Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Next month several bloggers are tackling the challenge of creating nutritious meals that stay within the budgetary constraints of what a family of four receives on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) which is $5.53 or $16.60 for the day. Yes, really. Challenge accepted.  For my first attempt at the challenge, I eschewed my usual grocery stop and headed to our local Grocery Outlet. There are good options there, including organic produce but it's not a consistent inventory. So I never know what I'm going to find. But, if you hunt, it's not bad...and it's a highly affordable option. I picked up ingredients to make a tuna pasta and roasted Brussels sprouts. The grocery bill was $5.66. And while I did add half of an onion, olive oil, salt, and pepper from my pantry and fridge, I went with serving sizes and only used half of the pasta package and half of the jarred sauce - which I will use for another meal. Plus we had enough leftover that my ...

Last week I had the opportunity to meet up with Lori of Dracaena Wines and Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm in Paso Robles. Nothing like six gears and a sundress to play hookey from work and meet up with some blogging friends in real life.  I have been lucky enough to meet up with Wendy in her previous visits to California. But it was a first to meet Lori. I've long been acquainted with her wines, especially as she's helmed #CabFrancDay for one of our wine groups in previous years. Back in 2016, I posted Apple-Braised Duck Legs + Dracaena's Cab Franc  for that event; and I shared  Steak au Poivre et Thé with their 2013 vintage. But it was a special treat to have Lori do a tasting for us at her vineyard and at the crush pad. At the vineyard we walked along the edge of her vines in the Plummer Vineyard. She showed us the two Cabernet Franc clones that comprised their regular Cabernet Franc. Then, pointing in the distance, we saw where the ...

Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through. This year it is  The European Cake Cookbook  by Tatyana Nesteruk*. We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes!  Follow our  Facebook ,  Instagram , and  Pinterest  pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the links below to take you to each of our cakes. If you have a blog and are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details.  The Cake Slice Bakers also have a new Facebook group called  The Cake Slice Bakers and Friends . This group is perfect for those who do not ha...

Last year this was a new-to-me event. I participated in the 5th Annual Pieathalon which was coordinated by Emily of  Dinner is Served 1972 . And it was a ton of fun. So, when she emailed to see if I were interested in participating in the 6th annual pieathalon, I was in! Since I'm still new to this whole Pieathalon thing, I'll share the rules with my readers.  1. Pick a pie recipe from a pre-1990 cookbook. 2. Email it to Emily. 3. She assigns it randomly to another pieathlete. 4. We bake. 5. We post. 6. We share. Today's the day! Get ready for some Before the fun and games started last year, I made a  Foraged Huckleberry Pie  just to get my pie-making brain into gear. And it is definitely a peachy time of year because last year I was assigned a Peaches and Cream Tart . This year I received the challenge of the Flaming Peach Pie from Greg at Recipes for Rebels . The pie recipe I submitted was Hawaiian Banana Pie from the 1961 Betty Cro...