Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Today the Sunday Funday group is sharing ice cream recipes. Thanks to Stacy of  Food Lust People Love , Sue of  Palatable Pastime , Rebekah of  Making Miracles , and Wendy of  A Day in the Life on the Farm  for coordinating this low-stress group.  This week, with Mayuri of Mayuri's Jikoni is   hosting; we're sharing recipes for ice cream. She wrote: "Home made Ice creams, Popsicles, Ice Lollies, Sorbets, Gelato. Let's celebrate National Ice Cream Day. Use any ingredients of your choice." Here's today's line-up... Blackberry Pistachio Crunch Sundae by Palatable Pastime Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream by A Day in the Life on the Farm Green Tea Ice Cream by Karen's Kitchen Stories Kesar Badam Pista Kulfi by Mayuri's Jikoni No Churn Chocolate Fudge Brownie Ice Cream by Amy's Cooking Adventures Roasted Cherry Buttermilk Ice Cream by Culinary Adventures with Camilla Summer Cherry Pie Ice Cream by Faith, Hope, Love & Luck Survive Despi...

Welcome to the August 2020  Improv Cooking Challenge . This group is headed up by Nichole of  Cookaholic Wife . And I haven't been very consistent, but I love the idea of the group, so I will try to be better in the coming months. The idea behind Improv Cooking Challenge: we are assigned two ingredients and are challenged to create a recipe with those two things. This month's items: cherry and lime. Here's what the crew is sharing with those ingredients... Vodka Cherry Limeade by Making Miracles Filipino Crema de Fruta by Pandemonium Noshery Makrut Lime-Kissed Clafoutis by Culinary Adventures with Camilla Cherry Lime Bourbon Smash by Cookaholic Wife Cherry Lime Rickey by A Day in the Life on the Farm Lemon Cherry Muffin By Sneha's Recipe Makrut Limes First a little about my lime, a Markut lime. It's not your 'run of the mill' lime...and it looks like a little green brain, doeesn't it?  I do have to wax nostalgic about...

For this year's  Ab Ovo Usque Ad Mala  Thanksgiving menu , I knew that I wanted to end our feast with the Crostata di Ciliegie that was included in  The Chef's Secret - A Companion Cookbook  by Crystal King . But that recipe was inspired by The Chef's Secret* ... On the Page   “I began the day I was to dine at casa di Palone in the Vaticano kitchen, helping Antonio prepare the pope’s meals.…I suspected the pope would not touch the custardy dessert, but I felt compelled to take a chance. The worst that might happen was that he would order me to go back to his regular menu. At best, he would recognize the joy of food God gifted to us.…Antonio helped me bake a crostata to take the Palone house that evening. …The fragrance was magnificent. I hoped the famiglia Palone would find the pie tasted as good as it looked” (Chapter 11). On the Plate After I read that passage, I was daydreaming about cherry crostata, and I created a version with...

This recipe is my interpretation of a pie mentioned in the new historical novel The Chef's Secret by Crystal King*. And I was excited to share it with her. The book was just released last week and my Crostata di Ciliegie appears in the digital companion cookbook. How fun is that? This isn't a full review of the book, especially since I'm re-reading it this month and will do a more extensive post. So that will be coming soon. But I wanted to share this recipe and its inspiration. On the Page   “I began the day I was to dine at casa di Palone in the Vaticano kitchen, helping Antonio prepare the pope’s meals.…I suspected the pope would not touch the custardy dessert, but I felt compelled to take a chance. The worst that might happen was that he would order me to go back to his regular menu. At best, he would recognize the joy of food God gifted to us.…Antonio helped me bake a crostata to take the Palone house that evening. …The fragrance was magnificent. I hop...

