Culinary Adventures with Camilla

This month the French Winophiles are looking at wines from the Southwest of France. Linda of  My Full Wine Glass  is hosting. She suggested: "Bergerac, Cahors, Gaillac, Irouléguy, Jurançon, Madiran - these are among the regions located in southwest France. If you've already written about one of these regions, why not choose another?" If you are reading this early enough, feel free to join our live Twitter chat on Saturday, May 21st at 8am Pacific. Follow the hashtag #Winophiles; be sure to add that to anything you tweet so we can see it. Here are the articles for the theme... Camilla at Culinary Adventures with Camilla : Garlic and Herb-Rubbed Standing Pork Rib Roast + Château Laulerie Bergerac Rosé 2020   Robin at Crushed Grape Chronicles : Fish, cheese, and red wine. Exploring the Basque region of Irouléguy Jeff at Food Wine Click! : Deconstructed Tartine & Domaine de L'Astré Pèlroge Deanna at Wineivore : Organic Negrette & Manseng Wines from SW France Paire...

  This month the Movies and Munchies group is watching The Jungle Cruise , hosted by Kelley of Simply Inspired Meals . You can read her invitation here .  Unlike Kelley, I didn't grow up going to Disneyland. I mean, I have been to Disneyland, but I don't love crowds and I am not a huge fan of rides. I don't think my husband has ever been to Disneyland! That doesn't mean we deprived our boys, however; they have been several times with my parents. This is from one of their trips there, in 2013, I think... And they told me that they liked the animatronics on the Jungle Cruise ride. In fact, the photo below might actually be from the ride. Anyone? In any case, this was from their trip in 2011. So, it's been awhile. On the Screen image from disneyplus (how I watched the movie!) I wasn't expecting too much when we started the movie. I mean, it's a movie based on a ride, right? That's kind of like movies based on a game. Looking at you, Clue  or Battleship . No...

Here we are looking at our eighteenth week of being sheltered in place...and I am working on a paella delivery for my parents' forty-eighth wedding anniversary. Then I realized that I neglected to post about the Fathers' Day delivery I did a couple of weeks ago. Tardy...tardy!! As we head into our fourteenth week of being sheltered in place, I sadly realized that we have missed most of our family celebrations with my parents this year. We had to skip our annual Easter luncheon early into the shelter-in-place order; then we missed celebrating Jake's birthday, my birthday, Mothers' Day, R's gradation, R's birthday, and - now - Fathers' Day. I hope that we'll be opened back up in time for D's birthday...in December! Oye. I really hope so. But, I do understand the need for caution and self-isolation. It's just lonely. And despite not being able to set our table for eight and have my parents over for a Fathers' Day dinner on ...

Back in July, I hosted Food'N'Flix and asked folks to watch The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society . You can read my Food'N'Flix invitation  here . You can see what inspired me ( here ) ...however, I couldn't find a pork roast with the ribs attached at that time. So, when I saw one this week, I snatched it up. And I redid my Guernsey roast - with ribs this time. Ingredients  serves 4 to 6 one pork rib roast with, at least, 4 ribs (mine was nearly 4 pounds) 1/2 C gin (I used a terroir gin from St. George) Dry Rub 1 C organic dark brown sugar 3 T pimentón (smoked Spanish paprika) 1 t ground cumin 1/2 t paprika dash of ground coriander dash of ground cardamom freshly ground sea salt freshly ground pepper Procedure The night before, or first thing in the morning, prepare the rub. Combine all ingredients, and mix thoroughly until well blended. Brush the gin over the surface of the roast, then pat the ru...

Whenever one of my best friends has a birthday, I host a dinner party! And I usually align the wine pairings with something that I'm studying or exploring. This time, I was intrigued by a book I've been reading. During one of my wine groups' online chats recently, David of  Cooking Chat  and I connected on Good Reads and I found this title on his virtual bookshelf -  Godforsaken Grapes: A Slightly Tipsy Journey through the World of Strange, Obscure, and Underappreciated Wine  by Jason Wilson.* I was immediately intrigued and ordered up a copy for myself. I'm not very far into the book. But, in less than 40 pages, my wine shopping list had over half a dozen varietals to check out. That decided it: Jenn's birthday dinner was going to focus on Godforsaken Grapes. I decided to pair and pour a Petit Verdot and a Touriga Nacional. Petit Verdot Petit Verdot is one of the original Bordeaux varieties. While it isn’t planted in Bordeaux in vast quant...

Okay, before you get huffy that rack of lamb is not a back-to-school dinner, let me tell you a story. My little one started high school this month. And the day before school he said, "I'd like to request some food since it's my first day of high school." Okay.  He picked Off-to-High-School Crêpes for breakfast and rack of lamb for dinner. I had him rub the spices on the lamb before we all ran out the door for the day. He wanted a Middle Eastern-spiced lamb, so he added some harissa. And, when we got home, I stuck the lamb in the oven and took him to the store to get notebooks and other supplies for school. I told him that he needed to keep it under 45 minutes; we got home six minutes before the timer went off. I pulled the lamb out of the oven and let it rest while we chatted about his first day of school. Success! But, before we get to the recipe, here's what the other bloggers are sharing for back-to-school... Baked Banana Oatmeal Cups by The Tip...

Today the Italian Food Wine & Travel bloggers are sharing Italian Easter Wines and Food. Jen of Vino Travels is our hostess. One thing I loved about my Easter in Rome was that it was about the resurrection and not about Peeps and Cadbury Eggs! It was about something sacred. It was about family. And it was about food. Well, maybe it wasn't about food, but food is how I commemorate and celebrate, so it was about food for me. Here's what the #ItalianFWT crew is sharing... Jen from  Vino Travels  features Easter Celebrations in Puglia Camilla from  Culinary Adventures with Camilla  features Il Verdetto di Pasqua +Sella & Mosca Terre Rare Riserva Carignano Susannah of  Avvinare  features Easter Traditions in Rome Jill of  L'Occasion  features 5 Italian Easter Dishes and Wine Pairings If you are seeing this early enough, come join our live Twitter chat on Saturday April 1st @ 11am EST using hashtag #ItalianFWT. Ci vediamo...

While I have made dinners that make my friends squirm - think of entire menus centered around beets or eggplant - sometimes I make the carnivores happy. Really happy. We had a joint birthday dinner for our two November babies - Pia and Mike. And this was one of the main dishes. Ingredients The Roast 1 (2 rib) prime rib roast (mine weighed about 5 pounds) 3 T coffee grounds 4 T organic dark brown sugar 1 t sweet paprika 1 t smoked paprika 3/4 t dried ginger 1 t ground cumin 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped and pod reserved 1 T freshly ground black pepper 2 T freshly ground salt splash of olive oil 2 to 3 onions, peeled and sliced 1 C brewed coffee Procedure The Roast In a medium bowl, combine the coffee grounds, sugar, paprikas, ginger, cumin, vanilla bean seeds, salt and black pepper. Massage spice mixture into the beef, coating evenly. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. On the stovetop, heat olive oil in a Dutch oven. Sear the roast on each s...