Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Here we are at the final #thebookclubcookbookCC event. Final. Can you believe it?? It's hard to fathom that our year-long journey to explore - and cook from -  The Book Club Cookbook, Revised Edition: Recipes and Food for Thought from Your Book Club's Favorite Books and Authors  by Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp* is drawing to a close. Judy, Vicki, and their publisher,  Tarcher-Penguin ,  provided the hosting bloggers with copies of the book plus copies to giveaway each month of the project. We are so grateful for their generosity over the past year. This month I have selected Corelli's Mandolin  by Louis de Bernières. The book was also made into a movie, starring Nicholas Cage and Penelope Cruz. I highly recommend both the book and the movie.**  The Book Club Cookbook  includes a recipe for Spankopita  which I am sharing below, but feel free to cook anything that intrigues you be it something Greek or Italian. I, myself, mig...

Some kids have favorite actors, athletes, and musicians. Mine have a favorite chef: Chef Brad Briske of La Balena and Il Grillo .  So, when I saw that Brad was going to be a guest chef at the Scotts Valley farmers market pop-up brunch (click for the pop-up brunch series ), I bought tickets immediately. Unfortunately, Jake was wrapped up with the house remodel and under the gun with his deadline. So, he didn't get to come with us. I let the boys invite a friend instead. POTATOES SAVORY AND SWEET potatoes, peavetta, golden raspberries, and herbs STRAWBERRIES AND CHOCOLATE Live Earth Farm strawberries with Ashby Confections ’ chocolate PORCHETTA BRUSCHETTA Companion Bakeshop open-face sourdough, Fogline Farm pig, fried egg, greens and honey SWEET FINISH plum tart, almonds and lavender syrup As always, Brad and his dishes delighted all of our senses. Everything was delicious, beautiful, and perfectly in sea...

This month Evelyne from  CulturEatz  is hosting  Food'N'Flix . Here's  her invitation . She invited us to watch  I am Love .* On the Screen... I am shocked that this movie has never made it onto my to-watch list.I will watch anything set in Italy. Seriously. Anything. And if it's actually in Italian, even better! It's actually a hilarious phenomenon. No matter how long it's been since I left Rome, if I watch a movie in Italian, I begin to think in Italian for several hours; I often try to speak to my family in Italian for a spell, too. My boys just shake their heads and wait till it passes. I am Love  is about the Recchi family whose matriarch is Emma (played by Tilda Swinton), a transplanted Russian who, as she admits, ceased being Russian when she married Tancredi Recchi and moved to Milan. In fact, she admits that Emma isn't her real name; it's the name her husband gave her. She says she  doesn't even remember her birth name, but she...

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...

Waffle Mania! Since June 29th is National Waffle Day, the Sunday Supper tastemakers are kicking off the week with a huge waffle party! Although waffles have been around for nearly seven hundred years, the first American patent for a waffle iron wasn't issued until the late 1800s. Sue from  A Palatable Pastime  has rallied us to celebrate all things waffle. She invited us to make anything in the waffle iron from sweets to savories and everything in between.  All the Waffles Sweet and Sinful: Banana Split Waffle Cake by The Bitter Side of Sweet Blueberry Buttermilk Waffles by Alida's Kitchen Boston Cream Pie Waffles by Crazed Mom Chocolate Cherry Beet Waffles by Sew You Think You Can Cook Chocolate Chip Waffle Ice Cream Sandwiches by Turnips 2 Tangerines Chocolate Pizelles – The Italian Waffle by GirlAbroad Churro Waffles by The Redhead Baker Coconut Waffles by Omnivore’s Cookbook Dark Chocolate Waffles with Cherry Syrup by The Chef Next...

Earlier this week, friends of our who are out of town asked if we could pick their plums, water some plants, and pick up the mail. The boys - and my parents - were game and off they went. They came home with so many plums yesterday. So, I started off with a plum-polenta cake for breakfast this morning. We're still debating on jam versus chutney and shrub versus liqueur. I'll keep you posted. Ingredients 1/2 C  butter, softened + more for greasing the pan 2/3 C organic granulated sugar   1/4 C honey 2 eggs 1/2 C coconut milk 1/2 t salt 1-1/2 C gluten-free flour (I used a mixture of rice flour, brown rice flour, and coconut flour) 3/4 C yellow cornmeal 1/2 t baking powder 1/2 C corn kernels 10 to 12 small, ripe plums Procedure Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Butter a baking dish; I used a 9" square dish. Slice your plums in half, or quarters, and remove the pit. Place the plums in the bottom of the dish and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar to...

Remember when I wrote about our upcoming blogging event: #GuacSquad12? Click to read details about the event, see who's participating, and meet our sponsors: here . We've timed our #GuacSquad event with the release of a brand new product from one of our event sponsors:  Casabella . The product is the Guac-Lock™. All of the participating bloggers will be posting their own reviews of the product along with a creative twist on guacamole. And...we will be giving away TWELVE Guac-Locks™ during the event. Yes, twelve. A dozen of our lucky readers will be able to try the Guac-Lock™ for themselves. I can't wait. Until then, check out the video below to find out more about the Guac-Lock™.   Find... Casabella on the  web , on  Twitter , on  Facebook , on  Instagram , on   Pinterest The Giveaway... Our generous sponsors have contributed prizes for this event.  Stay tuned for how you can enter to win. *Disclosure:...

My time with Dorothy (she's a bundt pan) and Toto (he's a journal) - for the Peoplehood of the Traveling Swirly Pan - is drawing to a close. I'm hoping to squeeze in one more adventure before I need to wrap them up and send them off to the next baker. You can read more about the Peoplehood of the Traveling Swirly Pan and see my first recipe with Dorothy ( here )  when   I made a Gluten-free Bourbon Gingerbread with Prickly Pear Lemon Curd...and my third recipe ( here ) when I made a Gluten-free Hot Milk-Matcha Bundt with Chocolate Silk Sauce. I can count. Really. My second adventure was a complete and total flop. So, I didn't share that recipe on the blog or with the #PeoplehoodoftheTravelingSwirlyPan. Flops are how you know you're stretching your culinary competence, right? While they aren't a success, they are necessary to becoming a better cook! I decided that I would make a chocolate cake for my fourth Dorothy attempt - but not just any choco...

It's summertime! For me, that means ripe avocados and lots and lots of guacamole. Do you adore guacamole? If so, then #GuacSquad12 - a multi-day, multi-blogger event - is for you. A dozen bloggers have come together to share fourteen different guacamole recipes during the month of July. Whether you're a guacamole purist - think avocado, cilantro and lime - or you get a little more creative - think of some fabulous fold-ins such as pineapple or olives -  the #GuacSquad12's creations will make your mouth water. We Are the GuacSquad...  listed alphabetically by blog name A Day in the Life on the Farm A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures Angels Home Sweet Homestead Café Terra Blog Cheese Curd In Paradise Cindy's Recipes and Writings Cookaholic Wife Culinary Adventures with Camilla Famished Fish, Finicky Shark Jane's Adventures in Dinner Making Miracles The Heritage Cook Things I Make (for Dinner) Here's the blog tour schedule... ...