Culinary Adventures with Camilla

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Quail & Olive . Complimentary product was provided for this post and this page may contain affiliate links. However, all opinions expressed here are my own.   This is one of my favorite side dishes as the flavors can be customized with a flavored oil and an infused salt.  For this version I used the  Roasted Garlic Olive Oil  from  The Quail & Olive * and the saffron salt they carry in their pantry.  Anni actually has this combination - Roasted Garlic Olive Oil + Saffron Sea Salt - for folks in a holiday gift pack! Ingredients 2 pounds baby potatoes (I used a mixture of red, yellow, and purple potatoes) olive oil for drizzling 1/2 teaspoon sea salt mascarpone cream for serving saffron sea salt for serving freshly ground pepper for serving Also needed: baking sheet; parchment paper or silicone mat; something to smash with - tamper, measuring cup, or rolling pin Procedure Preheat oven to 400...

Last week a friend dropped off freshly smoked trout. Uh-huh. I was torn between saving it for a special dinner and tearing into it right away. I did both. I made two recipes as part of an appetizer course. This Smoked Trout Paté is the first recipe. It's super easy and big on flavor with the addition of fresh horseradish. Also, if you don't have smoked trout, use whatever you have on-hand - smoked salmon, smoked herring, or smoked mackerel would work just as well. Ingredients serves 4 to 6 as part of an appetizer board 3 to 4 ounces smoked trout 3 ounces mascarpone cheese milk, as needed 1/2 teaspoon prepared white horseradish, drained 1/4 cup fresh chives, snipped or chopped plus more for garnish freshly ground salt, to taste (my trout was salty enough without any more) freshly ground pepper, to taste Also needed: crackers or flatbreads for serving Procedure   Remove the skin from the fish and discard. Crumble or flake the smoked fish into a small mixing bowl. Add mascarpone ...

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. This month the Bread Bakers are focusing on cheese bread. Host Sue from Palatable Pastime gave us these guidelines: "Make a loaf with cheese mixed into the dough or batter (not simply melted on it like pizza or a cheese pull-apart loaf). If a cheese cube is fully enclosed or encased by dough, that will be fine. Any type of cheese is acceptable, including vegan cheese, also powdered/dried cheese." "Yeast breads and quick breads (those using baking powder for leavening) and even unleavened breads are all great. Some examples of acceptable breads without yeast include sourdough, muffins, coffee cakes, crepes, doughnuts, dumplings, tea breads, pancakes, popovers, scones and waffles." Wow! Cheese + bread is one of my favorite combinations. I had just posted a recipe for  Flaounes (Cypriot Cheese Pastries) ; I considered re-doing ...

I know, I know. Risotto is made with arborio rice. But I had barley...and I really wanted to make a citrus-y 'risotto' to go underneath my seared scallops for this week's project. So, this isn't really risotto, but I didn't want to invent a word for barley done risotto-style. Here we are moving into the second half of November.  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 - have been doing this for ten months already. You can read more about our project  here . And this month, Wendy picked the recipes. This week, she selected Scallops  + 12 Ways. Bittman offers a dozen preparations with scallops including six grilled and six raw. I will definitely be trying his Miso-Glazed Scallops and Panzanella Scallops on the cooked side. For the raw scallops, the Salsa Cruda and Tartare were intriguing. I love scallops, but it's not the preferred seafood at my ho...

Picture this: I walk into a room with a piece of paper and a pen. "I'm going to the store to pick up groceries for tomorrow. What do you want? Anything at all," I say. I get a blank stare in response and, then, a quizzical, Why?  So, I write the number 43 on the piece of paper and hold it up. Oh, is that tomorrow? "Yes. Tomorrow is your birthday and I'm taking requests for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert." Most people would jump at the opportunity to name whatever they want to eat for an entire day...from my kitchen. Seriously. The boys make requests down to the snacks on their birthdays. But my husband just looked at me and said, "I can only think of two things right now: tiramisù and beer." Fine.  Twenty years ago, I took my new boyfriend on a birthday camping trip. On the morning of his 23rd birthday, he woke up and told me that he was going to marry me. I almost left him there...on the bank of a river. I'm glad I didn...

Jake and I are celebrating 16 years of marriage tomorrow. Sweet sixteen. On one hand that feels like a lifetime; on the other, it seems to have passed in the blink of an eye. In this past sixteen years, we've had two boys, lived in two states and five different houses, and juggled probably a dozen different jobs between us. We've traveled to Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Florida, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona; we've visited Italy and Costa Rica. We've SCUBA'd, zip-lined, canoed, and tangoed. It's been an amazing adventure. But it's also been work. A lot of work. Don't let anyone tell you that marriage is easy. Maybe that is what makes the celebrations all the more sweet. So, why cheesecakes? you ask. Well, we had seven cheesecakes at our wedding instead of a traditional wedding cake. So, it seems a fitting way to commemorate the occasion. Last year I rallied some blogging friends to help me celebrate my 15th wedding anniversary. I was only ...

One of my long-time kitchen goals has been to make my own cheese. So, when I saw a kit online, I ordered it. It came with everything that we needed to give cheese a try...except for the dairy. So, here's our first attempt. It was delicious! I don't think I'll ever buy mascarpone again. It's so easy! 1 quart heavy whipping cream 1/2 teaspoon citric acid 1/4 teaspoon fleur de sel (salt flakes) Bring the quart of cream to 190 degrees Fahrenheit, using a digital thermometer for the most accurate readings. (Thanks, Jenn! The candy thermometer you gave me for Christmas a few years ago is one of my most prized kitchen possessions.) Remove from heat and stir in the citric acid. The instruction said to "stir in an up and down motion." I don't really understand that. So, I did a sort of plunging motion with a spatula. You will immediately see it begin to thicken. Stir in the fleur de sel...with the same up and down motion. Place a cheese cloth - or pi...