Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Today was the day: our first day to open up a box from our DIY Tea Advent Calendar . The Enthusiastic Kitchen Elf was so excited. So, you'll be hearing about some of the new-to-us teas that we're exploring throughout this month. D climbed up on a chair, pulled down the first box, and opened it up. "Golden Monkey!" he declared, excitedly. Then we opened up the bag and each took turns smelling the tea. According to the Adagio Teas website , Golden Monkey -  or Jin Hou -  is a black tea whose leaves are said to resemble monkey paws.  Golden Monkey hails from the Fujian province of China and is hand-processed each spring by carefully plucking off only one leaf and one bud from the camellia bush.  The Precise Kitchen Elf was in charge of brewing. We prefer loose leaf tea instead of tea bags. And he brews straight into our mugs. This Golden Monkey has a strong, sweet nose. D mentioned a tropical fruit and R blurted out "mango....

I love the idea behind the Crazy Ingredient Challenge (CIC); we are assigned two ingredients to cook and create. This month, Kelly of  Passion Kneaded  and Lori of  Lori's Culinary Creations  are hosting. So, here goes... May's Crazy Ingredient Challenge = black tea and lime Since my husband has been brewing his own kombucha for several months now - and always uses black tea as his base - I asked if he'd add in some lime leaves for one batch. He agreed. Sweet! I had some Black Dragon Pearls where each tea pearl is comprised of 30 handpicked leaves and buds. They are rolled immediately before the leaves can dry. They are so pretty! And - for the lime part of the challenge - I opted to use thin shards of Makrut lime leaves. Click to read about Makrut limes (I used to call them Kaffir limes): here .  Now a bit about kombucha, if you're unfamiliar. Kombucha is the beverage the ancient Chinese called the “Immortal Health Elixir.” It’s been...

On Dylan's food tour, as part of his 3-day birthday celebration, we stopped at a tea tasting room in Chinatown. We tried a multitude of teas, including... ...rosebuds...   ...green tea... ...jasmine green tea pearls... Things we learned: we should only be drinking high quality, loose leaf teas. Green teas have less caffeine than black teas; it's the opposite of coffee where lighter roasts are more potent. And you can reuse tea leaves about 8 times. Everyone wanted to go back to the tea room the following day, but I had so many things planned, we couldn't squeeze it in. So, we have to make another trip up there. Wanna come?

I ran over to the Friday farmers' market during my lunch hour this afternoon, with orders from the boys to get another chicken and eggs from Johnny at   Fogline Farm . Chicken, check. Egg sold out. What?!? So I wandered the market for a few minutes and found eggs at the Mello-dy Ranch stand. Chicken eggs and duck eggs. Naturally, I reached for a dozen duck eggs because I don't think the boys have ever had them. They have had quail eggs and an ostrich egg, but I don't remember ever cooking duck eggs for them. Tonight I changed that. Marbled eggs, also known as tea eggs, are distinctive and fairly easy to make. 6 (duck) eggs water, or as needed 4 tablespoons soy sauce 1 C brewed black tea 2 star anise Place the eggs in a pot with the water, making sure that there is at least an inch of water over the eggs. Bring the water to a rolling boil. Remove from heat and let the eggs stand in the hot water for 15 - 20 minutes. Run the under cold water to cool...