Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Many year ago, Nonno and Nonna didn't live less than a mile away from us. Before they retired and moved back to the Peninsula, they lived in Oklahoma. But every three months, the Nonni hopped on a plane and came to see their grandbaby boys. On one such trip - during the holidays - Nonna saw a photo of a fruit Christmas tree in a magazine at the airport. She brought it home and suggested that I make it for R's preschool holiday party. Sure thing. He was excited. I bought mini cookie cutters, long skewers, fruit, and off we went on our fruit Christmas tree adventure. ...until we had this. I was pretty proud of it. But he pulled out the magazine and began to compare. And he realized: one of these things is not like the other. Mommy , he said,  you did it wrong .  The stars are supposed to be red! We had a conversation about watermelon not being in season - that I could only find a cantaloupe. We talked about photos such as that being mer...

For awhile now I've been referring to Dylan as the Enthusiastic Kitchen Elf and Riley as the Reluctant Kitchen Elf. I am changing my tune...and am trying not to take this personally! Dylan picked the absolute perfect Christmas present for his brother: an edible chemistry set. And Riley has been more than a little excited about the chemistry of cooking. This weekend he requested a day to get his thank you notes written and to make a batch of cheese. So, during this cheese-making process, I realized two very important things about my eldest child: (1) he needs to measure things and (2) he measures because he wants to follow the directions precisely. Wow. He lives with the wrong cook. I rarely measure and I'm a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kinda cook. But, now that I know this, I think I can get him back in the kitchen. He's making homemade ricotta as I type. You'll see that...and the recipe soon. Oh, and the thank you notes are ready to be mailed tomorrow.