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 ...

Joanne at  What's on the List?   is hosting this month's  Food'N'Flix  event. We watched, or rewatched as the case may be,  The Quiet Man.  Click to see  Joanne's invitation . This post contains an affiliate link for the DVD at the bottom.  On the Screen... I didn't remember that I had ever seen this movie, but when I was in the middle of it, Jake walked in the front door. "Oh, The   Quiet Man !" he exclaimed. "I'm surprised you're watching this...you didn't sit through the whole thing the first time we watched it together." Huh?  Apparently he loves the movie and tried to get me to watch it with him a decade ago. Whoops. Well, we did settle in on the couch that evening after we put the boys to bed, I started it over, and we did watch it together. Finally. Ten years after we started it. Often relegated to a cowboy or military man, John Wayne, in The Quiet Man , plays former boxer Sean Thornton who has returned t...

Sláinte! Instead of opening a beer for our St. Patrick's Day dinner, I decided to make a riff on a Whiskey Sour and a Classic Algonquin. And to make a green version, I added kale juice! Ingredients 1 1/2 oz rye whiskey 3/4 oz fresh pineapple juice 1/2 oz fresh lemon juice 1/2 oz ginger syrup 1/4 oz fresh kale juice maraschino cherries for garnish lemon curls for garnish ice Procedure Mix all of the ingredients - through kale juice in the list above - in a cocktail shaker or mason jar filled with ice. Shake vigorously and strain into a cocktail glass. Add a few ice cubes to the glass. Garnish with lemon curls and marschino cherries.

It's not a St. Patrick's Day dinner without a Guinness dessert, right? Usually I make a  Guinness Chocolate  Cake  of some kind. Guinness + Chocolate = Bliss But this year, I wanted to do something a little bit different. And I was inspired by a chocolate dessert drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt that R had ordered somewhere. I can't remember where now... D was not impressed with the way the dessert looked. He wrinkled his little nose in disgust. "You made a cow patty for dessert, Mom?!?" No! "That really doesn't look appetizing. Not at all." You're right. But it will taste amazing! I'll admit, it's not the most attractive dessert I've ever made. But it was delicious...chocolate-y goodness incarnate! Ingredients 8 egg yolks 3/4 C organic dark brown sugar, lightly packed + 2 T One bottle of Guinness, divided into 1 C + the rest 2 C organic heavy cream 7 oz. high-quality bittersweet chocolate, ...

Given that St. Patty's Day fell on a Monday this year, I knew I wasn't going to be able to cook my corned beef for 3 hours and still get it on the table at a reason hour. So, I opted to do it a day early. And it was delicious and appreciated. For the corned beef, I did what I always do - boiled it for three hours. That's it. I did read a recipe that cuts the cooking time to one hour by roasting it. We'll try that tonight, or later this week. I made a couple of new-to-me recipes for the side dishes. And, well, I forgot to pick up red currant jam, so I didn't do a traditional cumberland sauce for the beef. Instead I mixed some horseradish into ketchup and called it good. Along with the corned beef, here's what we had... [click on the title to go to the original recipe post] Roasted Cabbage Steaks Mashed Potatoes, Irish-Style  (Irish Champ or Colcannon?!? You decide.)

Inspired by a recipe from one of my favorite bloggers - Heather of girlichef ! - I did some reading about Irish Champ and Colcannon. I had never heard of Irish Champ before. Colcannon, yes. But I am all for adding in greens to everything we eat. Just ask my boys... Here's what I found: Irish Champ is mashed potatoes with scallions and herbs. Colcannon is mashed potatoes with cabbage added in. I loved those added flavors and just added in what I had on hand. So, not sure if this qualifies as champ, colcannon, or some Franken-Cam version. Whatever you want to call it, it was perfect with our corned beef dinner last night. Ingredients 8 new potatoes, washed and cubed water 1 leek, trimmed and thinly sliced 1 C chopped cabbage 1 small fennel bulb, trimmed and diced 3 stalks of celery, thinly sliced 2 shallots, peeled and thinly sliced 1 T freshly parsley, chopped 2 T butter 1/2 C half'n'half freshly ground salt freshly ground pepper Procedur...

