Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Here we are with the August edition of the Cake Slice Bakers. For 2020, we are baking from  The New Way to Cake: Simple Recipes with Exceptional Flavor  by Benjamina Ebuehi.* In this group, we are given a selection of three cake recipes. We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes! Follow our  Facebook ,  Instagram , and  Pinterest   pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the links below to take you to each of our cakes. If you have a blog and are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details. The Cake Slice Bakers also have a new Facebook group called  The Cake Slice Bakers and Friends...

   This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of  Melissa's Produce . I received complimentary product for the purpose of review and recipe development, but all opinions are honest and they are my own.  This page may contain affiliate links. Can you believe that February is already over? And we even had a bonus day in February. But with the advent of March, I begin to see the steady parade towards the Vernal Equinox and Spring which is my favorite season. Last week I noticed that  Melissa's Produce *   shared a photo of yellow dragonfruit on one of their social media channels. So, I reached out to my contacts at Melissa's Produce to see if they would want to sponsor a series of posts. I had my eyes on making some Spring-y, sunny dishes. And they did! I received a selection of yellow produce and set out to make some #SpringOnThePlate recipes. I received several Bergamot Oranges (you can read about them on the Melissa...

Jake doesn't usually request things. He just eats what I make with rare exceptions. So, when he requested Earl Grey shortbread cookies to take for his guys' weekend, I happily obliged. These are quick and easy to make and travel well. If you're looking for a cookie to put on holiday trays or into Christmas packages, this is a tasty candidate. You can substitute for any kind of tea that you like. Ingredients makes approximately 20 cookies 10 T butter 1/2 C organic granulated sugar 2 T loose leaf Earl Grey tea 1 egg, beaten 1-3/4 C flour Procedure Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Stir in tea leaves until well combined. Beat in the egg, then carefully fold in the flour. Roll the dough into a long cylinder. Put the dough in parchment paper or plastic wrap and chill for about an hour, until the dough is firm enough to slice. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough cylinder widthwise into 1/4" slices and pla...

While many recipes are focusing on apples, the darlings of Fall, I've been shining the spotlight on one of my other favorite seasonal fruits: the pear! I recently made a Madagascar Bourbon Bean & Bartlett Jam. It was so tasty and so easy. So, I was really excited that Karen of Karen's Kitchen Stories selected Pears + 10 Ways. And I really, really loved that all of those recipes were savory.  In case you don't have a copy of Bittman's book, read his 10 pear salads online here . His pear salsa and relish will certainly be on my table soon. And I do love the combination of pears with fennel. Before I get to my salad, please visit Karen and Wendy's posts this week. Our Pear Creations An InLinkz Link-up Recipes that poach pears in tea have long intrigued me. There's the Food Network's green tea-poached pears with marscarpone and brittle ; Gourmet's tea poached pears with tapioca and satsumas ; and The Meaning of Tea's lemon ging...

Okay, let's start with this: Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi* isn't a foodie book. But I knew that going into it. However, it is the impetus for me to delve into a Persian cookbook, The Saffron Tales  by Yasmin Khan. You'll see an entire meal from that soon. On the Page I picked up this book because I saw it on the reading list for D's 8th grade literature class. With a line-up that includes  Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry ; Animal Farm ; and  To Kill a Mockingbird , Perspolis  was the only book I hadn't read. I was intrigued by its place on the list.  Let me say: I understand why it's on the list. Mr. M seems to have selected books about social injustice, discrimination, and rebellion. Persepolis  is the story of Marjane's childhood in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. While I think it's an important topic and will lead to some, hopefully, productive discussions in the literature class, I didn't care for the book. I felt that rea...

Our week long celebration of #DairyMonth end today. This event was co-hosted by  From Gate to Plate  and  Cooking With Carlee . We put together our best recipes using cow milk, goat milk butter, cream and cheeses. And we hope you enjoyed them! Thanks to Lauren and Carlee for organizing this fun, fun week. Day 5 #DairyMonth Recipes Chocolate Oreo Fudgesicles by  Family Around The Table Berry Cream Muffins by  Jolene's Recipe Journal Best No Bake Cheesecake with Blueberries by  Feeding Big Buttermilk Parmesan Pork Chops by  Corn, Beans, Pigs & Kids Caramel Apple Empanadas {With Cajeta or Dulche de Leche} by Cooking With Carlee Creme Anglaise ('Real Custard') by  Caroline's Cooking Custard Pie by From Gate to Plate Earl Grey Panna Cotta by  Culinary Adventures with Camilla   No Bake Oreo Cream Pie by  Tip Garden Pretzel Bites and Beer Cheese Dip by  A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures Summer Fruit Smoothie b...

