Culinary Adventures with Camilla

This post is written in conjunction with #FallFlavors. Sponsor companies contributed prize packages for the raffle giveaway. All opinions are mine alone. Here we are at Day Two of #FallFlavors where we celebrate all things associated with Fall such as squash, apples, pecans, sweaters, football; you get the idea!  Ellen from Family Around the Table and Christie from A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures have gathered two dozen bloggers who have over one hundred recipes they’re sharing this week in celebration of cool weather and sweatshirts.  We hope you find many must make recipes so get your pinning, tweeting, and sharing fingers ready! Tuesday's Recipes Breakfast Maple Coffee Glazed Baked Donuts by A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures Savory Baby Greens Salad with Pomegranate, Blue Cheese, And Pecans by Karen's Kitchen Stories Instant Pot Pork Riblets with Sauerkraut by Palatable Pastime Pecan Chicken and Grape Salad by Cindy's Recipes and Writings Turkey...

I'll admit: I picked up Chronicles of a Radical Hag (with Recipes): A Novel by Lorna Landvik* at the library for the cover...and the title. I mean, how could a book with that title be anything but hilarious. Well... On the Page The first time I picked it up, I got about 25 pages into it before I put it down. The second time I tried, I got further and was mildly interested in the characters. Then I just plodded along, regretting each turn of the page after about pages 200. The book is formulaic, the plot meandering, and it's far too long. I will say that I loved the idea of the book. The so-called radical hag is an octogenarian who wrote a column in a local newspaper. She suffers a stroke early on. And the rest of the book tells her story as the current publisher - the granddaughter of the publisher who hired Haze - reprints the hag's old columns along with selected reader responses to the columns. That sounds like an intriguing literary strategy, right? Wel...

Sue from Palatable Pastime is hosting the Baking Bloggers as we explore brownies and bar cookies. She writes, "Let's get these lunch box favorites together just in time for back-to-school. Any type of baked brownie or cookie bar or dessert bar will do (even if just the crust is baked, as in bars topped with curd or something like cheesecake bars)." I decided to make a salted olive oil brownie and finally opened up the salt blends that a friend had given me for my birthday back in May. The one I picked for this - I'll admit - I picked for the name. I mean look at it: "Magic Unicorn - use with anything. It's magic." Turns out it's a hand-made, hand-mixed salt consisting of pure ocean salt with smoked paprika, rosemary and garlic. And if you don't think garlic belongs in sweets, think again. We've made Garlic Ice Cream that was so unique and tasty; black garlic is easier to envision in sweets - such as in this Black Garlic Chocolat...

Earlier this month - before I left on a 10-day camping trip and before my laptop went kaput - I introduced you to a brand new cookbook from  Perigee-Penguin : THE GLUTEN-FREE CHEAT SHEET:  Go G-Free in 30 Days or Less,  written by gluten-free maven April Peveteaux, author of the blog  Gluten is My Bitch . Thank you to  Perigee-Penguin  for inspiring this series of posts. This is my third Gluten-Free Fridays post. Don't forget about your chance to win a copy of the book. I will continue to post gluten-free recipes, but that is a story for another day. This is the final post before the giveaway ends. One of my biggest challenges, when cooking for my GF friends, has been making sweets.  Sometimes a crust will be as dry as the Sahara Desert. Sometimes it's rubbery. Like Flubber rubbery. Yuck. I should probably blend my own GF flour more regularly to create some consistency and predictability. When I'm in a pinch, I use Trader Joe's...

Yes, you read that correctly. Lemon. Cricket. Squares. Get past the idea of eating an insect and you'll have the added benefit of some protein your dessert! We were inspired to make something with cricket flour after one of our favorite chefs, along with our favorite restaurateurs, opened a restaurant called Il Grill o, cricket in Italian. Chef Brad Briske plans to make pasta with cricket flour. We decided to start with a sweet! Ingredients Tequila Crust 3-1/2 C white whole wheat flour 1/2 C cricket flour 1 C powdered sugar 1-1/2 C butter (3 sticks) 3 T cold water 1 T Buddha's Hand-Infused Tequila (substitute vodka or gin, if you like, or another T of water if you don't want to use alcohol) Topping 8 eggs 3 C organic granulated sugar 1/2 C cricket flour 1 t baking powder zest from 4 lemons 3/4 C freshly squeezed lemon juice Procedure Preheat oven to 350. Place flours and powdered sugar into a mixing bowl. Rub in butter till the mixture rese...

When I asked about Easter desserts, I suggested cheesecake and was voted down. Really. Who turns down cheesecake?!? The troops wanted Tiramisù and lemon squares. Done! I spiked the crust with a yuzu liqueur that my friend Shiho had given me. Yummy. makes one 9"x13" pan Ingredients Yuzu Crust  2 C white whole wheat flour 1/2 C powdered sugar 3/4 C butter 2 T yuzu liqueur 1 T water (or 3 T water if you don't want to use alcohol) Topping 4 eggs 2 C organic powdered sugar 1/4 C white whole wheat flour 1/2 t baking powder zest from 2 lemons 1/2 C freshly squeezed lemon juice 1 T yuzu liqueur powdered sugar, for serving Procedure Preheat oven to 350. Place flour, powdered sugar, and salt into a mixing bowl. Rub in butter till the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Stir in liquid and mix until larger crumbs form. Press the dough into a 9"x13" baking pan and bake for 20 minutes until golden brown. In the meantime, make the toppi...

