Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Here we are at the final Soup Saturday Swappers event of 2019. Wendy of  A Day in the Life on the Farm  started this event and, every month, I get a new array of soup recipes to put in my to-try pile. This month, I am hosting as we explore celebratory soups. I wrote, "The holidays are upon us. Let's share soups for celebrations. These can have sparkling wines in them, pair well with sparkling wines, or just be a soup you serve at a party. Be creative!" Here's the line-up of celebratory soup recipes from the #SoupSwappers... Cream of Mushroom Soup With DIY/Homemade Cream Of Soup Mix by Sneha's Recipe Italian Wedding Soup by Karen's Kitchen Stories New Year's Soup by Making Miracles Pear and Sweet Potato Soup by A Day in the Life on the Farm Potato Leek Soup with Herbes de Provence by Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice Trinidadian Corn Soup by Culinary Adventures with Camilla Velouté de Châtaignes by Pal...

When we starting talking about The Enthusiastic Kitchen Elf's 13th birthday celebration, several months ago, there wasn't much of a discussion. He declared: "I would like to have my friends over. We are going to cook. And it's going to be a Cajun feast." Okay. Sometimes I wonder where he gets these ideas. Then I just look in the mirror. Well, I still don't know how the Cajun part popped into his head. But, we're ran with it. And, to add to the mayhem, we planned an ingredient hunt at the farmers' market with the kids in the afternoon. I pulled some veggie riddles from the web for the nine ingredients we needed to find. Some were more challenging than others, but, I think, they figured all of them out. Since we weren't able to find green beans, bell peppers, or bread, I'm glad I had purchased some things ahead of time. We stopped for a cookie break at the end of the street.... Then, they all came back to our house to ma...

Tara of Tara's Multicultural Table is having   had a baby! Congratulations,  Mamma  ! Both are happy and healthy though the baby did decide to come a wee bit early. In typical foodie fashion, her virtual baby shower is all about food - biscotti to be exact. Thanks for hosting, Lauren of Sew You Think You Can Cook . I've done a fair share of sweet biscotti - Spiced Chestnut Biscotti , Birthday Biscotti , Chocolate-Dipped Pumpkin Biscotti , and even a Chocolate-Kalamata Cantucci . But, given my bent for experimenting and my decided lack of a sweet tooth, I opted to go savory. No real surprise there, right? Biscotti, in Italian, simply means 'twice-cooked.' The second baking gives these savory biscotti a beautiful crisp texture while the parmesan adds a richness and the peppercorns lend a piquant bite. Yum. Ingredients 1/3 C melted butter 3 eggs 1 C whole milk ricotta 3-1/2 C white whole wheat flour 1 T baking powder 2 C shredded parm...

Remarkably - maybe for the first year ever - I didn't bring anything made with pumpkin for our annual Halloween camping potluck dinner. This year, I went for the macabre. There's no real recipe. Just get a skull prop. Wrap with plastic wrap wherever food is going to touch the skull...just to be on the safe side. Cover with your favorite charcuterie. I used prosciutto, coppa, and various salami. It was as tasty as it was disturbing (to some)! Happy Halloween!

A friend invited us to a post-Christmas pie tasting party. What a great idea! This beats a cookie exchange hands down because there were savories. So many possibilities. I left there stuffed but inspired to make some more pies. Soon! We tried...(forgive any omissions!) Savories - shepherd's pie, tamale pie, chicken Provençal pie, onion flan, and my Gluten-Free Veggie Galette with Caprese Topping . Sweets - maple nut-persimmon pie, bitter lemon meringue pie, apple-cranberry pie, apricot-marzipan tarte, Shaker lemon pie, gluten-free and dairy-free pumpkin cheesecake, cranberry linzertorte, pear-marscarpone pie, and my Gingered Calamansi Tart . I tried them all! And there were many, many empty pie pans at the end of the event. I'd call this a success. Thanks for the invite, Bryndie. Let's make this an annual event. What's your favorite pie? Comment below. Or email me at constantmotioncamilla[at]gmail[dot]com. I'd love some new recipes.

These were from our friend's robot-themed birthday party. Nothing really to say here except this: if you offer kids vegetables and fruits, they will eat it. If you make the food fun, they will devour it. Thanks, Pia, for making birthday party fare fun and healthy!

When I tore open the envelope from Quirk Books and revealed On a Stick! 80 Party-Perfect Recipes by Matt Armendariz*, I had to fight all three of my boys to flip through it. Literally fight. By the time I got to thumb through the pages with post-it notes and a pen in hand, there were already some pages marked as favorites. 'Please!' was scrawled in someone's messy handwriting on a scrap of paper, holding the page. Probably Dylan. The only stumbling block: many of his recipes are deep-fried and I, as a general rule, don't eat fried food. So I knocked Breakfast Pancake Dogs with Maple Syrup , Chicken and Waffles , Corn Dogs , Deep-Fried Mac'n'Cheese , and Doughnut Holes off the list immediately. They just didn't appeal to me plus I don't have a way to deep fry anyway. I really wanted to figure out how to adapt his Fried Mushrooms with Roasted Onion Dip , Molotes with Fresh Tomato Salsa , and Savory Tofu Dango into non-fried versions. I'll g...

One of my best friends out-bid me at an auction for an Ocean Sushi Deli  Sake and Sushi Tasting Experience by Shiho Fukushima. I was bummed. I've known Shiho for years, frequent her restaurant, marvel at her culinary passion, follow her freelance pieces in the Monterey County Weekly , and really wanted to take part in the tasting. Little did I know that Jenn just out-bid me for the fun of it...she planned to include us in the fun. I hoped that was the case, but I didn't want to be presumptuous; she has plenty of friends who would be thrilled to partake. But I have to admit, I was more than a little excited when she told us the date and time. Phew. Simply, sake is a Japanese alcoholic beverage made with fermented rice. But sake can be divided into categories by how it was brewed. The first one we tried was Rei by Sho Chiku Bai, Takara Sake's main brand. Rei is a Junmai Ginjo Nama /Ginjo Draft. Junmai means "pure rice" and is a sake composed of only r...

Guess who's turning one?!? Edible Monterey Bay that's who. And, in typical Edible-style, they are celebrating with a lavish Farm-to-Table Wine Dinner at Live Earth Farm on Saturday, October 13th. Click here to read the event preview. A few things to note... The anniversary party takes place at Live Earth Farm , a small family farm nestled in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains near Watsonville, and kicks off with a tour by Tom Broz. Tom and his family founded the farm that also houses the nonprofit Live Earth Discovery Program , a program that provides local school children with hands-on education about organic and sustainable food systems. After the tour, guests will enjoy a reception featuring delicious local wines. I don't know the full line-up, but I do know that Heller Estate Organic Vineyards will be pouring. And for those who aren't imbibing, 3 of a Kind will be serving up their sparkling, seasonal libations. Brad Briske, who is currently r...