Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Tanti Auguri! We are celebrating two amazing individuals as they prepare take the marriage plunge:  Tiff and Matt .  I was honored when Tiff asked me to create a special dinner following their wedding rehearsal. We have worked to ensure that our menu accommodates all dietary restrictions and allergies. Below are the plates we will be serving with allergens noted. I f you have any questions, please ask! Antipasti Salumi, Cheese, Bread*, Olive Oil Dipping Sauce *Gluten-free bread available Insalate Greens with Roasted Veggies and Candied Nuts*, Insalata Caprese *Nuts available on the side Primi Polpette* *made with gluten-free breadcrumbs Secondi Lasagna - or -  Pasta Pomodoro* *gluten-free, dairy-free but cheese available on the side I Dolci Assorted Cookies* *gluten-free and nut-free cookies available

Just like any other holiday, I try to come up with a theme and a menu. Last year, because D had studied Japanese language and culture, we did: Osechi Ryori おせち料理 (Japanese New Year’s Food) . Typically, we include some fortuitous feasting that includes good luck foods from around the world as well as some other traditions meant to end the year on a good note and launch into the new one. This year, as we are looking at twenty months of the on-going global pandemic and some countries are entering their fourth wave of the virus, my patience has been tested and I am failing. Let's add to that that two good friends have lost their mothers to COVID. I decided that my theme was: Burn That Crap! And our menu was going to include things that were all set on fire or torched in some way. Not edible, but my favorite burning New Year's Eve tradition is the Ecuadorian Años Viejos: Torching the Old Year to Toast the New One. Usually we make one man; this year, we each made one. I guess we had...

  Every year I pick a theme for our Thankgiving feast. Previous menus have included Ab Ovo Usque Ad Mala, A Thanksgiving Menu ,   inspired by the historical novelist Crystal King;  A Claudia Rodin-Inspired Thanksgiving Menu: Arabesque ; A Feast from the East , featuring dishes with Asian flair; a menu with a Literary Twist ; Thanksgivukkah , when Thanksgiving and Hannukah collided; and more. Inspired by this bizarre year when we have all be sheltered-in-place as the coronavirus rages on, I have a somewhat grim outlook on the holidays. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather we all stay home so that, in the future, we are all still around. But it's mentally grueling to celebrate yet another holiday without friends and family. I miss cooking for my circle. I miss the people crowded around my dining room table. I miss the laughter as the kids run off into the other room and shoot Nerf guns or have a pillow fight. And I miss hugging my parents. Since March we have only seen them at a ...

There are a few times a year that I cook for my parents and their friends - usually Thanksgiving and Easter. So, I was saddened to think that this year I wouldn't be able to plan and execute a menu for Nonna, Nonno, and their ballroom dancing buddies as we all hunker down in our homes and shelter in place to flatten the curve of the coronavirus. In 2014, we had a Hoppy Easter ; 2016 had the Mann Clan on the road for Spring Break, but I created a menu and cooked the dishes ahead of time for Joe and Sally's Easter Brunch . In 2017 I served a Locally-Inspired Menu ; Easter 2018, though, we were just back from a three-day robotics competition, so we went to our favorite restaurant and had La Balena Carmel serve our Easter feast. Obviously there are a lot of years missing in that line-up. But here are a couple of throw-back photos that I love of the Nonni with the boys at Easter, doing Easter crafts or playing games at the table after the meal.   I decided ...

It's time for Fish Friday Foodies' December event. W e are a group of seafood-loving bloggers, rallied by Wendy of  A Day in the Life on the Farm , to   share fish and seafood recipes on the third Friday of the month. And t his month Karen of  Karen's Kitchen Stories  is at the helm, while the group serves up a virtual  La Vigilia  which is short for  La  Vigilia di Natale . Karen provided a little guidance by sharing: "The Feast of the Seven Fishes is an Italian American Christmas Eve tradition. There are no hard rules." She gave us the outline of the courses according to Bon Appetit  magazine and let us run with it. Years ago, when I was in college, I dated a guy whose family was from Calabria. And the first Christmas I spent with them was when I learned about this tradition. His family, however, did twelve fish courses - not seven - in honor of the twelve apostles. Ironically, no one in that family really cooked; so twelve course...

I have long been a fan of author Crystal King - ever since I read her book Feast of Sorrow*  for December 2017's edition of Cook the Books. You can read my post when I shared my version of Parthian Game Hens . Then she sent me an advanced copy of The Chef's Secret and invited me to submit a recipe to be included in the digital companion cookbook when the book released in February 2019. I created Crostata di Ciliegie that she shared with her readers on release day [see bottom]. What fun! I have cooked another #ChefsSecret menu, but - as Crystal teased, 'if you don't take photos and post it, did it really happen?!?' - it went undocumented. So, I re-read the novel this month and decided to create a Thanksgiving menu inspired by the book. Recipes to come after the feast next Thursday. Stay tuned... *This blog currently has a partnership with Amazon.com in their affiliate program, which gives me a small percentage of sales if you buy a product through a link ...

Well, our Thanksgiving tradition of adventure continues with our 2017 feast. I can't remember the last time I've roasted a turkey for our table. This year, we're heading to Morocco by tabletop. Inspired by the receipt of my first tagine, I asked the Enthusiastic Kitchen Elf to peruse my Claudia Rodin cookbook - Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, & Lebanon  - and come up with a menu. Then we adjusted based on what's in season and a good balance of color and texture. Here's what we have planned... arabesque /  noun /  an ornament or style that employs flower, foliage, or fruit and sometimes animal and figural outlines to produce an intricate pattern of interlaced lines. I'll share recipes and photos throughout the weekend. But I wanted to give a shoutout of gratitude to Farmer Jamie of Serendipity Farms for the bounty of Fall veggies. I wish I could have worked more of them into this menu, but I had already battled with D on some of the dish...