Culinary Adventures with Camilla

While we were camping in the redwoods last weekend, I brought The Blue Salt Road by Joanne M Harris with me.*  And I read it while relaxing in my hammock one morning before we headed off to the archery range. Selkie stories aren't new to me; I remember reading them in both my Norse Mythology and my British Folklore classes in college. And, when the boys were little, The Song of the Sea*  movie was one of our favorites! photos from amazon.com Selkies are 'seal people' who are seals in the water but can come ashore, shed their seal skin and become human. Problems arise when someone steals their seal skin as that traps them in their human form on land. Harris built her story around retelling this premise and has created a novella full of curiosity, passion, young love, confusion, and betrayal. Flora, a redheaded island girl, summons a selkie from the Grey Seal clan to shore through her tears. Then she seduces him, gets pregnant, and steals his seal skin so that he can't l...

It's time for Fish Friday Foodies' May event. We 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. This is, easily, my favorite recipe sharing event of the month. I always come away with a list of recipes that I just have to try! This month, I am  hosting. Here was my challenge to the group: " Let's go raw! Share your favorite ways to eat fish raw. Think poke, ceviche, tartare!" I had initially planned to make a raw Peruvian fish salad. But I received Miyagi oysters from our CSF, Real Good Fish  this week and decided that those were perfect for a raw event! The Miyagi oysters were fresh from Tomales Bay in Marin County just up the coast from us.  Miyagi oysters are also called Japanese oysters. These marvelous mollusks can each clean up to 50 gallons of water per day. Reefs also create habitats for hundreds of other sea creatures, such as m...

This month the Italian Food, Wine & Travel - #ItalianFWT - blogging group wraps up our last region of Italy: Liguria. Follow along the journey with my fellow #ItalianFWT bloggers.  You can also chat with us live this Saturday morning at 11am EST on Twitter at #ItalianFWT.  Hope to see you there! To Liguria Liguria lies, along the coast of the Ligurian Sea, between France to the west, Piedmont to the north, and Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany to the east. The narrow region is bordered by the sea, the Alps and the Apennines mountains. The #ItalianFWT Crew... Vino Travels  – Wine & Sunshine on the Italian Riviera Cooking Chat  – Ligurian Pesto Pasta with Wine Pairing Food Wine Click  – Trofie al Pesto with Cinque Terre DOC Girl's Gotta Drink  – A Cinque Terre Alternative? 5 Less Touristy Italian Riviera Destinations Rockin Red Blog  – Two Hours in Ligura with #ItalianFWT Avvinare – Liguria – Hometo a Host of Unsung Wines L'...

My chia experimentation continues. And this version is outstanding!  Five ingredients and a little bit of patience - because the longer it sits, the better - is all it needs. I'd definitely make and eat this over tapioca any day! Ingredients 6 T chia seeds 2 C coconut milk (I used a vanilla-coconut milk from Trader Joe's) 1 T blue agave 1 T dried coconut flakes 1 T sliced almonds Procedure Pour the coconut milk and blue agave into a large jar. Add in the chia seeds, coconut flakes, and sliced almonds. Cover with a lid and shake to combine. Let sit in the refrigerator - to chill and thicken - overnight.

I've used chia seeds before - to make Raw Warrior Pudding , Lemonade with Chia , and I've even used them as a binding agent in Russian Meatballs - but I knew that I could make many more creative chia puddings. I started tonight. Ingredients 6 T chia seeds 1 C fresh pomegranate juice 1 C water 1 T honey (I used a wildflower honey from Kimes Apiary in Watsonville) dried coconut, for garnish sliced almonds, for garnish Procedure Pour the water, juice, and honey into a large jar. Add in the chia seeds. Cover with a lid and shake to combine. Let sit in the refrigerator - to chill and thicken - for at least an hour. To serve, spoon into glasses and garnish with coconut and almonds.

Our Indian summer has arrived. Yes, it's in the 70s on the central coast. And, for this wimpy, heat-averse fog-lover, it means that I do a lot of belly-aching come dinner time; I stare in my fridge, wondering what I can do with the least amount of heat. With the zucchini from my CSA box staring back, I decided on this... Place 3 small zucchini, julienned, in a large mixing bowl. Drizzle the zucchini with 1 T olive oil, 1 T sesame oil, 1 t soy sauce, and 1 t freshly squeezed lemon juice. Toss to coat. Spoon the dressed veggies over washed and torn lettuce leaves. Sprinkle with furikake , if desired.

