Culinary Adventures with Camilla

I have only worked with fondant once before. Thankfully, my cousin Tiffany, AKA the Cake Whisperer!, gave me some pointers and sent me links to a recipe for homemade modeling chocolate and one for chocolate marshmallow fondant . Thanks, Tiff! Of course, I can't follow directions to save my life, so I took aspects of both recipes, and the first marshmallow fondant recipe I made, and created my own chocolate marshmallow fondant. Ingredients makes three 5" rounds of fondant 12 C minature marshmallows - loosely poured, not tightly packed 12 C organic powdered sugar 6 T water 1 C unsweetened cocoa powder 1 t organic hazelnut extract 1 t organic chocolate extract cornstarch for kneading food coloring gel, optional (we made black!) Procedure Place the marshmallows and the water in a large saucepan. Cook, on low heat, until the marshmallows are puffy and expanded. Stir the marshmallows with a rubber spatula until they are melted and smooth. S...

Tomorrow I'll post a photo of this sliced and ready to devour! My littlest Kitchen Elf loves watching Cake Boss . Ever since he discovered it in our Netflix stream, he's been (borderline) obsessed. And he is slowly making his way through the seasons when he has a chance. In one episode, Buddy and his baking crew make what they called 'pastachote.' At least that's what it sounded like to D.  "Mom, it's a Southern Italian pastry. You had to have had it when you lived in Italy!" he insisted. "Can we make it?" First, I don't love sweets, so if I ever did see that pastry in Italy, I probably didn't buy it. And since I don't love sweets, I didn't learn to make very many while I lived there.   Tiramisù is an exception; that I made many, many times while I was there...and many, many times since. Second, what on Earth are you saying?!? That doesn't even sound Italian!  Then I remembered that Italian-Americans have an irrit...

We are continuing with the 'B's in our cooking around the world adventure, venturing to Bhutan for dinner tonight. A dinner with Bhutan-esque flavors, I suppose, since I didn't use the correct meat or the correct grain. Oh, well. It was tasty. Bhutan is a small, land-locked nation that is sandwiched between India and China in the foothills of the Himalayas. And its cuisine does seem to echo both of those traditions in a way. Bhutanese Chicken This recipe is typically made with chunks of chicken as a spicy stir-fry. I had chicken drumsticks, so we went with that. I didn't have any Bhutanese red rice - just ran out - and didn't want to go to the store; so I served the chicken with plain ol' brown basmati rice. 3 T cornstarch 3 T white whole wheat flour 1/2 t ground paprika 1/2 t ground ginger chicken butter olive oil 3 T sesame seeds 2 T minced garlic 1/4 C roasted bell peppers (I had yellow) 2 T minced fresh ginger 1/4 C  soy sa...