Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Foodie Extravaganza is where we celebrate obscure food holidays or cook and bake together with the same ingredient or theme each month. This month - I am hosting - I invited bloggers to come up with creative ice cream creations. So during this first full month of summer, it's all about ice cream. But I think that can include gelato, semifreddo, and even popsicles. Go wild! We hope you all enjoy our delicious frozen creations this month and come back to see what we bring for you next month. Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page  Foodie Extravaganza .  We would love to have you! If you're a spectator looking for delicious tid-bits check out our  Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board ! Looking for our previous parties? Check them out  HERE . Here's the Scoop! Chocolate Decadence Ice Cream by A Day in the Life on the Farm Cho...

This post launches us into a year-long journey to explore - and cook from -  The Book Club Cookbook, Revised Edition: Recipes and Food for Thought from Your Book Club's Favorite Books and Authors  by Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp.* This team of eleven bloggers takes turns selecting a recipe from the cookbook - reading the actual book is welcome, but completely optional - and during that month we cook and post our variations and adaptations. At the end of the month, the hostess posts a round-up of the recipes and gives away a copy of the book! Judy, Vicki, and their publisher,  Tarcher-Penguin ,  have provided the hosting bloggers with copies of the book plus copies to giveaway each month of the project. Woohoo. Incredibly generous. Follow this project on social media with the hashtag #thebookclubcookbookCC. We'll be posting all of our creations to our  Pinterest board . Here's the team, in alphabetical order with links to their homepages. ...

No, my husband is not smooching a tree. The boys discovered this tree. It's a kind of pine, but I have to do some research as to what kind of pine it is. When you stick your nose up to the bark, it has a distinctive butterscotch scent. I'm not joking. Jake and I talked about making some butterscotch bark bitters. The Enthusiastic Kitchen Elf and I went on a little foraging mission with Katie Blandin of Bar Cart Cocktail Co. last week. So, as we were hiking around Yosemite this past weekend, D kept pointing out edibles. "Mommy, we could make something with the pine tips...Mommy, look at the wild berries." But I explained that we do not collect from National Parks. I told him we'd drive outside of the park and as soon as we saw the same things, we'd pull over and forage a few. So, I'm sure you can imagine what happened: I followed rules about not collecting, we drove outside of the park, and...we couldn't find the tree anywhere. We pulled over ...

If you've been following my blog, you probably know that I have a pretty hefty foodie crush on Chef Brad Briske of La Balena Carmel . It's our special occasion restaurant and we actively seek out any event at which he's cooking. So, when I noticed that he was cooking at the  MEarth  Sustainable Chef Dinner - so close to Fathers' Day - I bought tickets and used it as a slightly belated celebration for my Love and my Dad. Brad is truly impressive. Just amazing. Not only is he an incredible chef, but he is passionate about his craft and generously shares his wealth of knowledge and vast experience. He's also patient and kind. One example: he didn't mind having my boys underfoot at this week's MEarth's dinner.  Grazie mille , Brad. Tanja Roos shared that typically they receive menus ahead of time from the visiting chefs. Here she demonstrates how she followed Brad around with a pen and paper in the few hours ahead of the event to handwrite the m...

Evelyne at  Cheap Ethnic Eatz   is hosting this month's  Food'N'Flix  event. We watched, or rewatched as the case may be,  Butter.  Click to see  Evelyne's invitation .   On the Screen... Despite being a huge Jennifer Garner fan - yes, I own the Alias box set* and have no problems watching and re-watching the episodes - Butter never appealed to me. But, for Evelyne, I decided to risk it. Butter immediately makes it clear that it won't be taking itself too seriously. The entire backdrop for this light satire/dark comedy is, after all, a cutthroat butter carving competition. And the cast of characters is largely caricaturized and one-dimensional. We have the ruthless, ambitious Laura, played by Jennifer Garner; Laura's unfaithful husband and reigning butter-carving champ Bob, played by Ty Burrell; a gold-digging hooker/mistress who is also a butter-carving competitor, played by Olivia Wilde; and (new to the Hollywood scene) Yara Sha...

Some kids have a favorite musician or athlete. Mine has a favorite chef. What a treat to help Chef Brad Briske of La BalenaCarmel pick some things for the MEarth Sustainable Chef Dinner this week. The Enthusiastic Kitchen Elf was thrilled...and he was chuckling to himself about some menu secret. They picked onions, garlic, borage, amaranth, peppers, and more! Then, on the day of the dinner, D helped Anna pick nasturium blossoms... It's so neat to see something go straight from the garden to the plate.

Ingredients 2 ½ C flour (I refrained from using whole wheat) ½ C ground almonds* ½ C organic raw turbinado sugar + more for sprinkling ½ t baking soda 1 t baking powder 8 T cold butter, cut into small pieces 2/3 C heavy organic cream 1 egg 1 C  Agrodolce Roasted Rhubarb 1 T cream *This is more dry ingredients than I use in typcial scones. However, the rhubarb added a lot of moisture to the recipe. Procedure Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, ground almonds, sugar, baking soda and baking powder. Using a pastry cutter, blend the butter into the dry ingredients until the dough resembles pea-sized chunks. Add the roasted rhubarb, cream and butter. Use a spatula or wooden spoon to form a ball. Transfer to a floured surface and gently press into a disc. Slice into wedges, sprinkle the top with sugar, then drizzle a tablespoon of cream on the tops of the scones. Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 ...

Do you love rhubarb? We're a little rhubarb-mad in my house. This week I grabbed an armload-full at a local organic farm and roasted up a pan for use in baked goods this weekend. So easy! Ingredients 4 C rhubarb, cut into 1" pieces 1/3 C organic raw turbinado sugar 1 t vanilla paste 1 to 2 T white balsamic vinegar Procedure Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place all of the ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Toss till well-coated. Spread the rhubarb out in a single layer in a baking dish. Roast for 30 to 40 minutes. The rhubarb should be softened, but still hold their shape.

Crì-crì-crì! Chi è che mi chiama? — disse Pinocchio tutto impaurito. Sono io! Le Avventure di Pinocchio , Carlo Collodi Click to read my blogpost for Edible Monterey Bay about Carmel's newest restaurant, Il Grillo . In the meantime, I will tempt you with some photos of Chef Brad Briske's gorgeous - and delicious - carpaccio plates!

I have always made pickles with vinegar. Then I read that not all fermented foods are pickled and not all pickles are fermented. Huh? Naturally, I did more research. Here's what I found... Foods that are pickled have been preserved in an acidic medium. But those don't offer you the same probiotic and enzymatic nutritional value of homemade fermented vegetables. If you ferment vegetables, they will create their own self-preserving, acidic liquid that is a by-product of fermentation. Ubiquitous and beneficial lactobacilli proliferates to create lactic acid that pickles and preserves the vegetables. Okay, I was ready to try... Ingredients 6-7 cucumbers (I used organic seedless Persian cukes) 3 whole garlic cloves, peeled 2 to 3 fennel stems 1 T fresh fennel fronds 3 to 4 sprigs fresh dill 2 to 3 sprigs fresh thyme 1 to 2 sprigs fresh oregano 1/2 t fennel pollen filtered water 3 T Himalayan or unrefined salt  1 large, sterile glass jar with a lid ...