Culinary Adventures with Camilla

This month several of the #FoodNFlix bloggers are migrating over to a new group called #MoviesandMunchies. Amy of  Amy's Cooking Adventures  is leading the charge for our inaugural month. You can read Amy's invitation:  here . She asked us to watch  Ocean's Eleven . I have already shared A Salad for Saul ; I will write more about the movie when I round up all of my inspired recipes towards the end of the month. This recipe was inspired by the scene where Rusty Ryan (played by Brad Pitt) is teaching movie stars how to play poker. Holly Marie Combs, Topher Grace, Joshua Jackson, Barry Watson, and Shane West all appear as themselves. There are hilarious lines such as not being able to have three pairs in five card draw. But the ultimate ridiculous line was when Topher Grace lays down his hand and triumphantly declares, "Fellas! Fellas! Check this... all... red!" In case you aren't a poker player, a 'flush' is a strategy when all cards are the same suit, ...

  The holiday season means lots and lots of baking for our household. It's something we love to do as a family and we try to make cookies that are as pretty as they are tasty.  This year, we decided to make some cookie videos for our #CulinaryCam YouTube channel. Take a look at our Mocha Crinkle Cookies ; and my Best Gingerbread House and Cookies . And you can find a video about these sugar cookies:  here . This is an iced sugar cookie that I have been making for years and years with slight variations on flavors. But the process is the same. And we love doing this as a family! For this version I made a lemon-vanilla sugar cookie as the base along with a lemon icing. The nose of the gnome is a peanut, but use whatever round shape you have or want Ingredients Lemon Vanilla Sugar Cookies 2-3/4 cup flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup butter, softened 1 cup organic granulated sugar 2 eggs zest from 1 organic lemon (I used an organic Meyer lemon), approximate...

This is an iced Christmas cookie that I made because D is a little nisser -obsessed. If you aren't sure what the heck a nisse is, read this post:  Glædelig Jul, Nisser, and Mormor Agnes’ Æbleskiver . In any case we have nisser galore around the house and I thought it would be a fun cookie to make. I started with a Santa cookie cutter and trimmed down the pom-pom at the top of the hat because everyone's a critic. "That doesn't look like the profile of a nisse !" Oye. Because of the nisser 's Danish roots, I made a lemon-cardamom spiced sugar cookie as the base along with a lemon icing. The nose is a chocolate-covered salted caramel ball. Ingredients Lemon Cardamom Sugar Cookies 2-3/4 C flour 1 t baking powder 1 t salt 3/4 C butter, softened 1 C organic granulated sugar 2 eggs zest from 1 organic lemon (I used a Meyer lemon), approximately 2 t 1 t ground cardamom Royal Icing 3 egg whites, or more to thin icing 6 C org...

Today, Heather of Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks  has the Festive Foodies celebrating National Iced Tea Month. We drink a lot of tea in my house. That's why when I put this on the table, they made sure to remind me that it's really an Iced Tisane since it's not really a tea. Fine. Before we get to that, here's the Iced Tea Parade from the Festive Foodies for National Iced Tea Month... Chamomile Arnold Palmer from The Beard and The Baker Cucumber Mint Iced Tea from Our Good Life Hibiscus Iced Tea Margarita from A Day in the Life on the Farm Jasmine and Spruce Tip Tea from Palatable Pastime Magical Color-Changing Iced Tisane from Culinary Adventures with Camilla Minty Blueberry Iced Tea from Cindy's Recipes and Writings Sparkling Hibiscus Iced Tea from Blogghetti Sparkling Peach Iced Tea from Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks Magical Color-Changing Iced Tisane Quick note on the terminology here. This is a 'tisane' because - technical...

We're into the Ns in our  Cooking Around the World Adventure . Next up: Nauru. It's the world's smallest independent republic and is one fascinating country in as much as I can hardly find any information about it. Granted, it's less than 15 square miles, but it is populated and they have to eat something, right?!? I found references to white rice and SPAM. Ugh. Sorry, that's not going to happen during this tabletop trip or any other! Another mystery: the exact origins of the Nauruans are unclear since their language does not resemble any other in the Pacific. A German-British consortium began mining the island's phosphate deposits early in the 20th century. And phosphate mining devastated the island environmentally. So, virtually all of their food is imported, including fish caught by nearby Kiribati fishermen. In pre-mining times, Nauru had plenty of pandanus and fish, and they ate those with coconut meat. White rice is a staple, and fish with ri...