Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Welcome to the  Foodie Extravaganza !  v. June 2016 = a Midsummer Celebration Foodie Extravaganza is where bloggers come together and celebrate food holidays. Did you know there is at least one food assigned to each day of the year to celebrate that food? Laura from  Baking in Pyjamas  is our host this month. Laura invited us to "Create a dessert of your choice which is Midsummer Eve themed. Think any kind of summer fruit or an interpretation of what Midsummer means to you." Posting day is always the first Wednesday of the month. If you are a blogger and you're interested in joining in the fun, visit us at our  Facebook Foodie Extravaganza page . You can also visit our past party submissions on our  Pinterest Foodie Extravaganza board  . The Midsummer Celebration  We hope you will enjoy the recipes we are sharing this month. Blueberry Slab Pie by A Day in the Life on the Farm Carrot Vanilla Custard by Sneha's Recipe Chocola...

May was a productive month for my  Foodie Reads 2016 Challenge , I have carved out full afternoons to read this month - meaning, I ordered my family to leave me alone while I crawled under the covers and devoured pages and pages of books. After making Cricket Chip Cookies for my Bizarre Foods SEM , I came across  Edible: An Adventure into the World of Eating Insects and the Last Great Hope to Save the Planet  by Daniella Martin.* Timely. On the Page... I have to admit: I didn't love this book. It was okay. The subject is even wildly compelling for me. So, it means something that I struggled to get through this. Well, I struggled through the first 100 pages or so. And, considering that the book itself is only about 130 pages, not including the voluminous introduction...well, you can do the math. I definitely didn't love this book. She starts off as too much of a treatise and less of a narrative. For pages and pages she details the FCR (food conversion ratio) ...

The  Secret Recipe Club  has a fun, themed - fifth Monday - event that blurs the lines between the groups. You can be assigned to any other participating blogger in groups A through D. Our theme this month: Picnic & BBQ. I was excited to be assigned to The Spiffy Cookie , written by Erin. I've been reading Erin's blog for awhile. She's even taken part in a few online multi-day, multi-blogger events I've organized; and she's one of the hosting bloggers for our year-long project:  The Book Club Cookbook Cooking Project . So, I was excited to get to explore her blog more. I have a funny story. I recently saw one of my local friends bragging about the best chocolate chip cookies ever on social media. And it was one of Erin's recipes. I was so tickled to see my blogging life intersecting with my actual life. I told Jenn, "Not only is she a Spiffy Cookie, but she's a Smart Cookie!" Erin has a PhD in Microbiology.  More importantly for m...

Summer’s Best Potluck Dishes Memorial Day kicks off summer. Some kids are already out of school; mine aren't...not quite yet. But summer means cookouts on the beach and lots of fun, casual potlucks. Often my husband will drag our lil' grill out to the beach and friends will just bring whatever they want to throw on the grill and a dish to share. Today the Sunday Supper Movement tastemakers are sharing their BEST recipes for summer gatherings! T.R. Crumbley of  Gluten Free Crumbley  is hosting. Appetizers Calamari salad with fennel and avocado by Caroline’s Cooking Coronation Chicken Deviled Eggs by Food Lust People Love Creamy Ranch Tortilla Pinwheels with Roasted Red Peppers by Dizzy Busy and Hungry Roasted Corn Salsa by Casa de Crews Walnut Grapes by Eat, Drink and Be Tracy Watermelon Salad with Feta Cheese and Mint by April Golightly Sides and Salads Amish Broccoli and Cauliflower Salad by My World Simplified Antipasto Pasta Salad...

Today was the day I promised them would come: we ate crickets. I'm not sure they believed me at the beginning of our six weeks together. But, c'mon, I did feed them durian (click to read about that adventure )...did they really not think I could find some crickets to feed them?!? So, I packed up my bin of ingredients and tools and planned to have them make cricket chip cookies. That is - chocolate chip cookies with cricket flour. One student asked if I were going to put the whole crickets in them, too. Good idea!! Ingredients ½  C butter 2  C semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided ¾  C organic granulated sugar 1/3  C unsweetened cocoa powder ¾  C flour ¼ C cricket flour* ½  t salt 1 t baking powder 1 t pure vanilla extract 1 large egg crickets for garnish Procedure Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place 1 C chocolate chips and butter into a small saucepan. Heat over low heat unti...

While I loved the idea of bacon wrapped fish, I clearly need a do-over. I call 'mulligan!' Or maybe I should actually follow someone else's tried and true recipe instead of winging it blindly. I figured: How hard could it be? Let's just say my fish was overdone and the bacon was not done enough. Ugh. So, apparently it's harder than I thought. But I am posting this because as much as I love sharing my kitchen successes and triumphs, I find it equally important that we share those flops, too. It makes us human and encourages us to embrace the fact that we aren't Martha Stewart...at least not everyday, right? And if any of my dear readers has a recipe for bacon-wrapped fish that they adore, send it over. I'll give it a try. Thanks in advance.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of  Gourmet Garden . All opinions are my own. I have worked with Gourmet Garden on several different events in recent years. Through those events - #HotSummerEats, #FreshTastyValentines, #10DaysofTailgate, and #TripleSBites - I have created a variety of savories and sweets, including - but not limited to -  Grilled Lemongrass Lamb ,  Savory Hops Granola ,  Chili-Cumin Pan-Fried Meatballs ,  Savory Hemp Seed Pesto Truffles ,  Roasted Broccolini Soup ,  Lemongrass Ginger Cheesecake . Needless to say, I'm more than a little smitten with the ease that these products provide. Gourmet Garden  has  Stir-In Herb Pastes as well as Lightly Dried Herbs . I once shadowed a chef for a day and he commented that, if you're using quality ingredients, you often don't need much more than salt, pepper, and some herbs. Those herbs add layers to a dish through their flavor, color, and aroma. And, let...

I signed up to test a recipe for Food52:  Radish Sashimi by Alexandra of Lollipopsicle . Alexandra writes that "this recipe is a fun lil’ play on Japanese sashimi [because she likes] to prepare produce like you would animal protein." I have to admit that, initially, I wasn't sure I agreed with the recipe title. Sashimi? When I think of sashimi, I think more of this... ...than this... But, I think that 'sashimi' refers to the fact that it's thinly sliced not so much that it's fish. So, if that's the case, this is radish sashimi. And, as Alexandria suspected, I was entranced with this dish. It was ridiculously simple with a refreshing crunch and surprising silkiness. I did skip the sugar - only because I forgot about it; we didn't miss it. And we will be making this dish again. Probably tomorrow. Ingredients serves 3 to 4 1 bunch organic radishes 2 T gluten-free tamari 2 t olive oil zest and juice from 1 organic li...