Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Here we are for the August World Wine Travel event. Deanna of Wineivore is hosting. You can read her invitation here . She has us looking at sparkling Australian wines as well as wines from Tasmania.  If you are joining us early enough, jump in to a live conversation with us on Twitter. Follow the hashtag #WorldWineTravel and be sure to add that to anything you tweet so we can see it. Here's the line-up of the articles for this event...  Lori is tasting Tasmanian Sparkling and Egg Rolls at Exploring the Wine Glass Camilla showcases Tasmania + Hawaii: Celebrating with an Island Wine and Island Eats at Culinary Adventures with Camilla Jeff shares how we can Discover Rutherglen Stickies at Food Wine Click! Robin pairs  Sparkling Wine from Jansz Tasmania and a Tassie-inspired seafood curry pie at Crushed Grape Chronicles Kat has a Surprise! South Australia Pét-Nat is on the Rise at The Corkscrew Concierge Susannah explores Tasmanian Chardonnay at Avvinare Deanna pops an...

Last month, my family and I spent a week on Oahu. I hadn't been to the Hawaiian islands in far too long and it had been even longer since I visited Oahu where my dad lived after leaving the Philippines and before his family moved to the Monterey Peninsula. But regardless of the time and distance, it feels like home.  To get myself in the Hawaiian frame of mind, I downloaded a ridiculous number of books set in Hawaii, including the fifteen A Murder on Maui books in the series by Robert W. Stephens. Yes, fifteen. I only read four while we were there. Then I read the other eleven after we got home. I'll be honest: it's not great literature. But they were entertaining and I breezed though the set that features Edgar Allen Rutherford, nickname Poe, as a private investigator who is married to a Maui detective Alana Hu. Poe also owns a bar with his childhood best friend, Foxx, who is also the father of a daughter with Alana's sister, Hani. Poe narrates as if in a conversation ...

  Foodie Extravaganza is where we celebrate obscure food holidays or cook and bake together with the same ingredient or theme each month. 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 ! This month Wendy of  A Day in the Life on the Farm  is hosting this month's #FoodieExtravaganza. She wrote: " February is National Canned Food Month. Share a recipe that uses one or more canned goods." Here's the list of our 'starting with a can' creations... Baked Beans Curry from Sneha's Recipe Chicken Spaghetti from A Day in the Life on the Farm Garlicky Artichoke Pasta from Food Lust People Love   Homemade “Better Than Canned” One-Pot Chili by Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck...

Susannah of Avvinare is hosting this month's Wine Pairing Weekend. You can read her invitation here .  But, in our online group, she prompted: "As Thanksgiving rolls around, it is a great time to look at what is happening in American wine. Wines are now made in all 50 States, more or less. An amazing change from some years ago. For this month, we are focusing on some of the lesser known states. It will be exciting to see what we all discover. For those abroad, if you can't get a wine from a little known US region, write about whatever you can that relates to the topic, more or less." Thanks for the flexibility. I am looking forward to seeing what the bloggers choose and pair. If you are reading this early enough, feel free to join in our live Twitter chat on Saturday, November 14th at 8am Pacific time. Follow the hashtag #WinePW and be sure to add that to anything you tweet so we can see it. In the meantime, all of these posts will be live between Friday, November 13t...

  I hadn't actually planned to post a new recipe for this weekend's Wine Pairing Weekend event that looks at lesser known wine regions of the United States. Susannah of  Avvinare  is hosting this month's #WinePW; you can read her invitation  here .  I had planned to hold this bottle for our small, sheltered-in-place virtual Thanksgiving feast to the Hawaiian islands.  But, I never say 'no' to fried chicken and was aching to try this version. Its batter is made with soy sauce, fresh garlic, fresh ginger, and rice flour - Mochiko. So, here we are with a Mochiko Chicken paired with the Mele Red Blend. Not for Thanksgiving.  In the Glass Unlike the other wines I found for this Under the Radar wine event for #WinePW, this one is actually made with grapes! And, it turns out that the only grape-based wine I found from Hawaii - Mele Red Blend - is made with grapes that are grown in California though they say that sometimes the California fruit is mixed with th...

This week, I breezed through  Freckled: A Memoir of Growing up Wild in Hawaii  by TW Neal.* I had ordered it last month when we were lamenting the cancellation of our family vacation to Hawaii amid the coronavirus pandemic. I was reading anything and everything that was set in Hawaii; and the boys and I were re-watching the reboot of Hawaii Five-O  as well. We're into Season Five and enjoying seeing the sights we missed last month. Freckled  was definitely not a feel-good read about some of our favorite islands. In fact, it is one of the only books that has made me literally cringe while reading it, but still kept me reading it. Also, I was completely unfamiliar with the author, but her writing is incredibly evocative. I will definitely read more of her work...maybe just not more about her painfully abusive childhood. On the Page photo from amazon.com This book is raw in its honesty and so, so disturbing. It's jarring to see such unbridled ...

I am hosting June's  Food'N'Flix   and asked the bloggers to take a virtual trip to Hawaii. You can read my invitation:  here . So we've been watching lots and lots of shows that feature Hawaii. I wasn't a huge fan of the original  Hawaii Five-O , but I adore the reboot! We streamed it on Netflix the first time we watched it, but just found that it is no longer there, so I ordered the DVDs from Amazon. When we watched the first season, it inspired my  Haupia-Filled Malasadas . Season two sent me into the kitchen to serve up my Loco Moco . After watching Lana I Ka Moana ("Adrift") - season three, episode three - I couldn't pass up the opportunity to make poke. Steve McGarrett and Danny Williams borrow a boat from Chin Ho Kelly's uncle and head out for a relaxing day of fishing. One of my favorite things about this series is the jovial repartee between those two characters. Liken them to an old married couple: they know exactly which butto...

I am hosting June's  Food'N'Flix   and asked the bloggers to take a virtual trip to Hawaii. You can read my invitation:  here . So we've been watching lots and lots of shows that feature Hawaii. I wasn't a huge fan of the original  Hawaii Five-O , but I adore the reboot! We streamed it on Netflix the first time we watched it, but just found that it is no longer there, so I ordered the DVDs from Amazon. We started with the first season last week and that inspired my Haupia-Filled Malasadas . .  We launched into Season two this week. And it was episode 6 - Ka Hakaka Maika'i (The Good Fight) - that inspired me into the kitchen to make loco moco! While loco moco has been mentioned several times so far in the show, it wasn't until this episode that Steve McGarrett shows up to meet Joe White on the beach with two to-go food containers. "Loco moco from Rainbow Drive In?" White asks. Another character pipes up, "Hope you brought enoug...