Culinary Adventures with Camilla

This post written by me on behalf of Imperial Sugar, a sponsor of #AppleWeek.   Products for recipe development and review were provided; prizes were donated for the giveaway,  and this page may contain affiliate links. Phew! What a week! So many apples creations from the #AppleWeek crew. And many, many thanks to Carlee of  Cooking with Carlee  for organizing this fantastic event. In case you are just finding this now, I posted several recipes through the event: Seared Steak with Envy-able Apples , Grilled Cheddar Cheese with Apples and Hatch Chile Hot Sauce , Baked Chai-Spiced Apple Chips , Apple Butter-Glazed Chicken Wings , Bulgogi-Inspired Oven Beef Jerky , and Gingered Apple Triffles . So much delicious fun. Don't forget to check out the prizes and enter the giveaway on my  kick-off post . And let's start with the final collection from the other bloggers... Saturday Recipes Apple Bourbon Pork Tenderloin with Butternut Squash by Girl...

One of our best friends gave the Enthusiastic Kichen Elf a pizzelle maker for Christmas. I groaned inwardly when he opened it - another kitchen tool to take up cabinet space, another kitchen tool that only has one purpose, another...[imagine much grumbling]. But D did a test run at a family dinner on Friday  and, one bite in, I was a huge fan! I don't care for sweets too much, but these cookies are amazing...and simple. Perfect! He started with the recipe included with his machine, then made a few adaptations. Ingredients 3 large eggs 3/4 C organic granulated sugar 1 t pure vanilla extract 1 t pure almond extract 1 3/4 C flour 2 t baking powder 1/2 C melted butter zest from 1 organic lemon oil for greasing the pizzelle maker (he used a non-aerosol grapeseed oil spray) Procedure In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, vanilla and almond extracts until well combined. In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the flower and baking pow...

Have I mentioned my boys' (yes, all three of them!) recent obsession with Alton Brown's show Good Eats??  They watch it on Netflix and, honestly, I'm impressed with his ability to inspire my crew into the kitchen. My husband actually set foot in the kitchen and made A.B.'s Mint Julep ! They were all watching an episode that included granola bars and protein bars and asked, "Can we try?" Of course! I'm always looking for ways to eliminate packaged and processed foods from my shopping routine. Homemade granola bars seemed a perfect project as we head back to school this week. adapted from Alton Brown's Granola Bars recipe: here My husband is doing a gluten-free and dairy-free experiment, so I skipped the wheat germ, opting for flaxseed meal. I added in chia seeds and hemp seeds. I also subbed in olive oil for the butter. But I stayed true to the original process and will be making this weekly, I think. Ingredients 2 C old-fashion...

Bojo is a flourless cake made, traditionally, from grated coconut and cassava. Cassava is a starchy root plant also known as yucca. It's also, traditionally, made with rum-soaked rasins. I completely failed on multiple counts in bringing the ingredients for this dessert. I forgot the cassava in my freezer at home; so we used potatoes instead. And I intended to just use raisins - without the rum - but I left those at home, too. So, we did without raisins, too. It was dense and delicious...but is not your traditional Bojo. Ingredients 1/2 pound new red potatoes, boiled, cooled, and grated 2 C grated coconut (we used dried) 1/3 C organic granulated sugar 2 eggs 1/4 C coconut milk 1 T organic pure vanilla extract 2 t organic almond extract 4 T butter, melted 1 t salt Procedure Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch round cake pan and line bottom of pan with parchment paper. Stir the coconut and grated potatoe together with t...

For D's class holiday breakfast, he wanted to bring bread pudding. He wanted to use quinoa bread , but I didn't have any more and didn't feel like making any. Sorry. But, I stirred in some cooked red quinoa and it looked just the same. He was satisfied; I was relieved. Off it went. I was inspired to bake a re-do since I didn't get to try any of D's bread pudding. I added some caramelized apples, fresh persimmon, and pomegranate arils that reminded me of carnelian and garnets. The bread pudding looked bejeweled. Ingredients 8-10 C cubed bread (I used a mixture of a French loaf and a wheat loaf) 3/4 C cooked red quinoa 4-5 large eggs 2 C eggnog 3/4 C + 2 T organic dark brown sugar 2 T pure vanilla extract 2 T organic almond extract butter 1 T spices (I used a mixture of ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground cardamom, and ground ginger) topping 1 T butter 1 T organic granulated sugar 2 apples, sliced 2 Fuyu persimmon, peeled and sliced pome...

Today is R's class holiday celebration. They'll be making evergreen wreaths, creating holiday cards, and sharing some of their favorite cookies. R started off wanting to make my Mint Chocolate Madeleines . He donned his Santa hat and went to work.  But we were out of peppermint extract. So he decided to make Almond Joy Madeleines, using almond extract and shredded coconut. And he wanted to make them gluten-free since one of his best friends can't eat gluten. I still haven't mastered the art of converting gluten recipes to gluten-free; it's not a one to one - or cup for cup - no matter what they say. So, our texture is a little off, but he's happy that his friend can eat it. Ingredients makes 4 dozen madeleines 1-1/2 C organic butter plus some for greasing pan 2 C organic granulated sugar 4 large eggs, at room temperature 4 T dark or semi-sweet chocolate, chips or chunks 1 t organic chocolate extract 1 t pure vanilla extract 1 t organic...

For our final week of Eat a Rainbow, I decided that we would make marzipan for the 'white international food.' Okay, technically it's more of a tan color, but I went with it. And we, then, shaped  Glücksschwein , lucky pigs, in the German tradition.   I started with this, using syrup instead of egg white because of my "vegan" student. Then we added a bit more of almond meal because it was too sticky. Also, I looked long and hard for a natural food coloring; I finally found this one from India Tree whose ingredient list was: Glycerin, deionized water, vegetable juice, beta carotene, and turmeric for color. No Red No. 40. Thank goodness! Ingredients 1½ C almond flour/meal 1½ C organic powdered sugar 2 t pure almond extract 2 T ginger syrup Procedure Place the almond flour and powdered sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add the almond extract and ginger syrup. Mix with a spatula until a thick dough is formed. Add in the color in small i...

After seeing all of the chocolate cookbooks on my table, Jake asked, "so, are you baking anything tonight?" No, hadn't planned on it. But, since you mention it, I can whip something up. Wanting something slightly healthier, I substituted half the butter with plain yogurt. 1/2 C butter, softened 1/2 C plain yogurt 1-1/2 C organic raw sugar 2 eggs 2 t almond extract 3 C white whole wheat flour 1 t baking soda 2 T cold coffee 1/2 t pink Himalaya salt 2 C white chocolate chips dark chocolate chunks Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the almond extract. Stir in flour, baking soda, and white chocolate chips. Drop by large spoonfuls onto ungreased pans and press a dark chocolate chunk into the top of each cookie. Bake for about 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are nicely browned. Let cool on a wire rack. Serve with a glass of milk.