Culinary Adventures with Camilla

So, I know that corned beef and cabbage isn't a traditional Irish dish. I've known that for years, but it didn't stop me from making it and filming the process for the Culinary Cam YouTube channel . Still, it''s true: Irish people don't eat corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day, or really any other day of the year. Though, I discovered that the Irish did actually make corned beef because their salt taxes were lower. It allowed corned beef to become a great Irish export as it traveled well all over the world, even as far as the West Indies.  I can't be too surprised really that Irish people don't eat this.  I mean most Americans would swear up and down that spaghetti and meatballs is a traditional Italian dish; having lived in Italy for over a year, I can honestly say that I never once saw - or cooked - spaghetti with meatballs.  Spaghetti, yes.  Meatballs, yes.  But together, no, definitely not. Still this realization doesn't stop me from ...

One of November challenges  for the  Jamie Oliver Food Revolution  Ambassadors ( I'm the Monterey #FRD2014 rep! ) is to... Share Holiday Traditions. "Share your holiday traditions. Holiday season is almost upon us and we want to know what your holiday traditions are and what food makes it to the table for your family gatherings. Send us your photos of traditional recipes, foods and the table set for a holiday feast!" I have to be honest: our holiday tradition is adventure. Or, better yet, our traditions are non-traditional. Case in point: I never serve turkey for Thanksgiving. Well, I don't serve turkey ever. But I definitely don't roast one on Thanksgiving. Instead, I've served everything from quail to beef brisket and from pheasant to lamb shanks. Here are our last few years' Thanksgiving menus. In 2010, we did a How the Other Half Ate   meal, making Native American dishes from all around the country. Our feast included... Wild Sage B...

This week the #SundaySupper crew is sharing budget-friendly holiday recipes. I adore holiday meals and traditions. And I really love recipes that don't break my wallet. This recipe that I'll share today fits both bills. I have several friends from Denmark and when one of them came to stay with me and my husband during the holidays many, many years ago, she shared with us the tradition of  Risalamande.  Risalamande  is a traditional rice pudding eaten on Christmas Eve in Denmark. There are two traditions surrounding this delicious, budget-friendly dish. First,  Risalamande  is left as a bribe - to persuade the mischievous nisse (elves) to be kind to them. Second,  Risalamande  includes a single whole almond. Whoever gets the lucky almond wins a prize. Typically, in our family, the prize is a marzipan pig! Risalamande is often served with whipped cream and a warm cherry sauce. I love this recipe because you put it all in a bowl, steam it i...

This is the only food festival that we attend religiously: the Greek Festival. It runs all Labor Day weekend. There have been years when we ate at least one meal there each day that it ran - Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. But this year, we only made over there for the last day: Labor Day. And we rode our bikes, to avoid the traffic, and met up with Jenn and family for a great lunch. We ate... Stuffed Peppers. Here's a version from a previous post:  click here . Pork Souvlaki. While these look simple and unadorned - no onions or zucchini or anything threaded on that skewer with the chunks of meat - the flavor was outrageously layered. I tasted garlic, lemon, thyme, and - maybe - a glimmer of rosemary. I couldn't decide so I opted for a combination plate with feta cheese, kalamata olives, tzatziki, pita, spankopita, and more. Here are a few hummus recipes   from a previous post. The boys didn't bother to shop around the food stalls. As soon as they saw ...

For our second Epiphany treat, I made a Dreikönigskuchen (German Epiphany Bread) though I should probably write 'Dreikönigskuchen-inspired' since I skipped the rum-soaked raisins on the inside and the candied cherries and glaze on the outside. Still it was delicious and thoroughly enjoyed by all. 2 C white whole wheat flour 1/4 C barley flour 2 T active dry yeast 1/3 C organic raw sugar 1/4 cup warmed milk 7 T melted butter dash of pink Himalaya salt 1/2 t groundcardamom 1/2 t ground cinnamon 2 eggs Place the flours into a bowl, make a hole in the middle, put the yeast into it and mix it with a pinch of sugar and some of the lukewarm milk. Dust the mixture with flour, cover with a cloth and let rise in a warm place for 15 minutes. Add the melted butter, salt, lemon, cardamom, cinnamon egg, remaining milk and flour to the flour and yeast mixture. Knead dough till smooth. When the dough begins to form a ball, form dough into a log. Pinch off large tablespoons of d...

To end our Feast of Befana I made a Couronne De L'Épiphanie (Spanish Epiphany Bread). To make the bread... 3 C white whole wheat flour 1/3 C olive oil 1/3 C organic raw sugar 2 t active dry yeast 1/2 C warm water 2 eggs 1 T rhubarb liqueur (the traditional recipe calls for brandy) 1 T rosewater (the traditional recipe calls for orange flower water) pinch of salt 1 egg white, beaten powdered sugar sliced almonds candied lime and clementine peels Place warm water in a large mixing bowl. Add yeast and sugar. Let bloom for 5 minutes. Add in all of the other ingredients, mixing till the dough comes together. Knead until the dough becomes even smoother and more elastic. Grease the bowl, cover with a cloth, and let rise in a warm place for about 90 minutes, until the dough has doubled in volume. Place the dough on a floured surface, knead for 2 to 3 minutes. Roll the dough into a long sausage-shape. Place on a baking sheet, forming the dough into a circle; join the two ends...

According to Italian folklore, Befana is a woman on a broomstick, enticed by gifts of wine, who brings treats for all the girls and boys on the eve of the Epiphany. A baking, tipsy witch. Sounds like my kinda gal. Generally my boys receive books that align with their interests on December 25th, and, usually, what they ask for from Santa. This year Riley wanted binoculars for whale watching while Dylan wanted an old-fashioned calligraphy pen. They received a few puzzles and games that we can play as a family as well. But we reserve the fun toys for January 6th...from Befana. You know those toys you trip over in the middle of the night and curse all the little pieces. Each and every one of them. So to usher in the Epiphany, and because I'll use any excuse to whip up something out of the ordinary, we have a Feast of Befana. So, tonight I'll be making acquacotta (literally "cooked water") and fennel biscuits. Recipes and photos to come. Buona Befana!

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 ...

I have always known that the day after Christmas is Boxing Day in the UK, Australia, and other Commonwealth nations; what I didn't know was what that meant. Honestly, I despise that sport, so I never took the time to read up on the holiday. Today that changed when a friend, on a social networking site, wrote about Boxing Day. When I realized that it's actually a day about goodwill and generosity - when wealthy people in Britain would give a box, with a gift, to their servants - I decided we would honor that with a British dish for dinner. Okay, you know me, it's more like a British- inspired dish. In the end, my cottage pie would probably be unrecognizeable to a real Brit. Oh, well. It was delicious. I learned, in my recipe hunt this afternoon, that the term 'cottage pie' is used when the meat inside is beef and 'shepherd's pie' refers to a lamb-based dish. The meat pie is topped with a potato crust and baked till the peaks are slightly browned. Not ...

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...