Culinary Adventures with Camilla

  Today the Sunday Funday group is sharing quinoa recipes. Thanks to Stacy of  Food Lust People Love , Sue of  Palatable Pastime , Rebekah of  Making Miracles , and Wendy of  A Day in the Life on the Farm  for coordinating this low-stress group. This week, Renu is hosting and suggested we share recipes based on quinoa. Here's the list of recipes... Quinoa Chia Multiseed Bread from Cook with Renu Rustic Multigrain Bread from Karen's Kitchen Stories Mediterranean Quinoa Salad from A Day in the Life on the Farm Vegetable Quinoa Upma from Sneha’s Recipe Turkey Quinoa Meatloaf from Amy's Cooking Adventures Copycat Trader Joe’s Lemon Chicken and Arugula Salad from Palatable Pastime Quinoa Tangerine Salad from Mayuri’s Jikoni I decided to share a grain bowl recipe that I made as part of a 6-bowl video. These grain bowl salads are the perfect side dish or main dish. And I love that they are so, so simple to assemble! Here are six variations using thr...

These grain bowl salads are the perfect Autumn side dish or main dish. And I love that they are so, so simple to assemble! Here are six variations using three different grains - farro, barley, and quinoa. But use whatever grains you have. These would be just as tasty with rice, freekah, or even buckwheat! You can watch the process on the CulinaryCam YouTube channel ...or right here! Ingredients are listed below for each bowl. But, as always,  I urge you to just be creative and use what you have. I love how easy these are to customize with whatever ingredients I have on-hand. They are colorful, toothy, and tasty. If you are local to me, I picked up all of the pantry items at The Quail & Olive in Carmel Valley. Anni always has great pantry items whose producers have great stories and make quality items. It's always a treat to go there and get inspired. Simple Crunch Quinoa Bowl 2 cups cooked quinoa 1/2 cup sliced purple cabbage 1/4 cup chopped celery 1/4 cup chopped bell pepper...

These will be included in our July Food'N'Flix event, so you can read why I've gone down the JAWS rabbit hole soon. But I wanted to make some shark-inspired sugar cookies to start. This is my go-to recipe for sugar cookies with just a little bit of vanilla and cardamom to keep them from being too plain; and the icing has just the right amount of tartness with freshly squeezed lemon juice. If you don't have ground cardamom, you can substitute ground cinnamon or leave it out completely. It will be just as delicious. Also, I used vanilla paste in this cookie; feel free to use vanilla extract if that's all you have. I just love the flecks of the vanilla seeds in this light-colored cookie. Ingredients Vanilla-Cardamom Sugar Cookies 2-3/4 cup flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup butter, softened 1 cup organic granulated sugar 2 eggs 1 teaspoon pure vanilla paste or extract 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom Also needed: shark cookie cutters* Royal Icing  (you ...

I have heard this called roasted  salsa , charred  salsa, and salsa molcajeteada . You certainly don't have to make this in a molcajete , you can do the same crushing and grinding process in a blender or food processor. But there is something fulfilling about charring and grinding this salsa.  I wanted to share this process for our Culinary Cam YouTube channel along with pork carnitas, tropical salsa fresca, guacamole, and homemade corn tortillas. You can what that here...or there . Ingredients 4 ripe tomatoes (I used Roma tomatoes) 1/2 onion (I used a red onion) 1  jalapeño 1 head of garlic, halved salt to taste and to help grind freshly squeezed juice from 1 or 2 lemons or limes 1 to 2 Tablespoons cilantro Procedure You can do this on a grill or a skillet. You can even roast the veggies in the oven. Char everything except the cilantro and the lemons or limes. Use your molcajete to grind the garlic, onions, jalapeño, and tomatoes. Salt as you go...

  I have heard this called salsa crudo (raw sauce), salsa fresca (fresh sauce), 'chopped' salsa, and even some version of pico de gallo though I tend to see that as just tomato based. But I wanted to share this process for our Culinary Cam YouTube channel along with pork carnitas, charred salsa, guacamole, and homemade corn tortillas.  This is definitely one of those processes versus recipes I always talk about. Use whatever fruits and citrus you have on-hand. For this version I used fresh mango and fresh pineapple, so I'm calling this a tropical salsa fresca .  You can watch the video here...or there . Ingredients makes approximately 2 to 3 cups salsa 1-1/2 cups diced fruit (I used 1/2 cup mango and 1 cup pineapple) 1/2 cup diced tomatoes 1/2 cup diced onions 1 jalapeño, deseeded and diced (adjust for spiciness, as needed) juice from 1 to 2 limes or lemons salt to taste Procedure Place all of the ingredients together into a bowl. Toss to coat with the citrus juices. L...

