Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Earlier this week, friends of our who are out of town asked if we could pick their plums, water some plants, and pick up the mail. The boys - and my parents - were game and off they went. They came home with so many plums yesterday. So, I started off with a plum-polenta cake for breakfast this morning. We're still debating on jam versus chutney and shrub versus liqueur. I'll keep you posted. Ingredients 1/2 C  butter, softened + more for greasing the pan 2/3 C organic granulated sugar   1/4 C honey 2 eggs 1/2 C coconut milk 1/2 t salt 1-1/2 C gluten-free flour (I used a mixture of rice flour, brown rice flour, and coconut flour) 3/4 C yellow cornmeal 1/2 t baking powder 1/2 C corn kernels 10 to 12 small, ripe plums Procedure Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Butter a baking dish; I used a 9" square dish. Slice your plums in half, or quarters, and remove the pit. Place the plums in the bottom of the dish and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar to...

Welcome to the  Foodie Extravaganza !  v. June 2016 = a Midsummer Celebration Foodie Extravaganza is where bloggers come together and celebrate food holidays. Did you know there is at least one food assigned to each day of the year to celebrate that food? Laura from  Baking in Pyjamas  is our host this month. Laura invited us to "Create a dessert of your choice which is Midsummer Eve themed. Think any kind of summer fruit or an interpretation of what Midsummer means to you." Posting day is always the first Wednesday of the month. If you are a blogger and you're interested in joining in the fun, visit us at our  Facebook Foodie Extravaganza page . You can also visit our past party submissions on our  Pinterest Foodie Extravaganza board  . The Midsummer Celebration  We hope you will enjoy the recipes we are sharing this month. Blueberry Slab Pie by A Day in the Life on the Farm Carrot Vanilla Custard by Sneha's Recipe Chocola...

When I was trying to decide what cookies I would make for  The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap of 201 3 , I toyed with a couple of possibilities, including  Salted Mayan Chocolate Cookies   and Rosewater-Cardamom Crisps .  But the reviews from my local taste-testers were tepid. Dylan suggested I lose the white chocolate chips and sub in more dark chocolate. I thought about trying it with a smoked paprika versus the Aleppo pepper. My mom declared that they were "nothing special and not really worth the calories." Don't worry, I'm not thin-skinned about my cooking! And only two people who tried the rosewater cookies liked them. Those are not good odds. So, I went back to the drawing board.  Then a friend of mine, whose family owns and operates Ocean Sushi Deli , offered me a canister of matcha green tea.  And I was instantly inspired!  I considered making matcha macarons or matcha meringues; but I knew that my selection had to be hardy en...

It's time for the February Secret Recipe Club  reveal...and the first reveal of 2012. Happy New Year! What's the Secret Recipe Club? It's a group started by Amanda of Amanda's Cookin' . 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 had some help in form of my littlest Baker Mann, Dylan. Here's my source of inspiration: No Reason Needed . Dylan asked if he could make lemon cupcakes for dessert. I said, "you just made fennel pollen-lemon muffins this morning." Mom, I SAID cupcakes, not muffins. "What's the difference between a cupcake and a muffin?" I was genuinely interested in his take on this. The frosting, of course. A muffin is naked. Makes sense. So, after dinner, I let the enthusiastic zester go to t...

With conch meat no where to be found here on the central coast of California, I opted to use clams. It tasted very similar to the crispy morsels I recall from Antigua. 2 cans whole clams 4 stalks celery, washed and diced 3 carrots, washed and diced  1 egg 1/2 C coconut flour 1 T minced garlic 1/2 t baking soda 1 t pink Himalaya salt 1/4 C milk Blanch the carrots and celery, then drain and cool. In a large mixing bowl, blend all ingredients until a thick paste forms. Press the mixture into patties and cook - in butter - in a large flat bottomed pan until browned and crisp. Serve with a sprinkling of freshly ground pepper and a lime wedge.

The serial zester strikes again. Dylan asked if he could make lemon cupcakes this evening for dessert. I said, "you just made fennel pollen-lemon muffins this morning." Mom, I SAID cupcakes, not muffins. "What's the difference between a cupcake and a muffin?" I was genuinely interested in his take on this. The frosting, of course. A muffin is naked. Makes sense. So, after dinner, I let the enthusiastic zester go to town and he made triple lemon cupcakes. Triple lemon = (1) lemon-ginger cupcakes, filled with (2) lemon-ginger curd , and topped with (3) lemon-ginger cream cheese frosting...so it's not naked. I am still unsure of the difference between a muffin and a cake, despite Dylan's fervent defense of his definition. And I didn't tell him, but we used a lemon muffin recipe as the base of his creation. 1-1/2 C white whole wheat flour 1/2 C coconut flour 1/3 C organic brown sugar, packed 1 t baking powder 1 t baking soda 1/4 t pink Himal...