Culinary Adventures with Camilla

It's time for the July Secret Recipe Club  reveal...thanks to Jane for linking my post up since I'm currently off-line, celebrating my parents' 40th anniversary! 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 Itzy's Kitchen , written by Erica, a wife, a mother, a cost analyst, and part-time fitness instructor.... She is one busy gal! I decided to try my hand at two of her recipes. First up, her Honey Almond Butter Cereal Bars . I am notorious for cooking a full breakfast for my three boys - omelettes, potatoes, sliced fruit - and packing their lunches, but somehow ending...

This is so easy, it's almost embarrassing to call it a recipe. But since one of my friends wanted to make this after she tried mine, I figured I'd write it down for her. It was delicious; I will definitely be making this again, too! To go with the red, white, and blue theme of the brunch, I went with a red, white, and bleu sidedish... 2 small heads of cabbage, sliced thinly 1 red bell pepper, diced 4 strips of applewood smoked bacon, cooked and crumbled 1/4 C crumbled bleu cheese 1/4 C organic granulated sugar 1 C mayonnaise 1/2 C honey balsamic vinegar (you can use any vinegar that you have) freshly ground sea salt and flower pepper fresh tarragon leaves In a large mixing bowl, place the cabbage, red pepper, bacon, and fresh tarragon leaves. In a smaller mixing bowl, whisk the remaining ingredients - minus the bleu cheese - together to form a smooth dressing. Toss the dressing into the salad. Gently fold in the bleu cheese. Chill for at least 30 minutes before se...

Summer vacation means one thing for my kitchen time. There's more of it. When I don't have to wrangle the boys out of the car and straight to their desks to finish homework and, then, juggle my cutting boards and their homework questions, life is good. So, it's summer. And we are getting back to our Cooking Around the World adventure and hoping to make some headway through the alphabet! Tonight we traveled, by tabletop, to the Comoros Islands, an island nation in the Indian Ocean. The country, gaining independence from France in 1975, consists of the four islands in the volcanic Comoros archipelago: Ngazidja, Mwali, Nzwani, and Mahoré, With fewer than a million people, the Comoros is one of the least populous countries in the world, but is also one of the most densely populated. We all did need a geography lesson for this one. We had no clue where these islands really were. Thank goodness for our atlas. Cultural influences on this country include A...

One of the treasures I picked up in Paso Robles during my Mothers' Day outing with Pia was a bottle of luscious, tart honey balsamic vinegar. For the past week, it's been sitting on my counter, waiting patiently for culinary inspiration to strike. When I received three purple kohlrabi in my High Ground Organics CSA box late last week, I shouted 'a-ha!' Tonight I finally got around to making a jar of quick-pickled kohlrabi. In a pint-size mason jar, I dissolved 1 T of sea salt in warm water. Then I piled the jar full of peeled, cubed kohlrabi. I filled half of the remaining space in the jar with olive oil and topped it off with the honey balsamic vinegar. Tighten the lid on the jar and give it a couple of shakes and swirls.  Apologies for not having more specific measurements, but it's not crucial for this kind of recipe. Kohlrabi can be eaten raw, so this quick pickling is more for adding flavor than preparing the root for consumption. Marinate these ...