Last night, after the boys were in bed, Jake asked, "Can you make some cookies?" Hmmmm...I wasn't about to go to the store since I was already in pajamas. So I looked at the ingredients I had in my fridge and pantry before I answered. Yes, I can. This recipe is incredibly flexible...and something you should be able to whip up late at night without too much trouble. Use whatever jam or jelly you have in the fridge. I could have made lemon curd bars, but opted to use the last of my blueberry jam. Ingredients 1 C butter 2 C flour 2/3 C organic granulated sugar 1 t baking powder 2 egg yolks blueberry jam (I used about 4 to 5 tablespoons for an 8" square pan) Procedure Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place flour, sugar, and baking powder in a large mixing bowl. With your hands, press the butter into the flour, flattening the cubes into flat leaves. Add in the egg yolks and press together gently to form dough. Press two-thirds of the dough mixture int...

Earlier this week I headed over to our local library where they have a Teen Chef program. My task: stay within a $25 budget (or donate materials) and create a healthy snack that teens could make while watching a movie...without a stove or microwave. Oh, and "sometimes they just drop in, so there's no real presentation time." Challenge accepted. I've always wanted to host a popcorn bar. Done! I did create some flyers with a little bit of history and information. One of the teens asked, "Do I have to take a flyer or can I just have the popcorn?" Take the flyer. This is a library. You need to read! You might learn something. (Yes, I really did say that...in case you're wondering.) What makes popcorn “pop”? The secret is in the kernel. Popcorn comes from a particular kind of maize that produces small kernels with a hard outer shell. These kernels are inedible as is. To get to the soft, edible part, you have to heat the kernel to the po...

Riley needed a dessert for a class party and yellow is his favorite color. So, we decided on lemon squares. It's akin to picking a wine for its label; I'm guilty of that, too. But, unlike picking a wine just for its label, I know that this will be good - a tangy lemon topping over a crisp cookie crust make this a luscious treat! And sliced into small squares, this treat is portable. makes two 9"x13" pans Vodka Crust Ingredients 4 C white whole wheat flour 1 C powdered sugar 1-1/2 C butter (3 sticks) 2 T cold water 1 T vodka (or another T of water if you don't want to use alcohol) Topping Ingredients 8 eggs 3 C organic granulated sugar 1/2 C white whole wheat flour 1 t baking powder zest from 2 lemons 3/4 C freshly squeezed lemon juice Procedure Preheat oven to 350. Place flour, powdered sugar, and salt into a mixing bowl. Rub in butter till the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Stir in water until the mixture forms a ball. Pres...

"Write a blog post telling us about  your favorite holiday recipe."  So reads the directions for the December Shine Supper Club, a smorgasbord celebration of the festive fare that makes this season so delicious. Okay. Is there anything more holiday-ish than eggnog?!? Well, I know that there are some people who don't like eggnog. These recipes aren't for them. For the rest of us, especially my Christmas babe, these treats smell of nutmeg and other spices and taste like Christmas! Last year said Christmas baby and I baked an eggnog cheesecake for his 8th birthday. It was a hit! Dylan's Eggnog Cheesecake CRUST 2 C crushed lemon-ginger cookies 1 C ground almonds 1/2 C (stick) melted butter 1 T ground cinnamon 2 T organic granulated sugar Mix all of the ingredients together until moist clumps form. Press crumb mixture onto bottom and up sides of a springform pan that's been wrapped in foil. Chill crust while preparing fi...

On Friday, the wind and rain battered us as we ran from the parking lot to the classrooms. Dylan's hand was wet in mine. "Mom," he suggested, "I think it's an eggnog and cookies kind of a day. What do you think?" Sounds good, Sweetheart. But do you mean to drink or to bake into cookies? "Both!" Perfect.  Well, I'm two days late, but it's still an eggnog and cookie day! And even though Dylan was my kitchen elf tonight, I'm calling this part of Riley's 12 Days of Christmas Cookies series. Dylan started with my trusty crust that I use for my lemon squares...with an eggnog twist. 2 C white whole wheat flour 1/2 C powdered sugar 3/4 C butter pinch of pink Himalaya salt 1 T cold eggnog Preheat oven to 350. Place flour, powdered sugar, and salt into a mixing bowl. Rub in butter till the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Stir in eggnog until the mixture forms a ball. Press the dough into a 9"x13" bakin...

It's time for the July Secret Recipe Club  reveal...thanks to Jane for linking my post up since I'm currently off-line, celebrating my parents' 40th anniversary! What's the Secret Recipe Club? It's a group started by Amanda of Amanda's Cookin'  but recently handed off to April of Angel's Homestead . Each month, every participant is assigned to someone else's blog from which they pick a recipe - or two - to make and post, but it's all a secret until the big day. Today's the day. I always love a kitchen challenge and some culinary adventure. This month I was assigned Itzy's Kitchen , written by Erica, a wife, a mother, a cost analyst, and part-time fitness instructor.... She is one busy gal! I decided to try my hand at two of her recipes. First up, her Honey Almond Butter Cereal Bars . I am notorious for cooking a full breakfast for my three boys - omelettes, potatoes, sliced fruit - and packing their lunches, but somehow ending...