Culinary Adventures with Camilla

One of November challenges  for the  Jamie Oliver Food Revolution  Ambassadors ( I'm the Monterey #FRD2014 rep! ) is to... Share Holiday Traditions. "Share your holiday traditions. Holiday season is almost upon us and we want to know what your holiday traditions are and what food makes it to the table for your family gatherings. Send us your photos of traditional recipes, foods and the table set for a holiday feast!" I have to be honest: our holiday tradition is adventure. Or, better yet, our traditions are non-traditional. Case in point: I never serve turkey for Thanksgiving. Well, I don't serve turkey ever. But I definitely don't roast one on Thanksgiving. Instead, I've served everything from quail to beef brisket and from pheasant to lamb shanks. Here are our last few years' Thanksgiving menus. In 2010, we did a How the Other Half Ate   meal, making Native American dishes from all around the country. Our feast included... Wild Sage B...

The BEST way to use leftover cheese: Fromage Fort One of  October challenges  for the  Jamie Oliver Food Revolution  Ambassadors ( I'm the Monterey #FRD2014 rep! ) is to... Use leftovers. My family eats leftovers all the time. They just object to them looking exactly the same as the first time they ate them. Weird. I know. And I hate wasting food. So,  let's talk revamping, reshaping, repurposing, and rejoicing.  If you have leftover vegetables that are about to turn, or you are getting more - say from a weekly CSA delivery - and you need to make room in your crisper, a vegetable frittata is quick and easy to do. Click for my Everything-but-the-Kitchen-Sink Frittata . If you have leftover, cooked grains, form them into cakes. Savory, delicious cakes. Click for inspiration - Quinoa Crabcakes , Forbidden Rice Cakes , and Risotto Cakes with Mamey Sauce . But the recipe I am going to (re)share is what you can do with leftover che...

One of  September's challenges  for the  Jamie Oliver Food Revolution  Ambassadors ( I'm the Monterey #FRD2014 rep! ) is to celebrate! Celebrate...with cake! Late last year, my kitchen elves wanted to help me for a blogging event and voted for cake. Hummingbird Cake. Since Jamie will be sharing his, I decided to share mine. One of the boys had ordered a slice of Hummingbird Cake somewhere at sometime. I did some reading about Hummingbird Cake and a friend who lives in Tennessee sent me an article along with a recipe. Hummingbird cake is a spiced banana pineapple cake with cream cheese frosting that's been a southern favorite since the mid-19th century. The first known publication of the recipe was in the February 1978 issue of  Southern Living.  Click to see:  the original recipe .  That same year, it won the 'Favorite Cake' award at the 1978 Kentucky State Fair. Here's our version... Ingredients Cake 2 C white whole wheat ...

One of August's challenges for the  Jamie Oliver Food Revolution  Ambassadors ( I'm the Monterey #FRD2014 rep! ) is to answer the following: Do you eat outside?  We want to dig into your alfresco dining world so share your favorite recipes and moments. We love to eat al fresco . And, living on the temperate central coast of California, we eat outside a lot. A lot. Bonfires on the beach, barbeques on the patio, and picnics just about anywhere are the norm for us. We host picnics for welcome back bashes on the beach, we throw birthday parties in the woods, and we sleep - and cook - outside for almost two full weeks every summer. I'm pretty sure my husband would be grateful if I didn't make him haul bottles of wine and beer bottles up mountains as often as I do! One thing we do outside is cook over a fire. You would be amazed what you can accomplish with fire, foil, and some parchment paper. Think  Campfire Steelhead, Potatoes, and Zucchini , Campfire...

I saw Shaheen's 'Eat Your Greens' food blog challenge, at A2K - A Seasonal Veg Table and I knew that I wanted to participate. Here's the invitation . Encouraging people to eat their greens is a passion of mine. We even eat the greens from our carrot bunches! Pesto is one of my favorite greens recipes because it's so versatile. It's a sauce that originated in the Ligurian region of northern Italy.  Pesto genovese,  from Genoa, traditionally consists of crushed garlic, basil, and pine nuts blended with olive oil and  Parmigiano Reggiano.  But you can make it from any greens that you have. I've made it with Mizuna greens, dandelion greens, and even just parsley. This version is made with wild arugula greens, parsley, and black garlic. Click to read about  my intro to black garlic . This is a super duper, super delicious non-traditional pesto. The name derives from the Italian verb  pestare  which means to pound or to crush, referring to t...