Culinary Adventures with Camilla

For this round - our December-January selection - of  Cook the Books , This month’s book selection was chosen by Deb from  Kahakai Kitchen . She chose  Stir: My Broken Brain and the Meals That Brought Me Home by Jessica Fletchor.* You can read Deb's invitation:  here . On the Page... This memoir, written by Jessica Fechtor, recounts the ripples in her life after she had emergency brain surgery for a bleeding aneurysm. From the initial trauma to surgery to complications, Fechtor jumps back in forth in time to tell us of her adolescence, her courtship with her now husband, her life in academia, her medical emergency, her recovery, and her journey to become a mother. This was difficult for me to read. When I was twenty-five one of our best friends had brain surgery to remove a tumor. Fechtor's passages about the hospital and surgeries reminded me of those uncertain days. And, more recently, I lost a dear friend to brain cancer. She had just turned thirty...

Are you celebrating  National Kale Day ? While I normally don't celebrate food holidays - think National Cream Puff Day on January 2nd or National Taffy Day on May 23rd or National Cake Day on November 26th - I actually really love National Kale Day. Earlier this week I received from Maitake mushrooms from a friend whose family owns a farm in the Central Valley. Fun! I decided to incorporate those sweet and meaty fungi morsels into our celebratory kale salad. Too bad my Enthusiastic Kitchen Elf is out of town for Fall Break. He's the best kale salad massager I know! So, I was left to my own devices to incorporate our favorite Fall green into a salad. Ingredients serves 2 2 C lacinto kale, thinly sliced 1 T olive oil 1/4 C fresh parsley, chopped 1/2 C fresh cilantro, chopped 2 C Maitake mushrooms, separated 1 t sesame oil 1 t soy sauce (or gluten-free tamari) 1 T freshly squeezed orange juice Procedure Place kale in a large mixing bowl. Add the olive oil....

We have a new, mini farmers' market opportunity on Saturday morning. By 'mini' I mean one farm. Serendipity Farms out of Carmel Valley. Farmer Jamie sets up her fresh produce in the parking lot of one of my favorite coffee shops. So, I usually grab my Enthusiastic Kitchen Elf and off we go. It's the perfect place to pick up some amazing produce that I need in addition to our weekly CSA box from High Ground Organics . We love supporting local-to-us farms...and I didn't get our full box this week. Since we were out of town for Spring Break, I had my parents pick up our CSA. My mom took what she was going to use and left the rest in my fridge. So, it was Serendipity to the rescue for our Easter menu. I knew that I wanted to serve lots and lots of Spring vegetables. When D saw the Red Russian Kale, he offered to make a massaged salad. Ever since he made that first Kale-Had-a-Hard-Day Salad , he's been honing his skills. The kid makes a killer massaged kale s...