Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Can you believe we're already in 2016?  The #thebookclubcookbookCC, a year-long journey to explore - and cook from -  The Book Club Cookbook, Revised Edition: Recipes and Food for Thought from Your Book Club's Favorite Books and Authors  by Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp,* was on hiatus in December with all the holiday madness. But, we're back! Here's more information about our project . The 'we', in case you needed a reminder....  Here's the hosting team, in alphabetical order with links to their homepages....  A Day in the Life on the Farm   Adventures in All Things Food Cheese Curd In Paradise   Culinary Adventures with Camilla    Life on Food Mostly Food and Crafts The Pajama Chef The Spiffy Cookie Things I Make (for Dinner)       Tortillas and Honey ZooeySuff Judy, Vicki, and their publisher,  Tarcher-Penguin ,  have provided the hosting bloggers with copies of...

One of  March 2015 challenges  for the  Jamie Oliver Food Revolution  Ambassadors ( I'm the Monterey #FRD2015 rep! ) is to... Go Meatless. Meat Free Week in the United Kingdom is March 23-29, 2015. While I knew that I didn't want to go meat free for the entire week - we are traveling that week and have friends staying with us - I planned to, at least, do some Meatless Mondays during the month of March.  We have very few allergies in our family and I try really hard not to voice the words "we don't eat ____________." That includes meat. I prefer to clarify my restrictions; "we don't eat chicken that's been treated with hormones and antibiotics" or "we don't eat cattle from feed lots." But we can all stand to reduce our meat intake.  Back when I was a vegetarian, for more than half a decade, I had a chart on my refrigerator about what foods to combine to make complete proteins: grains + legumes or greens + seeds, for e...

Laissez le bon temps rouler!  I forgot to put the andouille sausage in my Sweethearts' Seafood Boil   last weekend, so I had a pound that was begging to be used. And I had a jar of RED spice blend from  Voodoo Chef *  that was sent to me for participating in an online event earlier in the month. Put those together - and given that today is Mardi Gras - the culinary lightbulb of inspiration blinked: Red Beans and Rice! It's easy; it's filling; and, most importantly, it's delicious. Note: mine is not a traditional red beans and rice recipe. I throw in whatever veggies I have on-hand for a nutritious, one-pot meal. Thanks to our High Ground Organics CSA for keeping my fridge stocked with fresh, amazing produce. Ingredients 1 fennel bulb, trimmed and diced 1 large leek, trimmed and diced 3 or 4 small carrots, diced 4 celery stalks, diced 2 T butter splash of olive oil 1 pound cooked andouille sausages, halved and sliced 1 bunch kale, thinly sliced ...

This month the  Pass the Cookbook  crew - under the leadership of Kita, the culinary force behind  Pass the Sushi  - is cooking from Erin's pick. Erin blogs at The Spiffy Cookie  and chose a cookbook I've actually reviewed for the publisher:  Breakfast for Dinner  by Lindsay Landis and Taylor Hackbarth, the authors of the Love & Olive Oil blog . Here's my review with three dishes , including Grapefruit-Barley Risotto, Grapefruit-Rosemary Risotto, and Earl Grey Panna Cotta. I was tickled that Erin picked three dishes for Pass the Cookbook that I didn't make earlier. Awesome. We could choose from: Breakfast Sausage Ravioli, Italian-Style Stuffed French Toast, and Lemon Poppy Seed Thumbprints. I opted for the savory French toast as a starting point. I subbed in feta cheese and used greens from our High Ground Organics CSA. This was a delicious dinner! makes 6-8 slices Ingredients For the filling splash of olive oil 2 green garl...

It's #SundaySupper time again. And this round we are stuffing, rolling, and wrapping. What a fun theme! I considered stuffing grape leaves, tomatoes, peppers, and even apples. But in the end, I wanted to make something with eggplants.  A couple of years ago, I hosted an eggplant dinner for two friends' birthday celebration; I called it 'Ode to an Aubergine.' Little back story: one of our friends claimed to not like eggplant. I took the challenge to come up with an entire dinner menu made with eggplant...from Eggplant Boats to Creamy Eggplant Soup and Braised Lamb Over Eggplant Puree to dessert. Yes! Even dessert. I made an Italian dessert - Melanzane al Cioccolato  - with eggplant and chocolate. And, of course, I ordered eggplant hats for everyone. The dinner was a wild success and the eggplant-averse friend declared, to my delight, Okay, I like eggplant now! So, for this edition of #SundaySupper - Stuff, Roll, Wrap - I decided to do my own versi...

