Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Back in August I thought that we would do a deep dive into Filipino cuisine to parallel D's AP Human Geography class. Read more about that here: Beyond Pancit and Lumpia . And, in what feels like a blink of an eye, the school year is over. Good intentions, but absolutely no follow through. Ugh. I hate that. For their final project, they needed to make something from their assigned country. They asked me to help them make lumpia and turon , banana lumpia. Again with the lumpia. Too funny. So, D and I went to the Filipino store and the woman at the register commented, "Oh, are you making turon?" Yes.  "Do you make it with langka ?" What? No. She explains that we need to roll the bananas in brown sugar and layer it with jackfruit. D nods and runs back to the aisle with jarred jackfruit as I wait for her to ring up everything else. The night before they needed to serve these, J came over and they rolled 50 turon and 50 regular lumpia. These guy...

I love the Fantastical Food Fight coordinated by Sarah of  Fantastical Sharing of Recipes . For more information about the event, click  here . This month, she chose the theme: bananas! She wrote, " The 21st of September is the International Banana Festival (which takes place in Fulton, KY and South Fulton, TN). Your recipe must contain bananas. It can be sweet, savory, or anything in between." Because my inspiration can be a little out there, I emailed her to ask if she considered a plantain a banana...and if she would allow banana flour and/or banana leaves. She agreed to all of that. In the end, I opted to create my recipe with plantains and banana leaves. My adventure with the banana flour will come later. The boys were really disappointed that I wasn't going to make a Banana Cream Pie , but I reminded them that it had to be a  new-to-the-blog recipe. I did promise to make them a pie soon though. An InLinkz Link-up Ingredients makes 4 to 6 s...

  This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of the sponsors of #FabulousFallBounty. I received complimentary product for the purpose of review and recipe development, but all opinions are honest and they are my own.  This page may contain affiliate links. Here we are at the third day of our celebration of #FabulousFallBounty. You can read more about the event:  here . And, once again, many thanks to our event sponsors:  Silpat   for a handy silicone mat;  Le Creuset  for a lovely serving platter; and  Melissa's Produce  for providing the bloggers with a beautiful box of goodies. My mind was aswirl with how to incorporate it all into some autumn-inspired dishes when I received this bounty of seasonal produce. I knew that I wanted to showcase the dried guajillo chiles and pears in a fun mole sauce. After attending a mole cooking class last year, we've been experimenting with different variations. So, this isn't a traditio...

On the first day of summer, I wrote about this multi-day, multi-blogger celebration of all guacamole: #GuacSquad12 . Well, it's arrived. The event is finally here. We've timed this guacamole celebration to coincide with the  release of the Guac-Lock™ by Casabella . At the beginning of the month, I shared the amazing giveaway we have with items from our generous sponsors: enter here ! You can win a Guac-Lock™ of your own. Today, I'm kicking off the #GuacSquad12 event with a recipe that is the antithesis of quick and easy guac. And that's because I have swirled a quick and easy guac with a homemade mole that takes about three hours to make and another twenty-four hours for the flavors to fully develop. This recipe was inspired by a mole-making class I attended last month. Here I am, with one of my best friends, in our breath-taking hairnets which were required in the commercial kitchen. You can read the piece I wrote for Edible Monterey Bay  about Unlocking th...

To end our post-Christmas feast - of Columbian eats - I decided to make stuffed plantains.  Funny story: when I read the recipe -  Plátanos Asados con Bocadillo y Queso - I misinterpreted ' bocadillo ' as ' membrillo .' Eh...guava, quince. Whoops.  Maybe I was swayed by the stack of fresh quince at the market. I swooped in, grabbed a handful, and made Homemade Membrillo . Then I realized that I cooked the wrong fruit. Oh, well. I had no time to track down any guava. And this worked just as well. Ingredients makes 12 by cutting each plantain into thirds 4 ripe plantains 1 T melted butter queso fresco, cut into slices thin enough to stuff into your plantain Homemade Membrillo , for serving Procedures Preheat the oven to 400° F. Slice the plantains lengthwise, cutting through the skin and approximately 3/4 of the way through the fruit. You want the bottom of the boat intact. Gently part the plantain and stuff slices of cheese into the g...