Culinary Adventures with Camilla

For his birthday treats at school last month, my Enthusiastic Kitchen Elf asked if he could bring croquembouche . First, that last week of school before Winter Break is always ridiculously chaotic. Second, I needed an easy-to-make and easy-to-transport treat.  Sorry, Sweetheart, a croquembouche does not fit the bill. When I said 'no', he asked to bring a Bûche de Noël . No!  He got his Nutty Bûche de Noël on Christmas Eve. He didn't get his croquembouche until last night. And he had to do most of the work. Luckily, he was game. I love that elf! There are really three parts to a croquembouche ; we've gotten two parts down, the cream puffs and the filling. Our caramel is tasty, but we still haven't gotten the hang of making the candy threads. Ingredients Pâte à Choux 12 T unsalted butter 1-1/2 C water 2 C flour 9 eggs Filling 1 C organic heavy whipping cream 1 T fig butter Caramel 2 C organic granulated sugar 1/2 C bu...

Remember when I wrote about  hedging our bets with New Year's Eve Traditions from Around the World . These are three traditions that involve food - but not eating them. Hanging Onions Like the Greeks In Greece, they hang an onion on the front door on New Year's Eve. Many layered onions, with their ability to sprout new life even after they are removed from the ground, symbolize growth and progress. On New Year's morning, Greek mothers rouse their children by hitting them in the head with the onion. I didn't do that , but I was tempted. Banging Bread Like the Irish   In Ireland, New Year's Eve is called Eve Oiche na Coda Moire  or 'Night of the Big Portion.' The Irish bang bread against the walls and doors of the house to chase out the bad luck and invite the good into the house. Tossing Water like the Cubans    In Cuba, they toss buckets of water out the door to signify renewal. You get bonus points if some one who has ...

We always ring in the new year as a family. Jake and I have our date nights all year long. We figure: New Year's Eve should be about forging fun memories with our boys; we should end the year - and start a new one - with our favorite people, right?! Do you have any New Year's Eve traditions - food or otherwise - meant to bring good luck in the coming year? I'll be posting about our 2015 to 2016 transition tomorrow. We like to hedge our bets for good luck and do a lot of different things! Over the years, we've embraced several traditions from around the world. There are many, many different traditions from all around the world but the reasoning behind their lucky foods are oddly similar. Here are some of the overlapping auspiscious attributes: food that’s round (the shape of coins), food that's yellow or orange (the color of gold), food that's green (the color of spring leaves and paper money), fish (symbol of bounty), pork (prosperity and an animal th...

We've wrapped 2013. My little guys almost made it to midnight; they crashed at around 11:35pm and I tried to wake them for their Candy Cane Shake toast. But, to no avail. Thankfully I was able to get my New Year's kiss from my Love. Happy New Year. Well, I hope you're still with me and are looking forward to some new culinary adventures. This month I'm preparing to teach a six week class to a dozen fourth through sixth graders all about spices. But if you'd like to see us cook anything in particular this year, let me know. Comment below or email me at constantmotioncamilla[at]gmail.[dot]com. I'm always game for trying something new.

Apparently the Chinese word for “fish” resembles the word for “abundance.” That could account for one of the many reasons that fish has become a good luck food. In Good Luck Life , Rosemary Gong's book about Chinese celebrations, she writes that it’s important for fish be served with the head and tail intact to ensure a good year, from start to finish. Good thing we ordered pesce arrosto last night at our capodanno dinner at La Balena . Chef Brad Briske roasted whole petrale sole with chile, blood orange, and fennel and topped with Manila clams and radishes. Once again, Chef Brad knocked off my culinary socks. And, like everything else we've ever ordered there, nothing was left on the plate except the inedible parts!

Eating any round fruit is a common New Year’s tradition. In the Philippines, the custom calls for chowing down on 13 round fruits, considered a lucky number; in Europe and America, it's usually 12, which represents the months in a year. In either case, their coin-shape is the common denominator. Tonight I made a round pie with blueberries. Crust 2 C flour 1/2 C organic powdered sugar 3/4 C butter 4 T heavy whipping cream Use a pastry cutter to cut the flour and powdered sugar into the butter, forming pea-sized chunks. Add the whipping cream until the dough comes together into a ball. Roll the dough out between two pieces of parchment paper - to fit your pan with at least 1" overhang. Press the dough gently into the pan and trim the crust to the top of your dish. Flute the edges. Filling 2 lbs fresh blueberries 1/2 C organic granulated sugar 1/4 C flour Stir the blueberries with the sugar and flour and scoop them into the chilled crust. Preheat the oven ...

In some countries -  including Cuba, Spain, Portugal, Hungary and Austria - pigs symbolize progress. Some claim it’s because these animals never move backward; others assert it’s all in their feeding habits, that they push their snouts forward along the ground when rooting for food. But the lucky food is not limited to pork. Pig shaped foods count, too.  So, during our New Year's Day picnic at Mount Madonna, I broke out a Peppermint Pig to smash and share with the Novak gals.