This is beyond delicious! And, better than that, it's so easy for a weeknight evening. You can make your own pasta, but I opted to go for a trail run tonight, so I bought these. 4 stalks of green garlic, trimmed and thinly sliced 1 fennel bulb, trimmed and thinly sliced 4 T butter 1/2 C organic heavy cream 1/2 C shredded parmesan 1 t lemon juice pappardelle smoked salmon, thinly sliced Cook the pappardelle according to the directions. In a large, flat-bottom pan saute the green garlic and fennel in a splash of olive oil until softened and beginning to caramelize. Add in the butter and cream and bring to a simmer. Stir in the parmesan and lemon juice. Stir in the pasta and toss to coat. Garnish with slices of smoked salmon.

Malfatti di Ricotta e Cavolo Nero.  "Badly formed" dumplings with ricotta and kale. Also known as 'dinner'! I was running out the door to for an assignment, but needed to whip something up that would not require many more instructions than: take out of the oven and serve. These are so easy and pillowy soft. Traditionally they are made with spinach, but I had some kale from my WE Cooperative CSA box from Fogline Farm, so I used that. 2 C whole milk ricotta (I used sheep's milk ricotta) 1/2 C feta cheese 3 T Italian parsley, chopped 2 C kale, thinly sliced 2 stems of green garlic, thinly sliced zest from 1 lemon 1 egg freshly ground pink Himalaya salt and pepper corn flour for dusting 1/2 C organic chicken stock juice from 1 lemon olive oil Saute the kale and green garlic together until wilted. Let cool. Pour the chicken stock in the bottom of a baking dish, add the lemon juice and a splash of olive oil.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Pl...

While the dads and minis did boy-things at the J-Squared Ranch on Mothers' Day weekend, Pia and I headed into Paso Robles for a much-needed break from all things testosterone. And, as we usually do, when we get some girl time, we ate. Tasted, nibbled, imbibed, and tasted some more. This time was no different. We started off at We Olive where we tasted olive oils that ran the gamut from fruity and light to grassy and robust. We also tasted oils that were infused with everything from blood orange and meyer lemon to piquant peppers. And we both walked out with multiple bottles of some delicious oils and vinegars, wholly inspired to go home and create delicous dishes that highlighted our purchases. Here's a dish I make that pairs well with We Olive's Extra Virgin Arbequina Olive Oil that has medium fruit and light pungency.   Malfatti di Ricotta e Bietola. "Badly formed" dumplings with ricotta and chard. Also known as a quick and easy summer dinner. These ar...

It's time for the June Secret Recipe Club  reveal... What's the Secret Recipe Club? It's a group started by Amanda of Amanda's Cookin'  but recently handed off to April of Angel's Homestead . 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 was assigned  All Day I Dream About Food , written by Carolyn, a stay-at-home mother of three who loves to cook, bake and eat. Many of her recipes are low carb and/or gluten free, because she was diagnosed with pre-diabetes in the spring of 2010. So, she experiments with alternative ingredients and tries to make healthy meals and treats that everyone can enjoy. Gotta love that. I toyed with making her Cumin Lentil Barley Stew  and her Andouille and Beef Burgers with Spicy Mayo and...

Malfatti di Ricotta e Bietola. "Badly formed" dumplings with ricotta and chard. Also known as 'dinner'! These are so easy and pillowy soft. Traditionally they are made with spinach, but I had some chard from my High Ground Organics CSA, so I used that. 2 C whole milk ricotta 1/2 C feta cheese 3 T Italian parsley, chopped 2 C chard, thinly sliced 2 stems of green garlic, thinly sliced zest from 1 lemon 1 egg freshly ground pink Himalaya salt and flower pepper corn flour for dusting 1/2 C tomato puree juice from 1 lemon olive oil Saute the chard and green garlic together until wilted. Let cool. Spread the tomato puree in the bottom of a baking dish, add the lemon juice and a splash of olive oil. Blend till mixed and covering the bottom of the dish. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place all of the other ingredients - except the corn flour - in a large mixing bowl. Blend with a fork until everything is well incorporated. Place the corn flou...