Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Welcome to the August #SoupSwappers event. Wendy of  A Day in the Life on the Farm  started this group and I'm always grateful to have a few more recipes to try. This month, Wendy herself is hosting and the bloggers are sharing soup recipes made with mushrooms of all kinds. Here's the line-up... Clear Oyster Mushroom Soup by Sneha's Recipe  Cream of Mushrooms Soup by Culinary Adventures with Camilla  Homemade Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup by Palatable Pastime  Slow Cooker Mushroom Soup by A Day in the Life on the Farm  Sherried Cream of Mushroom Soup by Sid's Sea Palm Cooking   Cream of Mushrooms Soup No, that's not a typo. I do mean cream of mushrooms, with an 's'. I adore the deep, earthy flavors of mushrooms and use as many different kinds as I can find in the market on a given day. I also love that this homemade soup is ready to eat in just a few simple steps. Ingredients   4 Tablespoons butter 1 Tablespoon olive oil 1 cup diced onion...

I have never heard of this author, but much like Netflix's "picked for you" suggestions, my e-reader does the same and The Victory Garden by Rhys Bowen* popped up. Okay. Not much else to do these days while we enter our third month of sheltering in place. Reading seems a good way to pass the time. I actually had heard the term 'victory garden' recently - in relation to D's garden project and thought it would be more about cultivating a garden during a crisis. But it was more of a historical fiction set in a time and place with which I am woefully unfamiliar. So, I was happy to learn more about women's roles in the Great War all wrapped up in a compelling story about  middle class woman who wants more than the plush moneyed life her parents are offering...along with all the strings and familiar obligations that go along with that privilege. On the Page Bowen transports the reader to 1918 Torquay, on the Southern coast of England, where we ...

This weekend, the Wine Pairing Weekend crew - #WinePW on social media - is pairing sherry with foods. Join the conversation on Twitter on Saturday, July 9th, at 8am Pacific. A Sherry Primer What is sherry? Yes, I did actually ask myself this when I saw that Jeff of FoodWineClick was hosting a sherry-pairing event.  Whhhaaaatttt? I - yes, I was this ignorant! - thought sherry was just for cooking. I had no idea you could drink it...much less enjoy it. Whoops. Thanks for the chance for illumination, Jeff. So, I got to work, reading, researching, and - finally - sipping and recipe testing. Hopefully no one is as clueless as I was. But, just in case, bear with me. Sherry is fortified wine from the southwest part of Spain; it comes in a range of styles - dry, straw-colored or sweet, mahogany-hued or somewhere in between. Dry sherries are usually served chilled while sweet sherries are served at room temperature. Those are the basics. Now, we'll get a little bit...

On the first day of summer, I wrote about this multi-day, multi-blogger celebration of all guacamole: #GuacSquad12 . Well, it's arrived. The event is finally here. We've timed this guacamole celebration to coincide with the  release of the Guac-Lock™ by Casabella . At the beginning of the month, I shared the amazing giveaway we have with items from our generous sponsors: enter here ! You can win a Guac-Lock™ of your own. Today, I'm kicking off the #GuacSquad12 event with a recipe that is the antithesis of quick and easy guac. And that's because I have swirled a quick and easy guac with a homemade mole that takes about three hours to make and another twenty-four hours for the flavors to fully develop. This recipe was inspired by a mole-making class I attended last month. Here I am, with one of my best friends, in our breath-taking hairnets which were required in the commercial kitchen. You can read the piece I wrote for Edible Monterey Bay  about Unlocking th...

With my bounty of plums from our friends, I decided to roast a pan-full. It's a simple preparation and you can use them in a multitude of ways. Or you can just put them on top of plain yogurt for a delicious semi-sweet treat. Ingredients 12 plums, halved and pitted 2 T honey 2 T sherry 3 whole vanilla beans, sliced lengthwise Also needed: parchment paper Procedure Heat oven to 375°F. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Lay plums, cut-side up, on the paper. Place vanilla beans on top of the plums. Drizzle with honey and sherry. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool in syrup. Reserve the syrup for homemade sodas or cocktails. *This blog currently has a partnership with Amazon.com in their affiliate program, which gives me a small percentage of sales if you buy a product through a link on my blog. It doesn't cost you anything more. If you are uncomfortable with this, feel free to go directly to Amazon.com and search for the item of your ch...