Culinary Adventures with Camilla

When I saw #peterbsbrewsandbitescontest - a cooking contest to create an appetizer using one of their brews - announced on  Peter B's Facebook page , I   was instantly inspired. I created a dish showcasing my favorite  Peter B's  brew: Legend of Laguna IPA. Then I submitted my IPA-Braised Carnitas Over Polenta Cakes to the contest...and waited. The three finalists were announced... Beer Fondue by Rachel N. IPA-Braised Carnitas over Polenta Cakes by Camilla M. Vegan Beer Caramelized Leek & Onion Dip served with Beer Pretzel Bites by Briana S.  ...followed by more waiting. Yesterday, the chef at Peter B's recreated our three dishes and we were judged by the Beer Geeks, the Grub Hunter, and KRML's Program Director AKA Chris, Merideth, Mike, and Jeff. I was oddly nervous that a professional chef was making one of my recipes. Here's the crew, judging the dishes during Pub Talk  last night. photo by Portola Hotel & Spa As is a...

Thoughts from this month's judge - Maggie Daniel Caldwell - were posted today. Maggie blogs at  Life in a Skillet   and was our guest judge for this month's  Cook the Books . Click to read: Thoughts (and a Winner!) from Maggie Daniel Caldwell .  Maggie did a phenomenal job of reading, reflecting, and writing comments on each and every entry. How sweet! First, here's what she wrote about my entry ( Hummingbird Cake ) Camilla: I'd never heard of Hummingbird Cake before and enjoyed the scan of that original recipe. It reminds me a bit of the pineapple upside down cake that Mom always makes for my dad's birthday. Your Kitchen Elves are quite accomplished at marzipan - I'm jealous! Then, after going through all of our entries, Maggie shared this... With all of these great blog posts, you can see that it was difficult to choose a winner. But I awoke very early this morning, before dawn, with a very clear notion of who should be the winner: Culin...

Remember last month when I won (or tied) the Cook the Books round-up for The Color of Tea  by Hannah Tunnicliffe? Here's the recipe Hannah liked: Vanilla-Chamomile Cremeux . What a treat to open my mailbox yesterday and find a lovely little care packet there - air mail from Auckland - from the author. Inside...a cotton tea towel with an origami print that my 9-year-old quickly absconded with, declaring: "This will make the perfect summer blanket for my stuffed animals!" I'll get it back eventually. ...and two bars of chocolate from New Zealand, Devonport Chocolates , that had the other two hovering over my. "What'd you get?" asked my husband. Hannah included a Dark Chocolate-Raspberry bar and a Milk Chocolate Hokey Pokey Bar . When I sent her a quick 'thank you' email, I admitted that I have no idea what 'hokey pokey' is in reference to something edible. The song-dance, sure. The food? No clue. But after doing some searchin...

I just received an email from one of the organizers of Cook the Books . She directed me to see the winner's post from our round-up . Hannah Tunnecliffe, the author of The Color of Tea , judged our entries herself. Wow. Deb included Hannah's sweet email in its entirety. I added in the links to the gals' recipes for you...I hope I got them all. Well, I've finally had a thorough read through of all the (incredible!) entries for The Colour of Tea. I have to admit - judging has been more challenging than I imagined. Everyone has gone to such an effort and translated the story, settings and characters in such diverse and personally meaningful ways; I had a really REALLY tough time! If only your Cook the Books club members were a little less creative and talented... ;-) Right, so, here we go.... I was enchanted by Rachel's teaeggs , even if she wasn't in love with the end result, they looked beautiful and reminded me of the century egg congee I used to eat in Ma...

A few months ago I started participating in Cook the Books  - we read and cook based on something in the book that inspires us. The first month I joined the fun, I won. Then life got hectic and I had to skip a couple of months. But I read and cooked for the June-July version when we read Laura Childs' Death by Darjeeling. Click here to see my original post , with recipes for Mint Tea Shortbread and Earl Grey Brownies with Lavender Ganache. Well, it just so happens that the author herself was our guest judge. And out of all the entries, she picked my recipes. Woohoo. Here's what she wrote... “What an amazing assortment of recipes! Reading through them – seeing the photos – was so inspiring that I wanted to dash into my own kitchen and get creative. That said, I have to admit that I was super impressed with the Mint Tea Shortbread and Earl Grey Brownies with Lavender Ganache from Culinary Adventures with Camilla. I think that’s our winner for a copy of AGONY OF THE LEAVES...

I love giveaways. And I especially love winning something that I will use...frequently! Sasha Martin of Global Table Adventure - the gal behind my cooking around the world adventure - the hosted a giveaway for this gorgeous globe drink dispenser. It will certainly come in handy when I teach my Cooking Around the World elective class to 3-5th graders this school year. Woohoo. And all I had to do was caption this photo of Sasha's daughter, looking at a Nigerian food spread. My caption: Red, orange, yellow…it’s only half a rainbow of food! Sasha is hosting another giveaway - this time for Norwegian Kransekake molds . I am definitely throwing my name in the hat for that one. We'll be hitting the 'N's sometime in the future. This would be helpful.