Culinary Adventures with Camilla

I always knew that I was going to have Jake grill lamb lollipops for our Easter table. It's a family favorite! We've made Garlic-Salt Lamb Lollipops   and  Rose-y Lamb Lollipops with a Morello Cherry Glaze for instance. But at the last minute, and after I had already done all of my grocery shopping for Easter, I discovered black garlic . Or, more accurately, I finally had the gumption to pick some up. So, I headed out to the store and picked up three cloves. Thanks, girlichef , for the nudge. Black garlic doesn't taste like garlic at all. It's sweeter, molasses-like but with a little bit more tang. This was delicious! Ingredients 2 heads of black garlic, peeled and divided 3 T ground coffee 1 T coarse sea salt 1 T smoke paprika 1 T organic coconut sugar 1 T freshly ground pepper 1/2 t ground coriander olive oil 1 C shitake mushrooms, sliced fleur de sel Procedure Mash one head of black garlic with a mortar and pestle till a chunky paste...

Last night, for our annual Halloween camping trip all the families brought whatever they wanted to toss on the grill. Carnivores'R'Us! They were making fun of us though as almost everyone brought sausages and hot dogs and my Love had requested a rack of lamb. Done deal, baby. And, yes, I do think that's camping food! Salt-crusted Rack of Lamb. Here's my garlic-salt version . Last night I rubbed the rack with sea salt and crushed lavender. And I didn't get any photos of the finished lamb lollipops because a friend was pouring these for me all night... Blame Paul.

When I signed up to bring a meat dish for a potluck baby shower, I couldn't decide between roasted chicken, grilled lamb, or braised beef. So, I asked the mamma-to-be; she chose Lemon Lavender Chicken . Since she's watching her sugars, I halved the honey and put Dylan to work juicing the lemons for me. But - just for fun - I decided to do the lamb lollipops as well. They were a hit! I've made lots of version of this, including a  garlic-sea salt version . To dress it up, I decided to add some rose petals and top it with a cherry glaze. Make the sauce first, so you can brush it on the lamb while it's grilling. For the Sauce... I started with the leftover juice from the Morello cherries I used in my  Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte  - from my  Cook the Books  project this month. 3 C cherry juice 1 C organic granulated sugar 3 T balsamic vinegar Place the cherry juice and sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer....

What do you do on a Friday evening when the air is still sweltering and it's been a long week? You definitely don't feel like cooking, right? So, I set my grill-master to work. All I had to do for dinner was toss some lettuce into a salad and uncork a bottle of wine. It was the perfect night to dine poolside. I had a jar of garlic-salt from my visit to one of the Monterey Bay Salt Company salt houses , but you can use any sea salt and minced or crushed garlic.  Rub the mixture on a Frenched rack of lamb and let sit for at least 10 minutes before grilling. Grill till desired doneness. Once cooked, slice the rack into separate pieces - with the bone like a lollipop stick - and serve.