Culinary Adventures with Camilla

I honestly can't remember ever having had a Key Lime Pie. And I really have no idea where R got the idea of one, but that's what he requested for his birthday picnic dessert...after we hiked the archery range with his friends. Well, first, he asked me to bring a Baked Alaska up there! I nixed that idea. So, I called around to locate Key Limes to no avail. Someone suggested I could buy just the juice. Done! It seems there are a few varieties of pie - one with condensed milk, one without. A friend who currently lives in Florida asked about the texture of my pie: "like a cheesecake or a custard." It was sort of in between that. And I used gluten-free graham crackers since two of our guests have gluten-sensitivities. This was an easy dessert to make and I made two more the following day. Phew.  Ingredients  makes two 8" pies slightly adapted from this recipe on Epicurious.com Crust 2 C crushed graham crackers (gluten-free, if needed)  1...

There are certain thing we always have when we're camping. S'mores are one of those. A few years ago, I even served S'mores for Breakfast .  This year, on the last day of the trip, we had to use all the firewood...and eat all the s'mores ingredients. "Mom, we have to make all the s'mores. You never let us have s'mores at home." True. The boys decided to try a variation that their friend Trinity had made during one of our Halloween camping trips: marshmallows (roasted or not), dipped in melted chocolate, and rolled in crushed graham crackers. So, they called it 'The Trinity' - named for their friend...and because it's the holy trinity of camping foods. Here's the original! Her dad sent this to me! photo courtesy Paxton M. My boys fashioned a double boiler and melted the chocolate! This isn't so much a precise recipe as a process. Ingredients marshmallows chocolate, broken into chunks g...

Today, my first born turns thirteen. Thir-TEEN. A teenager?!? How in the world did that happen? So, to kick of my online blogging event Hot Summer Eats , I am bringing you our family's favorite dessert: cheesecake. So tasty. and it's great for shoving birthday candles into as well. But first, a few photos of the birthday boy. This is the day we became a family of three. Well, maybe it was the next day. That little boy upended our entire lives. In a great way. Back to the real reason for this post: cheesecake! While I gravitate toward creatively flavored cheesecakes - I've made Matcha-Yuzu Cheesecake , Cheesecake with a Chestnut Swirl , Lemon-Saison Cheesecake , and Blood Orange-Saffron Cheesecake - my husband vastly prefers Plain White Cheesecake . My solution: keep it mostly neutral-hued; he doesn't object too much then. So, I added lots of flavor into the crust and kept the filling mostly plain. It was a hit. Crust 3 C crushed cookies (I used...

"S'mores for breakfast, boysies!" I hollered from the picnic table about our last campsite of the trek. Silence descended and sticks stopped flying across the site. What did you say, Mommy?!?  both boys gaped. Actually, I think all three of my boys just stared at me. But after 10 days of cooking in the wild, and on the verge of heading home, I was done. Done, done, done, done, done. Done cooking on one burner. Done smelling like a campfire. Just plain done. And since we had skipped s'mores the night before, everything was ready to go. Jake did suggest that we hike up to pick fresh blackberries and stick them in there. That was slightly redeeming, nutritionally speaking. So, I strapped on running shoes and off we went. He whispered as we went, maybe even more excited than the boys about our breakfast prospect. "You got marshmallows, right?" Yes. "You have chocolate?" Yes.  "Dark?" Of course. "Annnnd you didn't ...

Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to meeeeee. Happy birthday to me. Yes, it's true...I made my own birthday cake. As my husband noted: "You do that so we won't buy one at the store!" True. I was inspired by a Lemon-Pilsner Cheesecake in T he Craft Beer Cookbook: From IPAs and Bocks to Pilsners and Porters: 100 Artisanal Recipes for Cooking with Beer   by Jacquelyn Dodd. Of course, I had to tweak it since I can't follow a recipe to save my life! Ingredients Crust 3 C crushed graham crackers 1/2 C (one stick) butter, melted 2 T organic coconut sugar zest from one organic lemon Filling 2* - 8 oz. packages cream cheese, room temperature 3/4 C organic coconut sugar 3 large eggs 2 C organic sour cream 1 t saison (I used Hennepin by Brewery Ommegang) 1 t pure vanilla extract Sour Cream Topping 2 C organic sour cream 1 T vanilla 1 T saison 1 T organic granulated sugar Curd 4 organic Meyer lemons 3/4 C organi...

We love cheesecake in this house. We've made Eggnog Cheesecake , Cherry Cheesecake , Cranberry-Lemon Cheesecake , and my husband's favorite:  Plain White Cheescake . So, when I asked what I could do with some chestnut paste that I found, I shouldn't have been too surprised with the answer was - cheesecake! Let's do it. CRUST 2 C crushed spicy grahams 1 C ground almonds 1/2 C (stick) melted butter 2 T organic granulated sugar Mix all of the ingredients together until moist clumps form. Press crumb mixture onto bottom and up sides of a springform pan that's been wrapped in foil. Chill crust while preparing filling. FILLING 3 - 8 oz. packages cream cheese, room temperature 1 C organic granulated sugar 3 large eggs 2 C organic sour cream 1 T organic honey 1 t pure vanilla extract Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Beat cream cheese in large bowl until fluffy. Beat in sugar. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Mix in sour crea...

I originally made this dough for my Food'N'Flix offering this month; I had planned to make a version of Mallomars, but they ended up being Mess-omars . Still, the cookie part was good. So, I stuck the dough in the fridge for another time. This was it! I guess Jake was bolstered by his fulfilled request for Mango Sticky Rice. So, when I asked what I should do with the chestnut paste I found, he ventured another suggestion: cheesecake?!? Okay. I decided to bake up my graham cracker dough for the crust. 1 C plus 1 T white whole wheat flour, plus more for the work surface 1/2 t baking soda 4 T butter, at room temperature, cut into pieces 1/4 C plus 1 T firmly packed organic dark brown sugar 1 T ginger syrup 1/2 t vanilla extract 2 T whole milk dash of ground ginger dash of ground cinnamon dash of ground nutmeg dash of ground cardamom Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter on medium-h...