Culinary Adventures with Camilla

  This is the October #TheCakeSliceBakers event and, since I have skipped a couple of months, I'll recap what we are all about... 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 group is perfect for those who do not have a blog but wan...

Today the Sunday Funday group is celebrating with a virtual birthday potluck for one of the group's organizers. Thanks to Stacy of  Food Lust People Love , Sue of  Palatable Pastime , Rebekah of  Making Miracles , and Wendy of  A Day in the Life on the Farm  for coordinating this low-stress group.  This week I am hosting and asked everyone to celebrate National Hot Chocolate Day. I wrote: "January 31st is National Hot Chocolate Day. Let's share our favorite versions of this delicious drink, recipes for any extra special touches (thinking homemade marshmallows!), or a food that has all of the trappings of hot chocolate (maybe chocolate cake with torched marshmallows on top). Okay, I clearly have marshmallows on the mind. Join me." Here's the line-up... 5 Minute Chilli Cinnamon Hot Chocolate from Sizzling Tastebuds Cheese in Your Hot Chocolate? Yep. Chocolate con Queso from Culinary Adventures with Camilla Chocolat Chaud - French Hot Chocolate from Fo...

This month, for  Food'N'Flix , Debra of  Eliot's Eats  is hosting. She asked us to watch  The Holiday * and you can read her invitation  here . And I already shared my Gingerbread Marshmallows , but given that I watched the movie three times in the rental period - yes, really! - I was inspired to make a second recipe. After telling the family about the movie over dinner, Jake actually agreed to watch it with me. So, I didn't ask twice...I just sat down and said I was ready. Dishes could wait! In my Gingerbread Marshmallows post, I mentioned the scene in Graham's house when he serves Sophie, Olivia, and Amanda mugs of hot chocolate...with five marshmallows each.   Sophie: Daddy, she has more marshmallows than I do. Graham: No she doesn't, you each have five. Graham [to Amanda as he hands her a mug]: You have five, too. Also, in the original ad that Iris places about the home exchange, she mentions hot chocolate: "A fairy tale English cottage set in a tr...

Let me say this: I despise diets. I'm notoriously bad at following them. But, really, I'm more interested in understanding why I shouldn't eat certain things and eliminating them forever because of a lifestyle choice. That said, Jake and I agreed to eliminate added sugar from our menu for a month. And we'll see how it goes from there. It's tough to be restrictive, but everything I'd read says that cutting out sugar will reset your cravings. So, I don't have much of a sweet tooth, but Jake does. So, when he wanted hot chocolate last night, he asked if I could manage something without sugar...or honey...or anything like that. I told him I'd try. You know what? This wasn't bad...and it answered his craving. Success! Just make sure you use as good a quality of chocolate as you can find for this amazing hot chocolate. No-Sugar-Added Hot Chocolate   Ingredients makes 4 demitasse servings or 2 large servings Hot Chocolate 2 C milk...

It's midweek for our celebration of Mexican recipes. Happy #MexicanRecipes!  Let’s have a fiesta of Cinco de Mayo inspired recipes all week long! Tropical Fruit Salad from A Day in the Life on the Farm Taco Salad Boats from Palatable Pastime Shrimp Veracruz from the Tip Garden Champurrado from Culinary Adventures with Camilla Tequila Lime Grilled Chicken from Cooking With Carlee Mexican Street Corn Salad from Caroline's Cooking Cilantro Lime Rice from Books n' Cooks Frozen Peach Margaritas from Family Around the Table Check back each and every day for new recipes by following along with the hashtag #MexicanRecipes on social media. Are you a food blogger interested in posting within our blogging community? Find out more by joining us online: Holiday Fun with Our Blog Friends. Today I'm sharing one of our favorite versions of hot chocolate:  champurrado -  Mexican chocolate atole. Filipinos have a dish called  champurrado , too, but...

It's funny for me to think that fifteen years ago, I didn't eat chocolate. One of my best friends from high school was floored when she saw me eat chocolate for the first time. In all the years she'd known me, I couldn't stand chocolate. But, as soon as I got pregnant with R, I began to enjoy it. Really enjoy it.  Now, we've done chocolate tastings at boutique chocolatiers all over California's central coast; we've participated in chocolate walking tours (read about our Chocolate Walking Tour in San Francisco ); I've taught an entire class about chocolate; and we've even curated our own chocolate pairings for dinner parties . At a  chocolate tastings at Alegio in Palo Alto, D really wanted to take one of the cacao pods home. I offered to buy it. No dice. "They're just for our display. They're not for sale," they apologized. Then, last December, we visited Dandelion Chocolate in the Mission District in San Fr...

For my first event post, I published  Love is Dizzying, But Romance Is All About Balance , with a little help from by one of the event sponsors -  UncommonGoods . To go along with my Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake with Rose Peppercorn Salted Cream, that I published in the  UncommonGoods  post, I served tiny mugs of hot chocolate made with Pacari Chocolate .* Andean Rose Geranium Hot Chocolate  with Whipped Coconut Cream Ingredients  serves 4 Hot Chocolate 4 C milk (I made mine dairy-free with my  homemade hazelnut milk ) 1-1/2 C dark chocolate, chopped into pieces 1/2 C Andean Rose Geranium chocolate, chopped into pieces 2-3 T honey, depending on your taste 1 vanilla bean pinch salt (I used a rose peppercorn salt from UncommonGoods) Optional to make it 21+: 1 ounce brandy or tequila Whipped Coconut Cream 1 can coconut milk (must be a full fat version) 1/2 C organic powdered sugar Procedure Whipp...

What a week it has been! Last night we were feeling as if it were already Friday. Nope. I guess we were just hoping it was Friday. But after the boys were in bed last night, Jake asked if we could have grown-up hot chocolate and sit in front of the fire. You got it! Jake split wood and I put milk to steam on the stove. Ingredients serves 2 2 C milk 3 whole cinnamon stick 1 dried pepper 1 whole vanilla bean, split 1 C unsweetened cocoa powder 1 C organic granulated sugar 1 pony shot (1 ounce) per mug - or a jigger (1.5 ounces) if you wish - of tequila Procedure Place milk, 1 cinnamon stick, dried pepper, and vanilla bean in a medium saucepan and heat on low to medium until bubbles form around the edges. Don't let it boil or scald! Let steep for 10 minutes. Strain out the cinnamon stick, pepper, and vanilla bean. Whisk in the cocoa powder and sugar until smooth. Heat through again. To serve, place tequila shot in the bottom of the mug, fill with choco...

In an effort to make all of my holiday gifts this year, I invited some of my favorite foodie bloggers to share recipes for hand-crated edibles. Over the course of the next twelve weeks, we'll be sharing recipes from homemade spice blends (last week's theme) to charcuterie trays and everything in between. Hope you'll follow along for inspiration. You can find out more information, including the schedule:  here . This week, we're sharing our favorite special diets creations. They might be gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, or sugar-free. Thanks to these gals and their Special Diets Creations! Amy's Cooking Adventures   bakes some  Gluten-Free Vegan Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookie Bites Sarah of  Fantastical Sharing of Recipes  blends up her  Maple Cream (Gluten Free) Rebekah from  Making Miracles  offers a Dairy-Free, Soy-Free Pumpkin Pie Culinary Adventures with Camilla  is whisking together a  Dairy-Free Aztec ...