Culinary Adventures with Camilla

I am hosting June's  Food'N'Flix   and asked the bloggers to take a virtual trip to Hawaii. You can read my invitation:  here . So we've been watching lots and lots of shows that feature Hawaii. I wasn't a huge fan of the original  Hawaii Five-O , but I adore the reboot! We streamed it on Netflix the first time we watched it, but just found that it is no longer there, so I ordered the DVDs from Amazon. We started with the first season last week and that inspired my Haupia-Filled Malasadas . .  We launched into Season two this week. And it was episode 6 - Ka Hakaka Maika'i (The Good Fight) - that inspired me into the kitchen to make loco moco! While loco moco has been mentioned several times so far in the show, it wasn't until this episode that Steve McGarrett shows up to meet Joe White on the beach with two to-go food containers. "Loco moco from Rainbow Drive In?" White asks. Another character pipes up, "Hope you brought enoug...

To commemorate milestones, I let the boys pick a celebratory meal. Anywhere they want to go or, more likely, anything they want me to cook. D finished his summer school math class yesterday and asked for his favorite: chicken and waffles. Easy. Done. What we didn't know, when he picked the menu, was that he got 100% on his final and will be headed into calculus next year. As a sophomore. He logged in and saw his score and grade while I was cooking. Sometimes I just stare and them and wonder where they got their aptitude for math and science. It certainly wasn't from me. In any case, he wanted plain ol' chicken and waffles; I decided to shake it up and add some Japanese flavor flair. This is a pretty simple recipe with four parts that come together into something incredibly tasty. Try it and tell me what you think! Also, I did the kabocha fries first and served them room temperature. The chicken was last and served hot. Shichimi Togarashi is also called Japanes...

I've joked that my boys think they live in a restaurant. But, sometimes, I realize that they practically do. "Mom," requested the little Wom yesterday, "I'd like to have chicken and waffles for breakfast for your anniversary."  Okay . So, today, on my seventeenth wedding anniversary, I made him chicken and waffles. But I made them gluten-free so Jake could enjoy them, too. I'm just going to share my recipe for the chicken as I used a gluten-free mix from Trader Joe's for the waffles...and the gravy was an afterthought that I threw together after I discovered that I forgot to pack the maple syrup. So, just use your favorite waffle recipe and your favorite gravy recipe. I'll share mine eventually. Ingredients ¾ C gluten-free baking mix (I used the blend from Trader Joe's) ½ C grated Parmigiano-Reggiano 1 t dried oregano 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken tenderloins (approximately 10 tenderloins) 2 eggs, slightly beaten ...

Okay, reserve judgment, folks. This is not a traditional poutine. I'll be the first to admit that. It's not deep-fried and there are no cheese curds involved. But it is poutine-inspired...and it is delicious! I can't remember where I first heard the word, but I definitely had no idea what it was. Poutine. So, I did some reading. Then I asked one of my favorite Canadian foodie bloggers - Isabelle at Crumb - for a recipe. Here's hers . I loved that she used a duck confit and skipped the curds. I have nothing against curds; I just don't know where to find them and haven't had any reason to make my own. In case you don't know what poutine is...it's a sticky mess of french fries, doused in a light brown gravy, and topped with cheese curds. It's a popular hangover cure in Quebec. Peasant fare peddled out of food trucks. That is until recently. It's moved into the mainstream, a new culinary darling in swanky bars from New York to San Francisco. I...

It's  Food'N'Flix  time - where we watch movies and head  into the kitchen and cook or bake or make something based on a recipe they actually make in it or just something we were driven to make after watching it. This month's film - A Good Year - was selected by Tina at Squirrel Head Manor . You can see her invitation: here. What a delicious foray into life in Provence! While the wine flows freely and the scenery makes me want to buy a one-way ticket to France, food doesn't have a starring role in the movie. Wine, yes. Food, not so much. The sole exception: dinner at Francis and Ludivine's home. Francis gestures at various home-cooked dishes at the table: caviar of eggplant, headless larks, mushrooms, and, finally, civet of wild boar, marinated in red wine, and blood pressed from the carcass. And that - those few lines - was enough to launch me on a culinary adventure to make a civet for myself.  The only thing I asked my boys: duck or rabbit? Tho...

It's the first Monday of the month which means one thing:  Secret Recipe Club  reveal for Group A. This month I was assigned to Jenna's Cooking Journey . Meet Jenna who admits: " I didn't really cook until I reached college, and even then had a lot of cooking mishaps.  The mishaps may have come from my inexperience cooking, but sometimes they came from cooking at high altitude.  Now that I'm married, there is someone else to eat my cooking, and I don't have to get stuck with leftovers for two weeks, so now I'm expanding my cooking horizons even further." Looking through her blog, there were several recipes that caught my eye, including a Horseradish-Crusted Filets , Better Than Sex Cake  (hmmm...I'm dubious), and her Yogurt-Marinated Lamb Loin . But I ultimately decided to make a variation of her Biscuits and Gravy . Biscuits and Gravy slightly adapted from Jenna's Cooking Journey Biscuits 2 C white whole wheat flour 2 T or...