Everywhere I looked, a spiralizer seemed a must for raw foodies to make "pasta" out of carrots, zucchini, or anything like that. But the least expensive spiralizer was fifty bucks and it went up from there. Remember I'm not gadgety? Then I realized that if all I wanted was something to cut "pasta"-like strands out of my veggies, I just needed a really sharp knife and a lot of patience or I needed a julienne peeler. Today I found one and it was perfect for making zucchini "pasta"...and it only cost me twenty dollars. I julienned 4 zucchini and tossed my pasta salad with olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, fresh thyme, fresh mint, and raw sliced almonds. I decided to link this up to Presto Pasta Nights #270. I know, I know, it doesn't actually include any real pasta as in pasta made with semolina wheat. But it's a great pasta alternative for any raw foodies or gluten-free pasta lovers! Click to read the original post invite...

Thinly slice the pineapple and arrange them on a platter. Drizzle the slices with 1 T rosewater, a squeeze of fresh lemon, and raw honey. Sprinkle with ground cardamom, red Alaea salt, and bee pollen.

This hardly qualifies as a recipe. But I decided to post it anyway because the flavors were outrageous. This tastes like summer. Sliced tomatoes, fresh chopped mint, black lava salt, and a generous dousing of olive oil. Make sure your tomatoes are ripe and your olive oil is a great quality, preferably a nice grassy one.

Carpaccio is, by definition, raw. The story I've heard is that carpaccio was invented at Harry's Bar in Venice and named for the Italian painter Vittore Carpaccio who was prone to using red in his paintings - the red of raw beef. So, the salad that bears his name is thinly sliced raw beef piled atop watercress or arugula, drizzled with a vinaigrette made with olive oil and lemon juice and topped with shaved parmesan cheese. Photo credit:  http://www.azerbaijanrugs.com/mp/vittore_carpaccio7.htm  I've been the Harry's Bar once, but I didn't have the carpaccio . Actually, I didn't have anything. I was on a strict budget with just enough in my wallet for an overnight stay, a kilo of tangerines, a wedge of cheese, and a bottle of cheap red wine. I just went in to Harry's and snapped a photo or two before heading on my to the convent on Giudecca where I was spending the night. So, carpaccio is also, by definition, red which avocados definit...

This is so easy and deceptively rich. I am not sure that it actually qualifies as RAW because to make a syrup you have to heat sugar higher than the 118 cut-off temperature of raw foodists. Oh, well. It is vegan. And it is delicious. 3 ripe avocados* 1 C ginger syrup 1 C unsweetened cocoa powder 1 T pure vanilla extract *'Ripe' for this recipe means that when you press the avocado, your finger makes an indentation. Place all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Use a hand blender to completely incorporate and whip all of the ingredients into a creamy consistency. Spoon the mixture into individual serving cups and chill until ready to serve. Riley thought that this might make a nice cupcake frosting. Hmmmm...it's possible. I'll have to give that some thought.

While I am moderate in my food stances - okay, maybe not in my processed foods and processed sugar snobbishness - I am always up for trying something new. But I won't go overboard. So when I write "moderate in my food stance", I just mean that I am not anti-meat (vegetarian), anti-anything animal related (vegan), and I am not gluten-free or dairy-free. Dylan says, proudly, "but we are nitrite-free, Mommy...and mostly organic!" Yes, we are that. Most important to me is that we're eating seasonally and locally, as much as we can. And that we are supporting local farmers through a CSA and frequenting artisan foodsmiths who embrace the same food philosophies (seasonal, local, organic) as we do. And we - and I do mean all four of us - read labels. If, on rare occasion, we buy something in a package, it's typically an ingredient and it itself doesn't have more than five ingredients or any ingredients that we can't pronounce. A couple of weeks ago...

Last night Ulla and I attended a free raw foods workshop at our local library where I hoped to learn more about the benefits of eating raw and, possibly, get some great recipes. Sadly, I do not think that that presentation was geared toward anyone who already has a fruit basket in her kitchen, has had a subscription to a CSA for several years, and is not a gadget-kinda cook. I barely use a blender; I am certainly not going to start using a dehydrator, a Vita-mix, a spiralizer (I still don't know what that is!), and more. No joke, one of the other attendees actually asked, "If it says 'organic' that means it's 'gluten-free', right?!? Half way through the introductions, I kept thinking: "Hi, my name is Camilla, and I love a tasty burger...cooked at 400 degrees with two slices of bacon!" Terrible, I know. But true. Still I pride myself in being open-minded, so I came home and did some more reading about eating raw, why people eat raw, and how you...