May 14th was National Buttermilk Biscuit Day. So, this is a few days late, but, really, who is going to quibble about a few days delay. Besides, we make biscuits all year long...not just on a designated  national food holiday. I used this drop buttermilk biscuit as a comparison with a laminated drop biscuit in a Culinary Cam YouTube video. See that here...or there . Ingredients makes approximately 9 2 cups flour 1 Tablespoon baking powder 1 Tablespoon organic granulated sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup buttermilk (or whole milk if you don't have any buttermilk) 1/2  cup (1 stick) melted butter Also needed: baking sheet; silicone baking mat or parchment paper Procedure In a large mixing bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Stir in buttermilk and melted butter. Once everything is combined, let stand for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper. Use a spoon to drop batter onto baking sheets....

  May 14th was National Buttermilk Biscuit Day. So, this is a few days late, but, really, who is going to quibble about a few days delay. Besides, we make biscuits all year long...not just on a designated  national food holiday. I used this laminated buttermilk biscuit as a comparison with a buttermilk drop biscuit in a Culinary Cam YouTube video. See that here...or there . Ingredients  makes about twelve  2-1/2" square biscuits 1/4 cup organic granulated sugar 3 Tablespoons warm water 2 teaspoons (or 1 envelope) active dry yeast 5 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, cold and cubed plus another  1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cold 2 cups whole plain buttermilk (you can use yogurt, instead) light oil for greasing the bowl (I used canola) Also needed: pastry blender, rolling pin, parchment paper Procedure In a small mixing bowl, stir together sugar, 3 Tablespoons warm water, and yeast. Let sta...

This week, with Jill of L'Occasion at the head, the French Winophiles are shining the spotlight on Chablis. You can read her invitation post here . Before Jill lined up a sponsor and media samples for the event, I had tracked down a bottle of a sparkling Rosé to share. So, even though this will not be my pairing or post for the #Winophiles event, I wanted to share a little bit about this wine...and a little bit more about Chablis. Chablis from carlorossi.com I'll be honest: When I saw Jill's topic for the month. I pictured the bottle above. When I was a kid - probably 6 to 9 years old -  my dad was teaching ROTC to students at San Francisco State and Sacramento State. These were young cadets, mostly in their early 20s and mostly single. So, my parents would host spaghetti dinners once a month and invite the students to our house for dinner. I just remember going to the commissary with my dad to get jugs of Carlo Rossi Chablis for those who liked white wine and, maybe the P...

We make crêpes all year round. They are fancy enough for a celebration yet simple enough for everyday. So, when I thought about making a video for an easy Mothers' Day dish on our Culinary Cam YouTube channel, I landed on crêpes. You can watch it there ...or here. Ingredients makes approximately one dozen 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour 3 eggs 2 cups organic whole milk dash of ground cardamom butter, for cooking For serving: jam, unsweetened whipped cream, lemon wedges, Nutella, cheese (for any savory lovers!), and - for this post, I used - a trio of citrus curds Procedure Whisk all of the ingredients together until lump-free. Let sit for at least 30 minutes. Heat a large flat-bottom pan and rub the bottom with butter. Pour the batter into the pan and quickly make a tilting motion to distribute the batter all over the pan. The goal: have as thin a batter layer as possible. Cook until the crêpe is a bit stiff and flip over, cooking for another minute The pancake should be lightly brow...

  Queso Blanco just means 'white cheese' in Spanish, but it's really synonymous with ooey, gooey, cheesy deliciousness that uses a chip as a vessel to my mouth, right?! Okay. Maybe not. But, chips + cheese = happy Cam. And this is so easy to make. We filmed this process for the CulinaryCam YouTube channel. Watch it here...or there . Ingredients Basic Queso 12 ounce evaporated milk 1/4 C all-purpose flour 1 to 2 cloves garlic, peeled and pressed 3 to 4 cups shredded cheese (I used pepper jack and mozzarella) Also needed: your favorite chips for dipping Add-Ins diced tomatoes pickled jalapeños green onions cilantro Procedure In a medium saucepan, whisk together evaporated milk, garlic, and flour until well combined. Heat until the milk begins to steam. Slowly add in shredded cheese. Stir or until completely melted and nicely thickened. Remove from heat and stir in whatever add-ins you want. Spoon the queso into a serving bowl and top with remaining herbs. Serve with chips....

  Ginger cookies are probably my favorite cookie of all time. In fact, I know they are. From gingerbread to ginger snaps, that bite of ginger is a gustatory delight. So, when I asked my CulinaryCam YouTube channel subscribers what cookie recipes they wanted to see, and TM asked for ginger molasses cookies, I put it at the top of my list. Then I was getting cookie boxes ready for a robotics team event and two of the student leads asked me to include ginger cookies of some kind, I knew what I needed to do. If you're curious, the other cookies included in the treat box were sugar cookies and mocha crinkles! You can see the video for this process here... (or on the CulinaryCam YouTube channel ) Ingredients   makes approximately two dozen 3" cookies ¾ cup butter, softened ¾ cup organic dark brown sugar ¼ cup molasses 1 egg 1" knob fresh ginger 2-1/4 cups flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon ½ teaspoon ground cloves ½ teaspoon ground cardamom ½ teaspoon groun...