Culinary Adventures with Camilla

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely bread by following our  Pinterest board  right here. Links are also updated after each event on the  Bread Bakers home page .  We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. This month Stacy of Food Lust People Love  is hosting and she wrote: "Your bread can be large, as in one big animal, or small - animal-shaped rolls. Use your imagination! Points for flavor and shape!" If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send an email with your blog URL to Stacy at foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com. Here's the animal-shaped bread basket from the #BreadBakers... Beef and Sweet Onion Dim Sum Pandas from Karen's Kitchen Stories Bird Bread Rolls from Ambrosia Easter Bunny Buns from Cook with Renu Ham and Cheese Elephant Rolls from Food Lust People Love Hedgehog Bread from Maki...

  Sankaya, Thai pumpkin custard, is probably one of my favorite desserts; but it's an especially great dessert for Fall when a silky coconut milk-based custard is steamed directly inside a pumpkin. When it uses a kabocha or Japanese pumpkin the dish is called Sankaya Faktong. But since I don't know the name of this pumpkin in English or in Thai, I'm just going to call this Sankaya. I picked up this beauty at the Serendipity Farms farmstand which is only open on Fridays though I'm sure you could pick one up at Elroy's Fine Food since she does the produce for them, too. As I said, I had no idea what it was called. It's the shape of a pink banana squash that I've gotten from Farmer Jamie before - when I made Mapled Pink Banana Pumpkin Pie . But I just heard back from her that it's a Blue Guatemalan squash. It's delicious, by the way, and perfect for this dramatic dessert. Ingredients  makes one large sankaya plus one large ramekin would probably fill ...

This is a traditional Swazi recipe for a spiced meat meatloaf that's finished by baking it under a spiced custard. While S made the Malva Pudding for dessert, D, R, and D made the main dish for our feast from Swaziland. Ingredients 1 lb organic grassfed beef, ground 1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced 1 leek, trimmed and thinly sliced olive oil 1 T curry powder 1/2 t ground turmeric 1/2 t ground, smoked paprika freshly ground salt and pepper, to taste 3 T ketchup 3 T apricot jam 7 eggs, lightly beaten 1 C fresh chopped herbs + 2 T for garnish (we used a mixture of parsley, cilantro, and oregano) ½ C organic whole milk Procedure Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large frying pan, heat a splash of olive oil and cook the fennel and leeks until translucent and softened Add in the meat and cook until completely browned. Season with spices and stir in the ketchup and jam.  Spoon the mixture into a well-greased, oven-proof dish. Then c ombine th...

This round Simon, at  briciole , selected  That Old Ace in the Hole  by Annie Proulx for our October-Novemer  Cook the Books  project. Here's  her post .  I have to be honest: I couldn't get through this book. I tried. Twice. The first time, I was reading the words without really engaging. I decided to restart, thinking I just needed an attitude adjustment.  The second time, I  was  more interested in the characters and the story, but that only lasted for about the first fifty pages. Then, again, I was slogging through.  I used to be a stubborn reader, determined to finish any book I started. But I am not that reader anymore; if a book doesn't hold my interest, I know that there are plenty more that will. I am thoroughly enjoying Jim Gaffigan's  Food: A Love Story . But just as I was about to throw in the towel and declare that I was out for this round, I read a page about Cy's Old Dog Café and knew that I could cook...

Melon pie? When we were at the market, the Enthusiastic Kitchen Elf walked up with a Golden Delicious melon - it's a yellow honeydew in case you've never seen one - and announced that we should make a pie out of it. "I don't know, Sweetheart. Let me think about that for a little bit. I don't think I've ever cooked a melon. We normally eat it fresh." Mom, just make it happen. He insisted impatiently.  I know you can come up with something good. I couldn't decide if I should be flattered or annoyed by the little kitchen troll. But, as he knew he would, he got me thinking. I decided to try a custard pie with brûléed slices of the melon on the top. While I'm pretty sure this wasn't what he had in mind, he did like that he got to use my butane torch! Fun, fun, fun. We started with a custard pie... Ingredients For the pastry... ½ C dark rye flour  ½ C all-purpose flour ¼ t sea salt 1 ½ t organic granulated sugar ...

I was having a serious dessert craving last night and realized that I had no butter and no flour. I had my CSA goodies from High Ground Organics and that was about it. Then it hit me. With some lemon, some eggs, some sugar, and some olive oil, you can make a mouth-puckering pudding. And it takes less than 10 minutes. Woohoo. Craving averted. Ingredients 3 whole eggs, room temperature 1/2 C organic coconut sugar (this renders the final pudding a sort of mustard color; for a true yellow, use granulated sugar, I just didn't have any) 1/2 C freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice (Thanks, Marsalisi Organic Farms !) 1/2 t pure vanilla extract 1/2 C extra virgin olive oil Procedure Place all ingredients into a double boiler or bowl set over gently simmering water on the stove. Whisk until it thickens into a pudding or custard consistency. We are ours warm with some  High Ground Organics   strawberries on the side!

We brought D's Pasticiotto [click title for the recipe post] to our friends' house for dinner. It was a hit!  For the adults, they got to sip some limoncello with their slice. Nice job, Wombat.

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...