Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Here we are at day six of one of my favorite blogging weeks of the year: Brunch Week. Last day. I can not  believe the week is over! Each year, Terri of  Love and Confections  coordinates this multi-blogger, multi-day celebration of all things brunch. This year Christie from  A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures  is co-hosting. There were so many fabulous recipes created and shared. I hope you have time to check them all out! On this final day of BrunchWeek v.2016, I wanted to leave you with a sweet recipe that has lots of applications. I used it recently to drizzle over olive oil shortbread. Wow. And I was excited to use sugar from one of our event sponsors again. Did I ever tell you that they shipped me 20 pounds of granulated sugar and 20 pounds of powdered sugar?!? Ingredients 2 C organic granulated sugar (I used  Dixie Crystals ) 12 T butter, cubed 1 T instant coffee or espresso 1 C organic heavy cream 1 T  fleur de sel  (or any ...

Here we are at day five of one of my favorite blogging weeks of the year: Brunch Week. I can't believe the week is almost over! Each year, Terri of  Love and Confections  coordinates this multi-blogger, multi-day celebration of all things brunch. This year Christie from  A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures  is co-hosting.  I almost didn't post today. Very unlike myself, I procrastinated on a planned post and wasn't ready. When I got home this evening, ready to quickly bake a tray of lavender madeleines, all I could do was stare in dismay at my sad, little lavender bush. The drought has certainly taken its toll. There were no blossoms on my usually prolific plant. Even the leaves were tinged with brown. Ugh. Then I remembered a friend saying that you can cook with culinary grade essential oils. And I just happened to have some culinary grade lavender essential oil that was delivered to my doorstep today. You can tell it's culinary grade, versus therapeutic grad...

Here we are at day four of one of my favorite blogging weeks of the year: Brunch Week. Each year, Terri of  Love and Confections  coordinates this multi-blogger, multi-day celebration of all things brunch. This year Christie from  A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures  is co-hosting.  Since I lean towards the savory in my brunch preferences, I wanted to share one of my favorite meaty finger foods! Lamb lollipops make any meal feel instantly fancy.  I love making different variations based on what I have on-hand. I've  made them with black garlic and shiitakes ,  grilled them with garlic salt , and  glazed them with morello cherries . Ingredients 8 French cut rack of lamb, trimmed into chops and trimmed of excess fat 1/2 C dry white wine 1/2 C apple cider vinegar 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 2 garlic cloves, crushed and minced 2 t ground cumin 1 t ground coriander ¾ t grated turmeric 1 t grated ginger ¼ t ground ...

Here we are at day three of one of my favorite blogging weeks of the year: Brunch Week. Each year, Terri of  Love and Confections  coordinates this multi-blogger, multi-day celebration of all things brunch. This year Christie from  A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures  is co-hosting. And I challenge myself to post everyday, getting creative with all of the sponsor goodies we receive for participating. It's so much fun. When I received a package of onions from    Vidalia Onion Committee , the enclosed note challenged us to get creative and posed the question: Who's brave enough to make a cocktail?  That got me thinking. And I decided: Yep, I'm doing it. I'm brave enough to make an onion cocktail. Challenge accepted! I thought about what flavors would go with an onion...in a drink. And I asked friends for their opinions. The general consensus was gin. So, I opted to create my own version of a rickshaw which is a gin-based libation made with basi...

Here we are at day two of one of my favorite blogging weeks of the year: Brunch Week. Every year, Terri of  Love and Confections  coordinates a multi-blogger, multi-day celebration of all things brunch. This year Christie from  A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures  is co-hosting. And I challenge myself to post everyday, getting creative with all of the sponsor goodies we receive for participating. It's so much fun. If you've been following me for even a little while, you know that I gravitate towards the savory side of things. When I received the generous sponsor package from  Cabot Cheese   I knew exactly what I was going to make: cheesy polenta. It's a family favorite and on our table at least every couple of weeks. I picked the white oak cheddar and paired it with fire roasted green chiles and some fennel pollen. The word fennel comes from the Latin word  fenum  meaning 'hay' which might describe its sweet, grassy smell. Charlemagne i...

Today kicks off one of my favorite blogging weeks of the year: Brunch Week. Each year, Terri of Love and Confections coordinates this multi-blogger, multi-day celebration of all things brunch. This year Christie from  A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures  is co-hosting. And I challenge myself to post everyday, getting creative with all of the sponsor goodies we receive for participating. It's so much fun. When I received lemon and orange extracts from #BrunchWeek sponsor Nielsen-Massey , I thought about different recipes that might utilize both. I considered savory dishes, because I really don't have a sweet tooth, then I stumbled across an intriguing recipe from the medieval town of Pérouges, near Lyon, France. Galette Perougienne is made with a yeasted dough, scented with citrus and sprinkled with sugar. That meant I was able to use additional sponsor goodies from Red Star Yeast and Dixie Crystals ; and while I prepared the dough, my eggs sat in the ceramic egg carton ...