Culinary Adventures with Camilla

  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...

We are of the mindset that everything is better than bacon. LOL. So, when I was brainstorming with the boys about our own little BaconFest, they decided that we should have a bacon biscuit bar. You know: bacon biscuits + bacon gravy, bacon biscuits + bacon jam, and bacon biscuits sliders. I could feel my cholesterol climbing while menu planning! But I also knew that the bar would be a hit with our guests. Ingredients  makes about fifteen 2" square biscuits 1/4 C organic granulated sugar 3 T warm water 2 t (1 envelope) active dry yeast 5 C all-purpose flour 2 t salt 1 t baking soda 1 t baking powder 1 C butter, cold and cubed 2 C whole plain buttermilk (you can use yogurt, instead) 1/2 C butter, cold light oil for greasing the bowl (I used canola) 4  candied bacon strips , coarsely chopped   Procedure In a small mixing bowl, stir together sugar, 3 T warm water, and yeast. Let stand until mixture is bloomed and foamy, approximately 5 minutes....

Everyone should have a good quick drop biscuit in their culinary wheelhouse. I typically do rolled biscuits, but when I saw a photo of a biscuit with an egg surprise inside, I decided to give it a try. And I added in fresh thyme and bacon for good measure! Ingredients  makes 6 1/2 C (1 stick) cold butter, cubed 1-1/2 C flour 2 t baking powder 1 t salt 3/4 C cold buttermilk 6 hardboiled eggs, peeled 1/3 C bacon, cooked and crumbled with 1 T bacon fat reserved Procedure Preheat oven to 400°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, and salt. Toss butter cubes into the flour mix. Use your fingers to rub butter into the flour. Pour in buttermilk, bacon fat, and bacon crumbles. Stir with a fork until it just comes together into a slightly sticky dough. Using a tablespoon scoop, mound walnut-sized balls of dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Press a hardboiled egg into the center...

I felt like making dessert last night. When I say "making dessert," that's what I mean. I didn't feel like eating dessert, but my culinary creativity needed to be expressed. I looked in the fridge and found leftover roasted rhubarb , leftover prosecco (gasp!), fresh strawberries from my High Ground Organics CSA, and plain yogurt. So, this is what I made. The boys were already asleep when it was finished, so I served it to them for breakfast. Hey...it's mostly healthy! Ingredients 3 1/2 C flour 1 T baking powder 1 t baking soda 1 T organic granulated sugar 1/2 C butter, chilled and cubed 1 t pure vanilla extract 1 egg 1 C milk + some for brushing on biscuits before baking 1 T white vinegar raw turbinado sugar 2 C strawberries, destemmed and halved 1 C roasted rhubarb 1/4 C organic granulated sugar 1/2 C prosecco organic plain whole milk yogurt Procedure Preheat the oven to 415 degrees F. Whisk together the first four ingredient...

It's  Pass the Cookbook  time again...this was all started by Kita, the culinary force  Pass the Sushi blog . This month we had the option of cooking one of three recipes from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook  by Deb Perelman - Cheddar Swirl Breakfast Buns, Tomato Scallion Shortcakes with Whipped Goat Cheese, or S'mores Layer Cake. I opted to do a twist on her shortcakes; goat cheese is verboten. Bleu is fine, sheeps' milk is fine. But I use goat cheese and they wrinkle their little noses with disdain. I'll expand their palates eventually. For now, I'll respect their 'no goat' preference. Ugly Tomato-Scallion Shortcakes with Parmesan Cream Adapted from Deb Perelman's The Smitten Kitchen For these, I opted to make drop biscuits - instead of rolled - and swapped out the whipping cream for a heartier sour cream. All three boys have this a thumbs up! Success. Biscuits: 2 C + 2 T white whole wheat flour (plus some for dusting) 2 T bak...