I've been remiss at reviewing this cookbook from Quirk Books - Breakfast for Dinner by Lindsay Landis and Taylor Hackbarth.* They are the culinary duo behind the blog Love & Olive Oil ; it's a blog I already read regularly. It's not that I was unenthused; on the contrary, I was overly excited about the choices. I wanted to make so many of the recipes! But today, I decided to finally select a few recipes and see how it went. Breakfast for dinner. That's not a foreign concept in my household. When I'm in a rush, I will often whip up omelettes or use all my leftover veggies for a frittata. My husband's family used to eat pancakes for Sunday dinner when he was a kid. So, again, breakfast for dinner is a real thing for us, albeit a bit boring one. However, Lindsay and Taylor take that concept, tweak it, turn it on its head, and offer some truly innovative ideas in this cookbook. It's, as they write, 'classic recipes with a twist' or using s...

Earl Grey Panna Cotta adapted from  Breakfast for Dinner   by Lindsay Landis & Taylor Hackbarth,  Love & Olive Oil What a glorious dessert this was! Subtle and silky. Wow. 1 envelope gelatin 1/4 cold water 1 C organic heavy cream 1 C organic 2% milk 1/4 C organic granulated sugar 2 Earl Grey tea bags zest from 1 organic lemon Dissolve the gelatin in cold water.  Place the other ingredients in a medium saucepan and heat till it begins to steam. Do not let it boil. Let steep for 10 minutes. Gently press all of the liquid from the tea bags; strain out the lemon zest. Pour the cream into the gelatin and stir till completely dissolved. Pour the mixture into your serving containers and let chill, uncovered, until set. At least four hours. Serve chilled.

   adapted from  Winter Cocktails  by Maria del Mar Sacasa Whenever I am asked to review a cookbook, I can always find one recipe that jumps out at me as a must-try. Good cookbooks will grab me with a several possibilities. Great cookbooks have me debating between half a dozen choices. And, then, there are cookbooks that I read before bed, dream about, and want to make every single recipe in them. Winter Cocktails  by Maria del Mar Sacasa falls into that latter category.  Not only are the photographs stunning, the recipes themselves are unique and beg to be tried. This finally got me to try making my own Classic Eggnog . And I loved her twist on an Affogato . The recipe I'll share here was one that instantly intrigued me in that it has three of my favorite elements all rolled into one comforting, winter beverage. Earl Grey. Lavender. Hot chocolate. Then...it's spiked with a honey liqueur. Bliss! 1/2 dried organic lavender flower...

These are dense, moist, and have just a hint of exotic. And I decided to make this for the grown-ups at the birthday party. 2 C chipped unsweetened dark chocolate 1/2 C (1 stick) butter 2/3 C organic buttermilk 1-1/2 C organic brown sugar, packed 2 t brandy 2 eggs, separated 1 C organic sour cream 2 T olive oil 2 C white whole wheat flour 1 t baking powder 3 earl grey tea bags, opened Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter your baking dish. I used a 9" x 13". Place chocolate, butter, and buttermilk in a saucepan. Stir over low heat until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in loose earl grey tea, sugar, and brandy. Beat in the egg yolks, sour cream, and olive oil in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the chocolate mixture. Beat with a hand mixer to aerate. Sift in the flour and baking powder, folding in until just moistened. Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the chocolate batter. Scrape the batter into pan and bake f...

With the hectic wrap-up of the school year, I skipped the Cook the Books' selection of  United States of Arugula by David Kemp. Well, I bought the book, fully intending to participate, but the months got away from me and I didn't read it, much less cook anything inspired by it. There it sat, on my nightstand, with an army of other tomes I intended to read the past few months. I will dust it off this summer. I promise! When I saw that the June-July pick was a breezy mystery - for tea lovers - I thought: "that's do-able." Death by Darjeerling by Laura Childs. It was a breeze. I used to love mysteries. I think I devoured every single Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys book before I was nine-years-old; a childhood friend and I even fancied ourselves detectives and started our own detective agency, the JCM Detective Agency; and through high school, I adored Agatha Christie's Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. Needless to say, I had high hopes for this book, my first summ...