Every year for St. Patrick's Day, I boil corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes. And the boys all love it. But this year I decided that I wanted to try a new preparation. I don't remember where I saw this. Maybe pinterest. Maybe a blog I follow. But I remembered that it was easy. Done. Ingredients 1 organic green cabbage olive oil freshly ground salt freshly ground pepper Procedure Remove the outer leaf of the cabbage and slice it into 1" steaks. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lay the steaks on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush the steaks with a thin layer of olive oil - on both sides. Sprinkle with salt and pepper - on both sides. Roast the cabbage for 30 minutes on one side. Flip them over. Roast for another 30 minutes. The cabbage will be softened, but not mushy, and lightly caramelized on the edges. Delicious! This was the perfect addition to our St. Patty's Day dinner. But I will be using this process again. It's easy ...

While I actually made this on St. Patrick's Day, I was offline all last week. So, I'm playing catch up now. This Guinness Chocolate Cake wrapped up our corned beef, cabbage, and potato dinner. 1 C Guinness, 1 C butter, ¾ C unsweetened cocoa powder, 2 C white whole wheat flour, 2 C organic cane sugar, 1½ t baking soda, ¾ t sea salt, 2 large eggs, 2/3 C sour cream Preheat the oven to 350° F. Butter your baking dish. Combine the Guinness and butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the cocoa powder and whisk till smooth. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. In another mixing bowl, beat together the eggs and sour cream to blend. Add the stout-butter mixture and beat just to combine. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed just until incorporated. Spoon batter into buttered baking dish.  Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25-35 minutes. A...

I love SRC (Secret Recipe Club) reveal day...when I get to see who had my blog, what they made, and if they were inspired. Susie surely was and reminded me that it's almost St. Patrick's Day. Time to make another batch of these - Irish Carbomb Cupcakes. Here's my original post; I made mini-bundt cakes two years ago. Here's her version ...yummy! photo by Susie of SweetiePetitti Susie, I also have never tried to Irish Carbomb cocktail. I might have to remedy that this year.

Caife Gaelach , Irish Coffee, is usually made with Irish whiskey.  But having used all of the whiskey in the house on my Irish Carbomb Cupcakes last night, I opted for Bailey's. 1 shot of Bailey's 2 shots of espresso warmed milk to fill your glass whipped cream unsweetened cocoa

When I began to look for "traditional" Irish recipes for corned beef and cabbage recipes, I came up with a laughable conclusion: Irish people don't eat corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day, or really any other day of the year.  I can't be too surprised really.  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 didn't stop me from making a corned beef and cabbage dinner for my family tonight...St. Patrick's Day.  I just told them that it wasn't really Irish.  Next year, I think I'll make a beef and beer stew.  That seems to be a much more prevalent dish on dinner tables in Ireland. I started with a pre-brined and pre-spiced corned beef brisket from Trader Joe's....

These take a healthy dose of imagination to see the shamrock because (1) I refuse to use food coloring to make them green and (2) I am, tragically, shape-challenged.  But they tasted great.  I have made other soft pretzel recipes that I prefer, but between my morning bootcamp and getting the boys out the door for school I needed something fast and a recipe that didn't require poaching the pretzels before baking. 1-1/2 C hot water 1 T active yeast 1 T organic granulated sugar 1/2 t pink Himalaya salt 5 C white whole wheat flour 2 T organic dark brown sugar 1. In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast and granulated sugar in warm water. Let stand until bloomed, about 5 minutes. 2. Add flour, brown sugar, and salt. Form into a dough. If the mixture is dry, add one or two tablespoons of water. Knead the dough until smooth, about 7 to 8 minutes. 3. Roll out tubes of dough and form into shamrock shapes - hopefully you're better at that than I am.  Place ...