Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Years ago - wow! almost a decade ago now - some of my best friends and I went to an event at a local wine tasting room to celebrate my 39th birthday.  We met the Queen of Quince, Barbara Ghazarian, feasted on some Armenian food, learned to roll Yalanchi Sarma , stuffed grapped leaves, and we picked up signed and personalized copies of her cookbooks.  "Happy quincing," she wrote. It was a great way to ring in my 39th year. And, whenever I see quince in the markets, I usually shriek in glee and scoop up as many as I can without looking like a fruit hoarders. Okay, sometimes I don't care about looking like a fruit hoarder and just buy it all and set to quincing, yes, it's a verb: to quince! Barbara Ghazarian writes in Simply Quince* , "the old-fashioned, long simmer method on the stove top is the only process that develops the characteristic caramel color and full-bodied flavor of the fruit." I have found that to be the case, so almost all of my quince experien...

Though a cognate for what comes out of a bright yellow squeeze bottle, this relish has very little in common with that Easter egg-colored condiment.  Mostarda  is a chunky  agrodolce  (sour-sweet) sauce made with whatever fruit you have on hand and is a delicious topping for everything from cheese to roasted meats. Inspired by this passage in Crystal King's The Chef's Secret* , I added two different mostarde  to our Ab Ovo Usque Ad Mala Thanksgiving menu. "'The mostarda you probably know is made with all sorts of fruits, such as figs, raisins, and pears, but in Venezia the mostarda is made with quince, which you can't always find in Roma. Bartolomeo would always lament how much better the mostarda was in Venezia'" (pg. 153). I served the two different mostarde with three different game sausages. This quince-apple mostarda went nicely with the duck and the boar sausages while my cranberry-orange mostarda complemented the venison sausages r...

I jump for joy whenever I see quince in the markets; I love quince. Quince are golden-hued till you cook them. Then they take on unique shades of pink, orange, and rose. They are lovely. Many people have commented that they don't know what a quince is or they haven't ever had a quince. If you're unfamiliar, here's a piece I wrote for  Edible Monterey Bay  several years ago:  Queen of Quince Takes Her Show on the Road . Truth be told, this is not a traditional sharlotka. The few Russian recipes I found didn't actually use ricotta or even quince. But I went with it anyway. I love adding ricotta and sour cream to baked goods for added moisture...and quince is always a delight. Also, this is normally done in a large Springform pan; I wanted to make individual cakes. Ingredients  makes 12 individual cakes Poached Quince 4 C water 1 organic lemon peel 2 cinnamon sticks 3-1/2 to 4 C quince, peeled and sliced Sharlotka 8 ounces whole milk ricotta 1/...

Yesterday one of my best friends took me, and another best girlfriend, to Filoli in Woodside. You can read about the historic house and garden at their website . Jenn's birthday is in March; mine is in May. So, an April girls' day is the perfect in-between birthday celebration. Pia treated us to a delicious picnic brunch before we headed in to the grounds.     We strolled through the gardens, sticking our noses in blossoms, and soaking in the beautiful Spring day.    And afterwards, we ducked into the gift shop and picked up some goodies. I bought a jar of Filoli wildflower honey and a jar of quince jam. I love quince. If you're unfamiliar, here's a piece I wrote for  Edible Monterey Bay  in August 2014:  Queen of Quince Takes Her Show on the Road . Ingredients    makes approximately 30 cookies 3/4 C butter, room temperature 3/4 C organic granulated sugar 2 egg yolks 2 C flour 1/2 C ground almonds 2 t gin ...

As we race towards the holiday season, and the end of the year, Jill of L'Occasion invited the French Winophiles to post about French dessert wines. You can read her full invitation: here . "Just as a dessert wine beautifies the winding-down of dinner, this experience eases us through the end of 2017 to a new and bright 2018," she writes. What a beautiful sentiment for our fun, wine-loving group! What the Group is Pouring, Pairing, and Posting Discovering Maury AOC with Susannah at  Avvinare Quince Crumble with Lillet Blanc Cordials created by Camilla at  Culinary Adventures with Camilla Affordable France: Bordeaux Reds and Sauternes Wines  served by Gwen at  Wine Predator 2010 Cave de Rasteau “Signature” Vin Doux Naturel and Brutti Ma Buoni written by Martin at  ENOFYLZ Wine Blog 2011 Châteu Grand-Jauga Sauternes presented by Amber at  Napa Food and Vine The Sweet Secret of Barsac: Château Doisy-Daëne comes from Lynn at  Savor the H...

As the school year ends and I have more free time, I happily continue with my  Foodie Reads Challenge , I am sharing  At the Edge of the Orchard  by Tracy Chevalier as my second June read .* I read Girl with a Pearl Earring  by Tracy last year and you can read a recipe inspired by that book and my thoughts about it here: Lamskoteletten op zijn oud-Hollands . So, when I saw this book on the bargain table at a local bookstore, I picked it up without hesitation. On the Page... Let me just start by saying that I had a really tough time getting through this book. Several times, I told myself to just throw in the towel. But I persevered and finally finished. While I can't say that I loved it, or even really enjoyed it, it was well-written and I think that she captured the locations and time well. The characters felt a one-dimensional which was disappointing. The novel goes back and forth between The Black Swamp in Ohio - where the Goodenough family has set...