Culinary Adventures with Camilla

This month the Italian Food, Wine & Travel - #ItalianFWT - blogging group wraps up our last region of Italy: Liguria. Follow along the journey with my fellow #ItalianFWT bloggers.  You can also chat with us live this Saturday morning at 11am EST on Twitter at #ItalianFWT.  Hope to see you there! To Liguria Liguria lies, along the coast of the Ligurian Sea, between France to the west, Piedmont to the north, and Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany to the east. The narrow region is bordered by the sea, the Alps and the Apennines mountains. The #ItalianFWT Crew... Vino Travels  – Wine & Sunshine on the Italian Riviera Cooking Chat  – Ligurian Pesto Pasta with Wine Pairing Food Wine Click  – Trofie al Pesto with Cinque Terre DOC Girl's Gotta Drink  – A Cinque Terre Alternative? 5 Less Touristy Italian Riviera Destinations Rockin Red Blog  – Two Hours in Ligura with #ItalianFWT Avvinare – Liguria – Hometo a Host of Unsung Wines L'...

Along with my Halloween Baked Alaska , I brought some roasted veggies to the festivities yesterday. This is an easy dish as long as you have a mandolin* for slicing! Otherwise, you'd better have some stellar knife skills and more patience than I have. Ingredients sweet potatoes, thinly sliced (enough to fill your baking dish) 2 T olive oil 1 t fresh thyme leaves freshly ground salt freshly ground pepper 1 T freshly squeezed lemon juice zest from 1 organic lemon Procedure Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line up your sweet potato slices and stand them up vertically in your baking dish. Sprinkle the potatoes with thyme, salt, and pepper. Cover baking dish with foil and roast until potatoes are tender, approximately 1 hour. Increase oven temperature to 450 degrees F. Remove foil and roast until the tops of the potatoes are browned and crisp, approximately 10 to 15 minutes. Before serving sprinkle with lemon zest and drizzle with lemon juice. Serve hot...

This was delivered to my mom this morning...for her birthday. D selected the flowers and did most of the work on the tart. I love having an Enthusiastic Kitchen Elf! Happy birthday, Nonna. When I was deciding on what to bake for my mom's birthday, I was inspired by my Frangipane Fig Tart and my Potato Roses . Odd combination, you might think. But those two collided in my brain to make this... Fuyu-Frangipane Rosette Tart Tart Crust Ingredients 1-1/2 C flour 1/2 C ground almonds 1/2 C powdered sugar pinch of salt 3/4 C butter 2 to 3 T water 2 to 3 T Armagnac (use whatever alcohol you want - or more water) Frangipane  Ingredients 1 C ground almonds 1/4 C organic granulated sugar 1/4 C organic powdered sugar 2/3 C melted butter 1 large egg 1 t Armagnac 1 t vanilla bean powder* Persimmon Rosettes 4 Fuyu persimmons, thinly sliced 1/4 C honey Tart Crust Procedure Mix the flour, ground almonds, sugar, and salt; rub in the...

As part of our soup and salad course, I created a duet of root-based salads. One featured celeriac, the other showcased a combination of beets, carrots, and radishes. And I put my brand-new mandolin to great use. I can't believe it's taken me this long to get one. It's outrageously easy. Salad One: Celeriac-Apple Salad A bright mustard vinaigrette is tossed with celery root and tart apples for a light salad with a delicious crunch. Ingredients  for the Mustard Vinaigrette 2 t Dijon mustard 2 T apple cider vinegar 3 T olive oil 2 T walnut oil (or you can use 5 T olive oil if you don't have any walnut oil) freshly ground salt freshly ground pepper for the Salad 1 medium celery root 2 medium tart apples (I had some Granny Smiths from our High Ground Organics CSA ) 4 medium celery stalks juice from 1 organic lemon 1/2 C fresh herbs, finely chopped 1/4 C toasted pecan pieces for garnish Procedure Whisk the ...