Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Limoncello is one of those sips that instantly transports you back to where you first tasted it. In my case: sitting on the beach on the Amalfi coast with Jake during a three week trip to Italy just before we got pregnant with R. It reminds me of sunshine, sand, and a carefree time in our lives. Each time I make it, it's a delicious remembrance that one of these days we'll be kidfree and carefree again. Sooner than we think, actually. Well, maybe not the carefree part - that's a luxury of the young and  naïve - but both of our boys will be launched at the end of the summer. And I will certainly lift a glass in celebration that we did it: We raised two boys who have grown up to be good young men who will make the world a better place! But this is about limoncello... This particular batch was inspired by a lemon event at a local organic farm where we tasted three kinds of limoncello - one regular, one limoncello cream, and one with lavender. I picked a ton of lemons at the fa...

Here we are with the June edition of the Cake Slice Bakers. For 2020, we are baking from  The New Way to Cake: Simple Recipes with Exceptional Flavor  by Benjamina Ebuehi.* In this group, we are given a selection of three cake recipes. We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes! Follow our  Facebook ,  Instagram , and  Pinterest   pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the links below to take you to each of our cakes. If you have a blog and are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details. The Cake Slice Bakers also have a new Facebook group called  The Cake Slice Bakers and Friends ....

For this Sunday Supper we are celebrating pies! Definition of a Pie Before I decided on what I wanted to share, I looked at my previous pie posts and chuckled at this conversation from a few years ago when we were discussing: What makes a pie a pie? Sensibly, my Precise Kitchen Elf said, "A pie has no frosting." True . My Love declared, "It's the crust." Okay . And my sweet, Enthusiastic Kitchen Elf asserted, "A pie has a crust...and is low to the ground." Huh . "You know, a cake can be tall; a pie is short." Employing all three of those criteria - no frosting, a crust, and low to the ground - a galette can qualify as a pie. So can a tart, right? Our host for this event is Erica from   The Crumby Cupcake   and she seems to embrace a loose definition of a pie, too. She wrote: " Shortcrust, puff pastry, two-crust, one-crust, crumb crusts, with all sorts of fillings from fruit or nuts, to cheese or meat. Or mak...

When I was trying to decide what cookies I would make for The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap of 2014 , I raised the question of cookie flavor combinations to social media. I received lots of great suggestions from matcha-toffee to rose-ginger and from pumpkin-cranberry to peanut butter-pretzel. But, in the end, my cookie was determined by this... Buddha's Hand Citron are just too cool not to incorporate into a cookie! Have you ever used a Buddha's Hand? Here's a brief intro to Buddha's Hand . Ingredients 3 C flour 1 C organic powdered sugar ¼ C organic granulated sugar 1 T limoncello ¼ C chopped candied Buddha’s Hand citron * zest from 1 organic lemon 1/2 t fleur de sel 1 C good quality olive oil Procedure * Candied Buddha's Hand Citron (do this ahead of time)... Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugars, limoncello, candied citron, lemon zest, and fleur de sel. Pour in...

Our sweet little Jetty-Boo has a broken collar bone. Needless to say, he's home from school this week. So I told him that Aunt Camillala (not a typo, that's what he used to call me) would make him whatever dessert would make him smile. Less than 10 seconds later, Pia texted me: "He said olallieberry or rhubarb." Since olallies aren't in season, it had to be rhubarb. I have to admit that I did think Brian had something to do with his choice. But, no, rhubarb actually is Jet's favorite. Then I told him that he didn't have to share with Daddy. He said, "Good!" The decorations were D's idea. I actually wanted to try to cut a jet out of pie crust. D was insistent: "No, Mommy. We need to make a 'j' and two Darths." Done. Ingredients 2-1/2 C organic pastry flour, plus extra for rolling 1/2 C finely ground almond flour 1/2 C organic powdered sugar 1 C butter, very cold, cut into 1/2 inch cubes 2 T  limoncello ...

There's a story about this pie. There's always a story, right?!? We are getting ready to participate in the Run or Dye 5K next weekend. Not just us, but the Garneaus. Jet really wanted to do a race, so Pia got them all race entries to Christmas. I got a text on Christmas morning. All it said was: I blame you! Yeah, okay. Now that we're one week away, Pia and I began talking about what we should wear. If you aren't familiar with these races, they call themselves the most colorful 5Ks in the world. As you run along the route spectators toss safe, eco-friendly, plant-based powder dye at you...at every kilometer. Fun! So, we decided that we would wear white shirts and colorful socks. Colorful, mismatched socks. My family's are on the left. Pia's family's are on the right. Brian objected. Until...Brian texted me a photo of rhubarb. "I'll do anything for a rhubarb pie!" he texted. Anything? "Yes, anything!" You'l...

We brought D's Pasticiotto [click title for the recipe post] to our friends' house for dinner. It was a hit!  For the adults, they got to sip some limoncello with their slice. Nice job, Wombat.

Tomorrow I'll post a photo of this sliced and ready to devour! My littlest Kitchen Elf loves watching Cake Boss . Ever since he discovered it in our Netflix stream, he's been (borderline) obsessed. And he is slowly making his way through the seasons when he has a chance. In one episode, Buddy and his baking crew make what they called 'pastachote.' At least that's what it sounded like to D.  "Mom, it's a Southern Italian pastry. You had to have had it when you lived in Italy!" he insisted. "Can we make it?" First, I don't love sweets, so if I ever did see that pastry in Italy, I probably didn't buy it. And since I don't love sweets, I didn't learn to make very many while I lived there.   Tiramisù is an exception; that I made many, many times while I was there...and many, many times since. Second, what on Earth are you saying?!? That doesn't even sound Italian!  Then I remembered that Italian-Americans have an irrit...