Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Back in 2011 - when R was in fourth grade - I chaperoned his field trip to the Cooper Molera Adobe in downtown Monterey. I know that all California fourth graders study the state history, but I have always appreciated hands on learning. It was so neat to see these kids do all of these things... Making Rope Embroidering Churning Butter Grinding Corn Pressing Tortillas and Branding Leather When we went into the adobe gift shop at the end of the trip, R found a cookbook -  Encarnación's Kitchen: Mexican Recipes from Nineteenth-Century California, Selections from Encarnación Pinedo's El cocinero español * - and asked if I would get it for him. Of course I did. And we used it as inspiration for our very non-traditional Californio Thanksgiving dinner that year. We made her  Ensalada de Remolacha (Beet Salad) ,  Almendras Sopladas (Almond Puffs) ,  Ensalada de Pepinos (Cucumber Salad) , roasted quail with  Almendrado (Almond Sa...

Okay, I didn't make this, but I will...and soon! After a morning hike, we stopped for a lavish lunch - and to use up a gift certificate friends had given us. When I write 'lavish' I mean a meal replete with mimosas and three desserts! This was Riley's pick and it was inspiring. A large scoop of Valrhona chocolate mousse was served with a puddle of arbequina olive oil, black salt, pink salt, and a crisp piece of bread. Wow.

I am, admittedly, a food snob. So, I was not going into the cruise with any real expectations about the food...other than the fact that it's readily available 24 hours a day, each and every day. But I have to admit that I was floored by the quality and inventiveness of the food, at least the dinners. We feasted on minted melon balls drizzled with port, strawberry-thyme sorbets, peach-prosecco soup with fresh mint, lobster tails with lemon-butter, rhubarb gelato, braised halibut, chocolate mousse atop of chocolate brownie with an espresso-scented panna cotta, quail-venison terrine, king crab cakes with papaya coulis, and more. I will say that I'm grateful that my boys have fearless palates. For a child with picky tastes, dinners would have been torturous. But Riley and Dylan ordered something new every evening and loved it! The cruise actually inspired my menu for a dinner party next week.