Culinary Adventures with Camilla

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of  Le Creuset . All opinions are my own. You can read about how I ended up with these lovely mini cocottes from  Le Creuset  in this post: Utility and Beauty . As soon as I opened up the box and my Enthusiastic Kitchen Elf saw the cocottes, he squealed, "I'm going to make biriyani in those!!" Okay. A couple of years ago, when the Enthusiastic Kitchen Elf and I were watching an episode from the second season of  Mind of a Chef,  we watched Chef April Bloomfield make lamb biriyani with Chef Stevie Parle. Here's a link to the  Venison Biriyani   on his website. We loved the presentation with the naan on top of the pots. We've been making it that way every since. Beef Biriyani Quick Note: This recipe was made over a period of two evenings. On the first, we seasoned the meat and made the curry which cooked for over three hours. On the second, we assembled the pots, baked, and en...

When the boys saw the four flats of tomatoes on the counter, they groaned. "Are we peeling all of those?!?" Yep. Well, some of them.  Every summer I process a ton of tomatoes so we'll have fresh sauce even when tomatoes are out of season. And every summer, they complain. I usually make them do enough that they appreciate the fresh sauce, but, then, I do the lion's share of it as a Roasted Tomato Sauce that doesn't require peeling! Making a basic tomato sauce in the wee hours of the morning in an enormous cauldron is one of my unforgettable food memories. There was no sterlization going on. We were in the middle of a field, cooking the tomatoes down over a fire with an oar and pouring them into old beer bottles. It was fantastic! I had rented a room on a farm on the island of Lipari (off the coast of Sicily). Each morning the family left me a basket of eggs and fresh vegetables. And one day - at 3am - they invited me to watch them make and jar th...

Yesterday Chef Ron Mendoza opened the doors to his brand-new ice cream shop: Revival Ice + Cream . We didn't make it over there yesterday, but we knew that we had to try it today. I'd seen too many photos from friends that just made me want to stick a spoon into my computer screen! So, despite the grey skies and occasional raindrops, we headed over for some ice cream. When we arrived, the benches in front of the window were packed with customers and there were just a few people in line in front of us. By the time we got our ice cream, the line reached the door. It seems we weren't the only ones who were willing to eat ice cream in the rain! Made with Clover organic milk and cream and with almost all of the ingredients sourced from local farmers’ markets, Mendoza offered a dozen ice creams that were outrageously creative. We tasted several and still couldn't decide. Jake ended up with a double scoop of Heart of Darkness and Mint. D chose to h...

As we enter the final quarter of the  Foodie Reads 2016 Challenge , I picked up a copy of  Juilet's Nurse  by Lois Leveen.* There was a thread on Facebook about book recommendations and this one was on there; I can't remember which friend posted it. But I will read just about anything set in Verona. Let me admit that this is not, at first glance, an obviously foodie read. But the narrator is a wet nurse. And, while reading it, I was brought back to many conversations I had about breastfeeding while I was nursing my two boys. And it comes to this: yes, breasts can be sexual. But they are also a food source. I remember when I was nursing my youngest on a bench at the zoo in Oklahoma City. At least half a dozen zoo employees approached me in the fifteen minutes that I was sitting there and said, "Ma'am, there's a bathroom right over there. You can go nurse in there." I thanked them all, politely, and declined, thinking to myself: I don't eat in the bat...

Inspired by his latest issue of MAKE  magazine, the Precise Kitchen Elf requested that we make our own hot sauce. Done. Though the magazine was the inspiration, the recipe is our own. Ingredients 2 pounds fresh peppers (I had shishitos, red jalapenos, and more) 3 whole garlic cloves 1 T salt 1 1/2 C white vinegar Procedure Wash and dry your peppers. Lay them on a parchment or silicone mat-lined baking sheet and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Roast for 40 minutes - until the peppers are shriveled and golden.     Once roasted, pull the stems from the peppers.     Combine the peppers, garlic cloves, and salt in a blender. Blend for a few pulses. Once the ingredients are roughly combined, drizzle in the vinegar. Blend till smooth.     Transfer sauce to a jar and cover with a cheesecloth. Allow to sit in the pantry; the longer it sits, the deeper the flavor that develops.  We le...

Here we are at the October event for The French Winophiles, a wine-swilling, food-loving group coordinated by Christy of  Confessions of a Culinary Diva . We've made it around France. And by c licking on the following regions you can read my recipe post that includes the #winophiles round-up as well. So far, we've traveled - by tabletop and goblet - to  the Loire Valley ,   Corsica ,  the Southwest ,  Languedoc-Roussillon ,  Bordeaux ,   Champagne ,   Burgundy ,  Alsace ,  Médoc , and  Côtes du Rhône . Once we made the rounds, we began to revisit the regions with a little more specificity. So, in September, the crew headed to the Graves region in Bordeaux . And this month, we're headed to the Jura. The Conversation Join us for a live Twitter Chat Saturday, October 15th at 11 am EST/8 am PCT. You may join in the revelry by following hashtag #winophiles. Here's where we're headed next: November 19th – Cahor and Beaujolais....