It's the first Monday of the month which means one thing:  Secret Recipe Club  reveal for Group A. This month I was assigned to Jenna's Cooking Journey . Meet Jenna who admits: " I didn't really cook until I reached college, and even then had a lot of cooking mishaps.  The mishaps may have come from my inexperience cooking, but sometimes they came from cooking at high altitude.  Now that I'm married, there is someone else to eat my cooking, and I don't have to get stuck with leftovers for two weeks, so now I'm expanding my cooking horizons even further." Looking through her blog, there were several recipes that caught my eye, including a Horseradish-Crusted Filets , Better Than Sex Cake  (hmmm...I'm dubious), and her Yogurt-Marinated Lamb Loin . But I ultimately decided to make a variation of her Biscuits and Gravy . Biscuits and Gravy slightly adapted from Jenna's Cooking Journey Biscuits 2 C white whole wheat flour 2 T or...

It's Pi Day today. 3/14 = 3.14159265359 or pi. Also known as a great excuse for Cam to make pie. So, for dinner tonight I made a biscuit-topped chicken pot pie. The filling: chicken thighs, carrots, kale, and mushrooms. Sauté the chicken thighs in a splash of olive oil till they are completed cooked through. Add the kale, carrots, and mushrooms and cook till softened. Add in 1 T of corn starch dissolved into 1 C of chicken broth, 1/2 C of heavy cream, and a splash of soy sauce. Once the sauce begins to thicken, stir in 2 t ground cumin. Spoon the filling into your baking dish. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. To make biscuit topping, whisk together 1-1/2 C whole wheat flour, 1 t baking powder, and 1/2 t baking soda.  Using a pastry blender, work butter into flour mixture until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add 1 C buttermilk and 1/2 C shredded parmesan. Stir until just combined. Bake till the biscuits are golden brown, approximately 20 minutes. Serve hot.

Jessie at the Vanderbuilt Wife was assigned to my blog this month for the Secret Recipe Club . First, I have say THANK YOU for the nudge to write an 'About Me' on my profile. I should have done it long ago; I just never made the time. I did this morning, Jessie. And, second, I love this woman. Professionally she was a copy editor for years. Now she's a freelancer. And - here's the part that I just adore - she writes "I am an awful housekeeper. I am lazy. I feel like a bad mother." Here, here! My house is a wreck and I make my kids cry at least once a week, but they are loving, creative, inquisitive, and passionate. So maybe I'm not such a bad mother after all. In any case, the point of this post was to share what Jessie cooked from my blog: Dried Cherry Biscuits with Vanilla Lemon Curd . from The Vanderbuilt Wife Here's link to my recipe that inspired her choice.

I was looking for something to put under my cantaloupe-vanilla bean jam and decided on some cream biscuits. Easy! 2 C all-purpose flour 1 T baking powder 3/4 C heavy cream 1/2 C plain yogurt Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Blend everything together to form a dough. Roll out and cut biscuits; I used a jelly jar. Dip each biscuit in melted butter and lay on a baking stone. Bake for 12-15 minutes until risen and golden brown.

I made some fennel-pepper biscuits tonight to go with my acquacotta for our Feast of Befana.  4 C white whole wheat flour 2 t baking powder 1 t pink Himalaya salt 4 eggs 1/4 C fennel seeds 1 T coarse ground black pepper 1/2 C olive oil 1/2 C warm water Mix all dry ingredients. Make a well. Add eggs, oil. and warm water to the mixture. Pour into flour mixture. Mix well. Knead dough. Form into bicsuits, plaing them in a buttered pan. Bake in a 425 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden.   Traditionally these biscuits are served with a homemade grape jelly; I didn't have time to make grape jelly, so we used some strawberry jelly that I had on-hand.

Dylan looked through the same Halloween pamphlet and picked our main dish: mummified hot dogs; he called them "HalloWeiners." Cute. We started with nitrite-free, uncured all-beef dogs from Trader Joes's. Then Dylan wrapped strips of biscuit dough, somewhat haphazardly, around them. 2 1/4 C white whole wheat flour 3 T baking powder 3/4 C frozen butter, cubed 1 cup milk Combine and mix ingredients together. Pour out on floured waxed paper. Pat the dough out with your hands until dough is not sticky. Add flour as needed. Cut biscuits into strips. Bake on parchment-lined cookie sheet at 425 degrees F for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown. Create eyes with dots of mustard and serve them with a pool of "blood" (organic ketchup).