Culinary Adventures with Camilla

One of my favorite appetizers to serve is deviled eggs. They are easy and versatile which really just means that I can twist and tweak them to whatever the theme of my dinner party happens to be. In this case - for the Tasty Murder dinner - we were eating all things bacon. So, I went with a bacon and bleu egg, mixing bleu cheese crumbles into the egg mixture and serving them with candied bacon for sprinkling. Delish! Ingredients makes 12 12 large organic eggs 1/4 C organic mayonnaise 1 t crushed garlic 2 T crumbled bleu cheese candied bacon (recipe for my  Candied Cinnamon-Chile Bacon ), chopped for garnish freshly ground salt freshly ground pepper Procedure Hardboil your eggs. Cover eggs completely with cold water by 1 to 2" in a heavy saucepan and bring to a rolling boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer eggs, covered with a lid for 30 seconds. Remove from heat and let stand - covered - 15 minutes. Transfer eggs to a bowl of ice to stop cooking. Let ...

When I was trying to decide on the dessert course for my friend's birthday dinner - Tasty Murder - I remembered how much I love the combination of bacon and chocolate. I settled on a triple layer chocolate cake with candied bacon cream cheese frosting and marzipan pigs. I didn't have enough frosting, so I was thankful for the 'naked cake' trend. It's rustic and allows for uneven cover of the cake. Woohoo. It was still tasty. And, besides, the most important decoration of the cake: the forty-three candles. Yep, I put them all on there. And it was aflame!  It took three people to light the candles in a timely fashion... Ingredients makes three 8"x 8" square layers Cake 2-2/3 C olive oil 2-1/2 C whole milk 6 large eggs 1 t pure almond extract 1 t pure vanilla extract 3 C flour 1-1/2 C organic unsweetened cocoa powder 3 C organic granulated sugar 1 t baking soda 1 t baking powder Frosting 16 ounces cream che...

I can't decide whether this should be called 'candied bacon' or 'bacon candy.' Whatever you want to call it, it's amazing! You'll see this in at least three of my dishes for the Tasty Murder Dinner. Click for the menu: here . Ingredients 1 lb Applewood Smoked Bacon (must be thick-cut) 1 C organic brown sugar 1 t ground sweet Calabrian chile 1 t ground cinnamon pinch of fleur de sel Procedure Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place a wire rack on top of that. In a small mixing bowl, blend all of the dry ingredients together in a small mixing bowl. Place the bacon on top of the wire rack. Spoon 1 T of the sugar mixture over each piece of bacon and spread evenly over the surface. Place in the preheated oven. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and, gently, spread the caramel that has formed over the bacon. Return to the oven for another 10 minutes. Using tongs, carefully flip the bacon...

Every year I cook a birthday dinner (or maybe lunch) for one of my best friends, an ardent meat-lover. He actually says 'No meat, no meal' - and means it.   Typically, I ignore him and make whatever I want. I've done complete menus centered around beets and eggplant; I've done themed dinners from Cuba and Morocco. One year I created a menu - Party Like a Lannister - as an homage to his favorite TV show: Game of Thrones . But, this year - for his 43rd birthday - I decided to create an entire menu around bacon. That's one of his favorite food groups, you know!  Stay tuned for recipe posts. He'll be excited about the bacon. Me? I'm excited about doing a completely wine pairing with wines from  Donkey & Goat .