This was the main dish from my "Top of the Central Coast" Beaujolais dinner party when Katie and her friends came to town. The sweetness of the dried fruits were tempered with the fresh herbs. And this was a hit. I paired the Domaines Piron - Morgon Côte du Py 2015 with this dish. The Morgon was the only bottle empty at the end of the night. I know we were all pacing ourselves to make sure that we tasted all wines. But this was the Beaujolais that had people returning for second - and third...and fourth - pours. The wine was delightfully complex with rich aromas, structured tannins, and a distinct minerality. Ingredients  serves 6 2 T olive oil 1/2 C dried dates, pitted and halved 1/2 C dried cherries, pitted 1 white onion, chopped 1/4 C balsamic vinegar 1/4 t ground black pepper 6 chicken thighs (bone-in, skin-on) 1 t freshly chopped thyme 1/4 t ground cinnamon 1/2 C chicken broth (plus more, if needed) roasted, salted, shelled pistachios, f...

A sweet for my sweets! I decided on a simple dessert for the end of our Valentines' Day dinner: panna cotta . I've made a lot of versions of panna cotta . But I opted for a simple panna cotta flavored with a sprinkle of my favorite spice. And, for some extra sweetness, I spooned some Amarena cherries over the top. Ingredients  makes eight 2-ounce servings 1 envelope gelatin 1/4 C cold water 2 C organic half-n-half 1/4 C organic dark brown sugar 1/2 t pure vanilla extract 1/2 t ground cardamom Amarena cherries for garnish Procedure Dissolve the gelatin in cold water in a medium mixing bowl.  Place all the other ingredients - up to the ground cardamom - in a medium saucepan and heat till it begins to steam. Do not let it boil. Let cool for 10 minutes, then pour the warm cream into the gelatin and stir till completely dissolved. Pour the mixture into your serving containers, leaving a little bit of space at the top and let chill until set, but at least fou...

This month Kimberly from Coffee and Casseroles is hosting  Food'N'Flix . Here's her invitation . She invited us to watch  The Witches of Eastwick .* On the Screen... It's been years since I've seen The Witches of Eastwick .* Years. Maybe twenty-five years. I'm pretty sure I watched it on pay-per-view when I was a senior in high school...on those Friday evenings when my best friend and I would make apple pies and watch movies. Yes, we were very exciting teenagers!! If you haven't seen the movie - and plan to - remember not to take it too seriously. It does touch on some serious subjects, but at the the end of the day it's a comedy with some silly, raunchy fun along the way. Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Susan Sarandon play witches who are looking for the perfect man. Enter Jack Nicholson who plays the devil, landing in their bucolic village in New England called Eastwick. Despite all that talent, this really is Nicholson's show. In the...

We discussed and debated this morning and just couldn't agree. You can call it a  clafoutis  if it's made with cherries; if it's made with any other type of fruit, it's a  flaugnarde . This was made with a mixture of cherries and wild blueberries. So...what do you think it should be called? Is this a  Flafoutis  or a  Claugnarde ? Whatever you call it, it's dairy-free, gluten-free, and all kinds of delicious. Ingredients non-dairy butter for greasing the pan 3 C fruits (I used 2 C cherries and 1 C wild blueberries) 4 eggs 3/4 C organic granulated sugar 3/4 C sweet white rice flour 1-1/2 C almond milk 2 T vanilla paste 1 T cherry liqueur powdered sugar for dusting Procedure Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter your baking dish(es). Spoon the fruit into the bottom of the dish(es). Whisk the eggs, sugar, and flour together until smooth. Add the milk. vanilla paste, and liqueur. Whisk until smooth. Pour over the fruit. Bake for 45-50 m...

I love cherry season. And when we aren't eating them by the handful, I'm usually trying to come up with savory ways to eat them. Remember...I don't have much of a sweet tooth. For this last day of Hot Summer Eats , I'm sharing a relatively simple, cherry-laden appetizer. Casabella , one of our event sponsors, sent me a cherry-pitter. So, I gave it a whirl. You can win one of your own, and two other Casabella kitchen gadgets,  at the giveaway . Ingredients Roasted Cherries 4 C fresh cherries 1 T organic raw turbinado sugar 1 t Caribeque's Island Thyme Herb Seasoning* 2 T aged balsamic vinegar 1 t lemon zest  4 crushed cloves of garlic 1 T olive oil To Serve burrata crackers olive oil salt Procedure Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.  Pit your cherries. We did a pit-off between our new pitter, our old pitter, and a stainless steel straw! Place cherries in a bowl and toss with the remaining ingredients. Spoon the c...