Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Welcome to the May edition of  Food'N'Flix . This month, Kimberly of Coffee and Casseroles is hosting; she invited us to watch Bram Stoker's Dracula *. You can read her invitation: here .  On the Screen Let me start with this: I have never seen this movie. I had an idea of the story, but even when it came out in the early 90s, the mishmash of big name actors and, of course, well-respected director Francis Ford Coppola's name wasn't enough to get me to the theatre. When Jake opened the mail and saw the DVD, he knew instantly it was "for a food project." Ha. Yes, it is. And he followed up that keen observation with a comment that he wasn't really interested in watching it with me. Fine. So, when I came home early from the National History Day competition last weekend - to prep for my cooking class on Sunday morning - I popped in the DVD. But it was late at night, dark outside, and I didn't need anything creepy keeping me awake; ...

This month's  Food'N'Flix  event was hosted by my friend Evelyne over at  CulturEatz . You can read her invitation:  here . She asked us to watch  Volver .* The title of the movie didn't sound familiar, but once I popped in the DVD, I kept having strange déjà vu . About the third time I thought to myself "______ is about to happen," and it did, I had to admit that I must have watched it before! On the Screen... The instant the movie begins, you have a sense it's going to be a strange one. The boys were coming in and out when I was watching it, asking, "Why are you watching a telenovela ?" It's not a telenovela. "It looks like one." It does, actually. There's sex, scandals, heartbreak, and death. This film, to pull from one scene when there's blood on Raimunda (played by Penelope Cruz), is about "women's troubles." It's about women across generations helping each other, hurting each oth...

When I started planning my post-Christmas Columbian feast, arepas kept coming up in my search. I know this is inaccurate, but think of them as thick, stuffed tortillas; they are more like corn cakes, I suppose. We liked them so much, I've already made them again. In any case, I started with R's Handmade Corn Tortillas and went from there. We stuffed ours with queso fresco and topped them with crumbled morcilla , blood sausage. I had just picked some up from Boccalone in the Ferry Building. Ingredients makes 16 cakes 2 C masa harina 1 C hot water 1 C hot chicken stock 4 T butter, softened 2 egg yolk 1 C crumbled queso fresco butter or oil for cooking the arepas cooked blood sausage, crumbled, for serving fresh cilantro, for garnish crema Mexicana or sour cream, for garnish Procedure Place the masa harina in a large mixing bowl. Add the hot water and stock. Stir with a spatula or wooden spoon until well-combined. Stir the egg yolk and butter ...

After our field trip to the Ferry Building, in San Francisco, and my shopping spree at Boccalone , I tried to figure out what to do with my sanguinaccio, blood sausage. I have no idea what possessed me to pick up a package; I had Andrew Zimmern's voice in my head, urging me to be a little bit adventurous, I guess. So, I did some reading and loved the suggestion of pairing the blood sausage with something oceany and salty. Boccalone has a recipe for sanguinaccio  + oysters on their website. But since oysters are hit and miss for me - sometimes I have an allergic reaction and sometimes I don't - I usually avoid them. I took their lead, however, and went with sanguinaccio + scallops. My Vadar's Darkside Towers were one of the things I brought to a post-holiday Star Wars brunch. To start, I poached the sausages for 20 minutes. Then I browned them on the stove until they were crisped on the sides. Then I let them cool slightly and sliced them into thick coins. ...