Culinary Adventures with Camilla

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of the Book Club Cookbook.  I received complimentary product for the purpose of review and recipe development,  but all opinions are honest and they are my own. This page may contain affiliate links. My contact at  The Book Club Cookbook  emailed, asking if I would be interested in trying our a couple of their new spice blends for #BlendsBash2022.  Of course!  I am always up for some culinary adventure; and when it ties reading to cooking...well, let's just say I will make time in my calendar for that no matter what.  So, I perused the choices - of their  Book Blends, TV Blends, and Song Blends  - decided on Poppy Longstocking, Late Show with Stephen Clove-bert, The Romaines of the Day. I have always loved their clever play on words for  all  of the blends, especially Don't Stop Bayleave-ing, Dried and Prejudice, and A Wrinkle in Thyme. Pippi Långstrump image from amazon.com I have al...

  I know that there is a lot of chatter about whether it's inappropriate to wish people Happy Memorial Day. It's a solemn day, right? Yes, it is. Memorial Day is an American holiday - observed on the last Monday of May - that honors the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military.  But, as I see a growing trend to have celebrations of life that are full of  color instead of funerals that are draped in black, I am opting to celebrate what those who have died for our country are preserving: our freedom. So, if you're in the camp where happiness on this day is not proper, please scroll on by. This Memorial Day, I am joining a group of online foodies for #MemorialDayBakes. The guidelines included having fun, challenging ourselves, and trying new techniques. Inspired by a recipe in  American Cake  by Anne Bryn, I thought I'd try my hand at a cake with 'boiled white icing.' I'd never heard of that. Turns out it also goes by 'Italian meringue'...

We don't live where it snows. And we definitely fall in the 'wimpy central Californian' category. Our optimal temperature range is about 55 degrees F on the low end and 75 degrees F on the high side. But we love to visit and play in the snow! So, I put on my thinking cap when Sue of Palatable Pastime encouraged the #BakingBloggers: "It's beginning to look a lot like wintry recipes. Let's bake up something white for snow day fun." Here's the Baking Bloggers' Snowy List Billowy Gingerbread Trifles from Culinary Adventures with Camilla Christmas Cookie Tree from A Day in the Life on the Farm Grandma's Meringue Cookies from Our Good Life Kourabiedes Greek Cookies With Powdered Sugar from Recipe Pocket Mexican Wedding Cookies from The Schizo Chef Snow Ball Cupcakes from Karen's Kitchen Stories Snowy Mountain Cookies from Jolene's Recipe Journal Sweet Buttermilk Pie from Food Lust People Love White Texas Sheet ...

Foodie Extravaganza is where we celebrate obscure food holidays or cook and bake together with the same ingredient or theme each month. Posting day for #FoodieExtravaganza is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page  Foodie Extravaganza . We would love to have you! If you're a spectator looking for delicious tid-bits check out our  Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board ! This month - September - Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla invited the group to join her in wishing Happy Birthday to Duchess Anna, the Creator Of Afternoon Tea. She wrote, "Let's celebrate with anything Afternoon Tea-related. It can be your favorite tea, something made with tea, or something that you would eat at a tea party." The #FoodieExtravaganza Tea Party Almond Clementine Cake Squares  by Food Lust People Love Assorted Tea Sandwiches for Afternoon Tea by Karen...

December? How can it be December?!? Well, that means that the Kitchen Matrix Cooking Project - really Wendy of  A Day in the Life on the Farm , Karen of  Karen's Kitchen Stories , and I - wraps up this month. Can you believe it's been a year? I can't. You can read more about our project  here . And this month, Karen picked the recipes. This week, she selected Spice Blends + 10 Ways. Bittman offers universal instructions for toasting spices, letting them cool, then grinding them until powdery. He suggests ten different spices that include Adobo, Chili Powder, Nori Spice, Jerk, and more. I've been blending spices for years and love how I can customize them to our tastes. I'm going to share some of our favorite spice blends along with ways I use them. But first...the rest of the #KitchenMatrixCookingProject crew's blends... An InLinkz Link-up Chinese Five Spice I actually made a batch for a February #KitchenMatrix when I made Chinese-Style...

For the final course of our Christmas dinner, I served my favorite festive sweet - gingerbread with lemon curd. And I paired it with Donkey & Goat's Pinot Gris. In the Glass Donkey & Goat's 2016 Ramato Pinot Gris is skin-fermented which resulted in a vivid salmon color . The wine smells like peaches and sea salt; and while it is light-bodied it's exotic and almost meaty. This wine, like many of Donkey & Goat's creations, is not for the faint of heart, but, like all of Donkey & Goat's wines, it's fascinating. On the Plate Ingredients Gingerbread 1-1/4 C butter, plus some for greasing unsweetened cocoa powder for dusting pan 1 C unsulphered molasses 1 C organic granulated sugar 1/3 C ginger syrup 1 T ginger paste 1 t dried ginger 2-1/2 C flour 1 C ground almonds 1 T baking powder 1 C sour cream 2 eggs organic powdered sugar for serving Lemon Curd 1 C fresh lemon juice 4 t fre...

I recently joined the Peoplehood of the Traveling Swirly Pan. You can check out the Facebook page:  here . Or search for the hashtag on social media. #PeoplehoodoftheTravelingSwirlyPan There are two pans circling the globe - Matilda in the southern hemisphere and Dorothy in the northern. And the group's tagline is "Building community, one cake at a time." We bake, we share photos and recipes...I already adore this project that Jenni of  Pastry Chef Online  coordinates. Jenni has recruited a community of bakers from all around the world. But, for me, residing in the U.S., I get to host Dorothy. We bake a bundt - or two or three - in Dorothy and share our stories in the Toto journal. After the visit, we send the pan and journal to the next baker on the list. NordicWare will be donating $5 to No Kid Hungry for each Peoplehood cake we post to their facebook page. So, I'll post a photo of my cake(s) to the Nordic Ware facebook page saying something along the...