Culinary Adventures with Camilla

We love baking holiday cookies. It's a family affair since the boys were old enough to wield a rolling pin. Today, the Sunday Supper Movement crew waves good-bye to Thanksgiving and goes full-speed ahead into holiday baking. We even had The Cookie Jar pinterest board to inspire you. Today, though, here's our cookie platter. Enjoy! The Sunday Supper Cookie Jar Adaptable Marshmallow Bars by Get the Good Stuff Alfajores by Curious Cuisiniere Amaretto Apricot Oatmeal Cookies by Magnolia Days Amaretto Balls by Palatable Pastime Brown Eyed Susans by A Day in the Life on the Farm Chewy Gingersnaps by That Skinny Chick Can Bake Chocolate – Pear Biscotti by What Smells So Good? Chocolate Crinkle Cookies by The Bitter Side of Sweet Coffee Cake Cookies by Pies and Plots Cowboy Cookies by Party Food and Entertaining Cranberry Orange Rugelach Cookies by My Imperfect Kitchen Dark Chocolate Mint Cake Mix Cookies by Fantastical Sharing of Recipes Espresso...

A twist on Aldous Huxley's  Brave New World, m y planned 'Brave New Swirled Soup' - 'Pumpkin, Corn, and Lemongrass Soup with a Swirl of Crème Fraîche' became 'Pumpkin, Corn, and Lemongrass Soup with a Swirl of Plain Yogurt' after I sent the crème fraîche over to my parents with the boys a day early. The boys spread it on their bagels for lunch! Oye. The plain yogurt worked out fine...and makes for a silly story. Brave New World 's title comes from William Shakespeare's The Tempest.  In Act V, Scene I, Miranda exclaims: O wonder! How many godly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in't. The irony: Miranda, who was raised on an isolated island, is praising men not  acting in godly manner at all. Huxley uses the same irony when the "savage" John refers to what he sees as a "brave new world." It's been a long time since I've picked up eit...

When I started talking about what to make for this month's  Food'N'Flix  which is a double feature with  Cook the Books  of  The Hundred Foot Journey* , the Enthusiastic Kitchen Elf really wanted to re-do his Spiced Coconut Sea Urchin Soup . You can read the invitation by  Deb of  Kahakai Kitchen   for the Cook the Books portion. Here's  her  invitation ;   here's what D and I made for that event:  our version of  Sungta ani Bende Kodi . But, in our attempt to re-do the urchin soup, we were foiled in sourcing urchin locally. I heard buzzings about an echinoderm epidemic; I also heard it was due to the oil spill in Santa Barbara earlier in the year. Whatever the cause, there have been no urchin to be had. I did think we caught a break when a local seafood purveyor was taking advanced orders for urchin. I placed my order, but kept getting emails - "not this week, maybe next week." I was holding out, hoping that we wo...

Whenever the Enthusiastic Kitchen Elf wants to make rolled cookies, we start with  Aunt Tiffy's Sugar Cookies . Then D puts his own twist on it. This time, we used zest and juice from Kaffir limes. Click to read about them: here . This is how they look... And he added some matcha green tea powder to make them green. It made a pretty, grass-colored dough, but when it baked it was faded and muted. Still they tasted lovely and aromatic. Ingredients 2-3/4 C flour 1 t baking powder 1 t  fleur de sel 3/4 C butter, softened 1 C organic granulated sugar 2 eggs 1 T freshly squeezed Kaffir lime juice zest from 1 organic Kaffir lime 2 t matcha green tea powder Procedure Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt, set aside in a bowl. In another bowl, beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add eggs, Kaffir lime zest, Kaffir juice and mix.  Gradually add flour mixture until it comes together in a ball. Finally add in the matcha powder, mi...

It must be funky citrus season. This week I finally saw Buddha's Hand Citron at Whole Foods. Woohoo. And my Kaffir limes were delivered from Beck Grove in Fallbrook, California. Beck Grove is a 100% organic citrus grove, owned and operated by Helene and Robert Beck. I order through Local Harvest . "It looks like a brain, Mommy!" It certainly does. Kaffir lime not only looks distinctive but its aroma is so unique. I would say its a combination of lemon, lemon verbena, and lime. Its flavor, well, Jake called it a 'super citrus.' Oddly, it doesn't really taste like it smells. Kaffir lime and its leaves are a traditional flavoring in Thai, Indian, and Indonesia cuisines. We decided to put some into our cookies of the holiday season. Recipe to come! For now, this is what it looks like on the outside... ...and on the inside. Have you ever cooked with Kaffir limes? What did you make?

While the list of ingredients seems lengthy, this soup is fairly easy to make. The longest process is to caramelize the onions though it is largely hands-off. Don't skip this step, however, as it add a delicate sweetness to the dish.You can also make this soup the day before you need to serve it. Ingredients 1 cauliflower 1 onion, thinly sliced, approximately 1 C while raw olive oil 1 can organic coconut milk 2 C organic vegetable broth water, as needed 1/4 t ground cardamom 1/2 t ground turmeric 1/2 t ground coriander 1/2 t ground ginger 1/2 t ground cinnamon 1 t ground smoked paprika 1 t ground cumin freshly ground salt, to taste freshly ground pepper, to taste organic grapes, quartered lengthwise, to garnish green onions, thinly sliced, to garnish sliced almonds, to garnish kaffir lime leaves, thinly sliced, to garnish* Procedure Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Quarter the cauliflower head and place on a parchment-linked baking sheet. Dr...

Last autumn I was introduced - through a fellow food blogger (thank you, Heather of girlichef !) - to Not Ketchup * when Erika agreed to sponsor an online blogging event. Erika had so much fun with us last year that she agreed to sponsor another event for me this year. So, y ou'll see more Not Ketchup posts when we launch our #TripleSBites event next Monday. I will admit that my stomach used to turn at the word 'ketchup.' I envisioned the bright red goo squeezed out of foil packets from when my grandfather used to take us to his favorite fast food restaurant. Yuck. I avoided ketchup for decades. Then I became part of the mom-crowd and saw ketchup everywhere we ate. Not only did I see it, but I joined the ranks of ketchup-eaters along with my then-toddlers. Still we were careful about which brands we purchased, avoiding any with high fructose corn syrup. Eventually, when my boys were old enough,  we made our own ketchup . Still, all the ketchups were tomato b...

I was intrigued by this cookbook in the 2014 Food 52 Piglet (it's a cookbook competition!) list . Then I found out that I was going to receive a copy for reviewing. Sweet! This saffron-corn soup was a great starting point...I didn't have dried limes but did have Kaffir lime leaves; and I added more veggies to the pot. Saffron-Corn Soup inspired by Louisa Shafia's  The New Persian Kitchen Ingredients splash of olive oil 2 yellow onions, finely diced 3 stalks celery, chopped 1 fennel bulb, trimmed and diced 2 C sliced mushrooms 1 t ground turmeric 4 C corn kernels 2 kaffir lime leaves 6 C chicken stock (divided into 2 C and 4 C) pinch of saffron pinch of fennel pollen freshly ground sea salt freshly ground pepper lemon wedges for garnishing Procedure Bring 2 C of chicken stock to a boil in a medium saucepan. Remove from heat and stir in the Kaffir lime leaves, saffron, and fennel pollen. Let those flavors infuse for ...