Culinary Adventures with Camilla

I had leftover mushroom parts from different recipes, including the stem of a monster porcini [look right!], a handful of shitakes from D's Barley-Stuffed Pumpkin , and some oyster mushrooms. I decided to marinate them for a surprise Thanksgiving bite. Ingredients 1 C water juice from 1 lemon 1 T fresh oregano freshly ground salt freshly ground pepper 1 t anise seeds 3 to 4 C mushroom (parts) 2 T vinegar (I used a white balsamic) Procedure Place the water, lemon juice, oregano, and anise seeds in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil. Let boil for 10 minutes. Stir in the mushrooms, making sure they are coated in liquid. Cook for another 10 minutes, then remove from the heat. Season with salt and pepper. Let stand for an hour. Stir in the vinegar. Place in a jar or container so that the mushrooms are completely submerged. Marinate for at least 24 hours before serving.

This month the  Pass the Cookbook  crew - under the leadership of Kita, the culinary force behind  Pass the Sushi  - is cooking from Christiane's pick. Christiane blogs at  The Mom Chef: Taking on Magazines   and chose Sheila Lukins, Julee Rosso, and Sarah Leah Chase's   Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook   for this month. As always, we had the choice of three recipes. Our choices this round: Seafood Lasagna, White Chocolate Mousse with Frangelico, and Vegetable Pot Pie. I thought about making combining two of our choices into seafood pot pies, but went with the lasagna. Even though I just made Lasagna alla Puttanesca for our last Pass the Cookbook reveal, in November, I decided to venture down the lasagna path again because this one: (1) involves seafood and (2) includes an anise-flavored liqueur. Ummm...yum. I'm always in when ouzo, sambuca, or their cousins are involved. The original recipe calls for Pernod. I had St. George absint...

For National Licorice Day, I decided to make a licorice-y seafood stew with the licorice cousins : fresh fennel, fennel seeds, anise seeds. Whether you call it  cioppino ,  ciupin ,  cacciucco,  or  buridda,  I think this is a quintessential Italian seafood stew. It's made with whatever seafood is readily available; the flavor combinations are all very Italian. And just as every, and I do mean every, Italian dish is made differently by each Italian cook, here's my version... Ingredients 1 onion, peeled and thinly sliced 1 fennel bulb, trimmed and thinly sliced 2 C fresh tomato sauce 6-7 C vegetable stock (or fish stock) 1 C dry white wine 3 bay leaves 1/2 t anise seeds 1 t fennel seeds pinch of saffron scallops cod, cut into chunks clams splash of Liquore Strega , saffron liqueur (or use any licorice-flavored liqueur) fresh oregano (I had a fragrant bunch from my WE Cooperative CSA!) freshly ground sea salt freshly ground pepper fenn...