Remember my culinary ambitions for 2013 ? Well, call it serendipity, but Happy Girl Kitchen hosted a ' Pickle Your Resolutions!' event last night. When I saw the post, I knew that I had to squeeze that in to our New Year's Eve plans. So, after a fantastic capodanno feast at La Balena in Carmel, we high-tailed it to Pacific Grove and got our pickle on. Chop, shred, chip, or slice your veggies. We used carrots, turnips, beets, onions, fennel, cabbage, romanesco, and more. And layer them in a pickling jar. Add in spices of your choosing. I used lots of caraway while Dylan plunked in peppercorns like they were going out of style. Sweet pickles got a tablespoon of organic sugar. Sour pickles just get the vinegar-water mixture. Then they were processed in a water bath for 25 minutes. Can't wait to break into these in a couple of weeks. Happy New Year. And thanks, Happy Girl, for letting me cross one ambition off my list.

Inspired by Global Table Adventure's new year's food suggestions - have I mentioned recently how much of a foodie crush I have on Sasha Martin?!? - , I decided on a Global Dessert Tasting menu for my family. To ring in the new year, we're enjoying kransekake from Norway! Rings - and circles - symbolize continuity and "coming full circle."  Kransekake is a delicious tower of  almond-scented cookies where the mortar is royal icing. Yum! I used Sasha's recipe to the letter...mostly. 1-3/4 C ground almonds 2 C organic powdered sugar 3/4-1 cup flour 2 egg whites 1 T olive oil Make a dough and roll them into uniform cylinders with varying lengths to make different sized circles. Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes until they are puffed and golden. Let cool. 2 C organic powdered sugar 1 1/2 t meringue powder water, as needed Make the icing and pipe haphazard squiggles over the cookies. Then stick the next smallest cookie on top ...

Our final international treat for our Global Dessert Tasting menu, based on  Global Table Adventure's new year's food suggestions  - is a nut candy from the Caucausus Mountains in Georgia. Normally we quickly eat a dozen grapes to accompany the strokes of the clock at midnight - in Spanish, or Portuguese, style - but this year, we'll be  getting our 'grape' on with churchkhela , a Georgian grape confection. While Sasha's recipe looks fantastic, I wanted to simplify and find a recipe that used grape juice instead of me having to puree and drain grapes overnight. I still needed 3-4 days for it to dry. And since we're an anti-walnut household (don't ask!), I went with pecans. Ingredients 40 pecans, approximately 6 C grape juice 3/4 C organic granulated sugar 1 C flour Confectioners' sugar Procedure I didn't have a needle. But I always have sterling silver jewelry wire. So I improvised and threaded my "nee...

I had planned to make several traditional new year's dishes, including an Italian dish of sausage and lentils and an American dish with black-eyed peas with collard greens. Feasting for fortune was the theme I had in mind. Traditionally, black-eyed peas represent coins while the collard greens with which they are typically served stand in for paper currency. I am certain that lentils and sliced sausages also stand in for coins on Italian tables. But after a late evening stop at three different grocery stores that were completely sold out of the peas - even in a can! yes, I did look - I said, "forget it" and decided to combine my ideas and improvise a dish. Still wanting the look of the black-eyed peas, I soaked and cooked canellini (white beans) and steamed black Forbidden rice. I soaked the white beans overnight, then changed the water and simmered them until soft - about 90 minutes - with two fresh bay leaves. In the meantime, I cooked the black Forbidden rice in ...

After Riley's mandolin lesson this evening, we headed to Trader Joe's to pick up a few things for tomorrow's feast. Riley had some ideas of his own for a celebratory dinner. So, we settled on this menu... Baked Brie with a Blueberry Compote and Water Crackers Sea-Salt Lamb Lollipops with Spiced Apple Chutney Marinated Cornish Game Hens with a Cornbread-Chestnut Stuffing Winter Salad with Fennel, Pear, and Pomegranate Seeds Cranberry-Lemon Cheesecake Recipes and photos will follow. Wishing you health and happiness tomorrow evening and the whole year through!

Do you have any New Year's Eve dining traditions meant to bring good luck in the coming year? Two things I adopted from my time in Italy: clementines, though I don't usually take the time to wrap them individually in red cellophane, and lentils. In the interest of fleshing out an entire New Year's Eve menu for tomorrow night, I did some research and found many, many different traditions from all around the world but the reasoning behind their lucky foods are oddly similar. Here are some of the overlapping auspiscious attributes: food that’s round (the shape of coins), food that's yellow or orange (the color of gold), food that's green (the color of spring leaves and paper money), fish (symbol of bounty), pork (prosperity and an animal that roots forward), legumes (coin-like seeds that expand like wealth) and cakes (sweetness is richness). One tradition I found in Epicurious that I really like: "revelers in Spain consume twelve grapes at midnight—one grape for...