Culinary Adventures with Camilla

I looked in Dylan's homework folder for the week and was thrilled to see something a little bit more exciting than the usual math and language arts worksheets. This week, they have to cook something. That is right up this family's alley. And what a great way to reinforce fractions, currency, and measurements! Step One: Find a recipe you way to try cooking with your family. Dylan went straight to my cookbook stash, though I had to steer him away from Indian food (too time consuming) and cookies (not nutritious). He finally opted for a recipe for Italian pork chops. Step Two: Find out how much it will cost to make this recipe. I actually had pork chops in the fridge. So, we looked through the Trader Joe's receipt from last week and ended up writing "$0 - in pantry" for several ingredients. I'm not quite sure how you quantify the cost of one minced clove of garlic...or some sea salt. Step Three: Make the recipe with your family! He'll be making dinn...

True to my non-conforming roots, I usually cook something a little bit different for Thanksgiving. Last year I opted for a Native American feast, researching traditional recipes from different tribes. Here's what I made... Wild Sage Bread, Pueblo (New Mexico) Corn Soup with Venison, Oneida (New York) Baked Pumpkin, Ojibwa (Ottawa, Canada) Cornbread-Stuffed Pheasant and Duck with Blackberry Sauce, Cherokee (Texas) Marinated Quail, Comanche (Texas) Wild Rice, Passamaquoddy (Maine) Wilted Dandelion Greens, Cree (Quebec, Canada) Berry-Cornmeal Cobbler, Abenaki (Maine) Fresh Herbal Tea, Modoc (California) This year, since Riley - along with every other fourth graders in the state - is studying California history, I decided to create a menu based on Spanish colonial foods. I'm starting with a copy of Encarnacion's Kitchen: Mexican Recipes from Nineteenth-Centry California that I picked up yesterday at the Cooper-Molera Adobe. I haven't quite decided on the menu;...

This afternoon I received a three-word text from my husband: "French. Onion. Soup." Yes, that's how it works in my house - they order, I cook. It's my own fault that they believe they live in a restaurant. So, with that suggestion, I headed to the store after work and picked up some onions, beef boullion, and gruyere cheese. Easy, though I would not call this a traditional French onion soup. My version, as always, relies on what I have or don't have. I did not have white wine or thyme, both of which are included in the usual recipe. Instead, I used a combination of spices and added a splash or two or three of a cabernet sauvignon. I also couldn't find my oven-proof ramekins, so I melted the cheese on the bread in the oven and just plunked them into the steaming bowls of soup. onions dill oregano celery seed smoked sea salt butter beef boullion red wine bread, sliced (I used mini loaves of a whole wheat hazelnut bread I had made yesterd...

but, I can't resist actually passing this recipe on: Twinkie-Stuffed Turkey. Yes, you read that correctly. A turkey. Stuffed with Twinkies. That certainly qualifies as a culinary adventure, but one on which I refuse to embark. Twinkling Turkey (serves 15 to 20) from The Hostess Twinkie Cookbook Ingredients 1 (8 1/2 ounce) package yellow corn muffin mix, prepared and baked according to package instructions 6 Twinkies halves lengthwise 1 (14-18-pound) turkey 1 tart apple, peeled, cored and diced 1/4 cup honey Instructions Remove the muffins from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Scrape the creme-filling out of the Twinkies with a small spoon and reserve in small bowl. Cut the Twinkie pastry into cubes and spread in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake for 8 – 10 minutes, until lightly toasted. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely. Decrease the oven temperature to 325 degrees. Rinse the turkey. Crumble muffins into a ...

Ironically, Kate and I were assigned each other's blogs for our November reveals. While I stuck to some savories, she whipped up a version of my gingerbread muffins. Click here for her version. And here's my original post from November 2010...enjoy. Though I have limited my baking - in an attempt to curtail our household sugar intake - I will put this on the rotation for my once a week oven-time as the holiday season approaches. After all, they are, as Kate mentions, not too sweet. Gingerbread Muffins Steel yourselves. Just as October spawned a glut of pumpkin recipes, I am entering December on a similar gingerbread kick! I love the kick of ginger and the richness of molasses. To stave off the morning chill, I whipped up a batch of gingerbread muffins and served them with chilled eggnog. Yum! 1/2 C butter 1/4 C organic granulated sugar 1 C chestnut flour 2 C white whole wheat flour 1/2 t salt 2 t ground ginger 1 t cinnamon 1 t nutmeg 1 t all-spice 1 egg 1 C hot water 1 ...

It's time for the November Secret Recipe Club  reveal. What's the Secret Recipe Club? It's a group organized by Amanda of Amanda's Cookin' . Each month, every participant is assigned to someone else's blog from which they pick a recipe - or two - to make and post, but it's all a secret until the big day. Today's the day. I always love a kitchen challenge and some culinary adventure. And I was determined, this month, to whip up some savories for the reveal. Meet Kate of Kitchen Trial and Error . There are so many things to admire about her blog, but the one that struck me first: she admits to kitchen flops. Love that! We all have them, why hide them? Her " about " page invites you to stay awhile and read about her messes and successes in the kitchen. I surely did. It was not difficult to pick some recipes of hers that I wanted to make. What was challenging was narrowing down the list. I ended up making three of her recipes for dinner one nigh...

Yesterday, after an adventure back in time at San Juan Bautista's Living History Days, we wandered into a mom and pop Mexican restaurant. I ordered a small bowl of albóndigas  and was thoroughly confused by what I received... ...two huge meatballs, one carrot, one zucchini, a wedge of cabbage, a plate of rice, a quarter of a lime, two tortillas, and no instructions about how to eat this. Was I supposed to chop it up into bite-sized pieces and mix it all together? Was I supposed to eat the components separately? I muddled my way through, enjoyed the flavors, but probably offended some of the other patrons with my complete ignorance about this tasty dish. I did, as I always do when faced with a culinary mystery: I came home and googled it. The number of variations is astounding. Some had a tomato base, some a plain broth. Some had cabbage, some had green beans. But all had a rice-meatball simmered in broth with fresh mint and a squeeze of lime. I started with that knowledge and ...