dinner. Awhile back, I was teaching a class about Rice Around the World and my co-teacher is from Spain. When she saw that I was making  horchata  for class, she was perplexed because in Spain  horchata  is not made with rice; it's made with a kind of nut. So, she didn't know how that was applicable to our class. Since her husband is one of the 8th grade teachers, so I asked him about their horchata while the kids played games before heading up the hill to set up camp. He explained about horchata de chufa . We found the translation as 'tiger nut.' But what I had prepared to make is the Mexican version...with rice! I did the first part of the process at home, but one of the students finished it up and got it ready for serving. Also, I did quadruple the recipe below to serve the masses. Ingredients  serves 10 1 C uncooked rice (I used organic long grain rice) 1 C boiling w...

When Thursday's dinner crew decided to cook and serve a meal with Mexican dishes, I asked them about special beverages from that country and they opted to make Agua de Jamaica and Horchata .  Agua de Jamaica translates to 'hibiscus water' and is an infusion of dried hibiscus flowers* and sweetener. It's easy to make and perfect as an ahead-of-time concoction. Some people call it 'hibiscus tea,' but as tea technically requires leaves from the camellia bush, I would go with 'hibiscus tisane,'  but 'cooler' works, too. Ingredients  makes 1-1/2 quarts of concentrate Concentrate 2 C organic hibiscus flowers 8 C cold water Cooler  makes 6 servings 1 C concentrate 1/2 C simple syrup (you can see a recipe here ) 4 C water Also needed: ice Procedure Concentrate Place hibiscus flowers in the bottom of a large pot. Pour in cold water. Bring water to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 10 mi...

This post is sponsored in conjunction with #BBQWeek.  I received product samples from sponsors to use in creating #BBQWeek recipes. However, all opinions are mine alone.  This recipe is intended for readers 21 years and older. Please drink responsibly. Welcome to the fourth day of our fantastic #BBQWeek. Though the event goes for one more day, today is my final post. I had a major kitchen fail with the dessert that I had planned for tomorrow and I didn't have time to re-do it...I am currently in the boonies with the 8th grade class, wrangling them to prepare, cook, and serve four different international menus. Sometimes I really do wonder about my sanity. But I hope that (1) they have a memorable graduation camping trip and (2) are inspired to make some of these dishes in the future. In any case, #BBQWeek has been a fun and food-filled event coordinated by Ellen of  Family Around the Table  and Christie of  A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures . Not only d...

If you've been following me for awhile, you've heard me talk about SEM. It's a once-a-week, elective class that runs in six-week sessions at my son's school. I love it and I've taught everything ocean conservation to dragon myths. Eventually, I moved to culinary adventures and taught everything from Spices Around the World to Bizarre Foods and International Cheese Board to, this term, I'm teaching Around the World with Rice with my friend Susana. This may be my last SEM as it's my youngest son's 8th grade year; or I might be convinced to do one more before he graduates. We'll see. In any case, week one is always even shorter on time than the other five week. We do introductions, talk about class procedure, go over kitchen safety, etc. Today I had planned to talk about rice - as a grass with an edible seed -; go over where rice is grown and how; and talk about different culinary traditions that use rice. So, I knew there wouldn't be much ti...

I have a healthy obsession with shrubs. Not something you find in the garden! Shrubs are also called drinking vinegars and can be the basis of both alcoholic and non-alcoholic libations. I've made lots of different summer shrubs with berries and stone fruit, so I decided to play with a pumpkin version. And, it turns out, it's like autumn in a glass! The best part about shrubs is that it is a very simple process. It's just a matter of mixing the ingredients together and waiting for the flavors to infuse. I started this week's recipe thinking that I would roast a whole pumpkin to make my puree. But there's nothing more simple than using pre-made pumpkin puree! Ingredients one 15-ounce can of pumpkin puree 3 cups organic granulated sugar 3 cups apple cider vinegar 1" to 1-1/2" knob fresh ginger 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon 2 teaspoons ground cardamom 1 teaspoon ground all-spice Procedure Grate fresh ginger and set aside....