eclaire (what’s in a) name?

hi readers, how are you doing? long time no post. i hope you’re all having a good summer and enjoying the beautiful weather outside. we’ve been quite busy the past month, with both fun events (peter and jenny’s wedding, katie’s birthday, and a trip to ohio) and a sad event.

throughout the good times and bad, the constant in our lives is food – whether it’s the (mostly) healthy stuff we make at home or the not so healthy stuff we eat when we’re on vacation. i love food, and as you may have gathered from other posts, cooking is part of my genetics – my whole family loves to prepare and consume delicious comida. mike and i make at least 4-5 meals at home per week, all of which are vegetarian and some of which are vegan (i will eat and bake with eggs, but i use very little dairy). i also read a ton of food blogs (my favs are 101 cookbooks, smitten kitchen, and vegan lunchbox), and we subscribe to a great magazine called vegetarian times that continually inspires us to create new, seasonal meals.

a month or so ago, my sister-in-law laura and i were sharing our favorite food blogs, and she was telling me how she wants to create her own food blog about the scrumptious vegan food she cooks. during the course of the conversation, i began to wonder why i haven’t yet taken some of the things i love doing – cooking, writing, and taking pictures – and combine them into blog posts about food. silly me!!

so…drum roll please….i am planning on posting at least once per week with a dish we’ve made! many of the recipes will be classic powell family cuisine that i grew up eating (i should probably make sure my parents are ok with me publishing the secret family recipes – will you guys please let me know if this is ok in the comments?), and the rest will be my own spin on vegetarian times or food blog recipes, letting you know how well they turned out in real life.

to begin this new feature on my blog, i prepared a picnic lunch that you may have read about on my husband’s blog. we packed up the picnic items: falafel, pita bread, hummus, fresh veggies, my own version of tabouli salad (recipe is below), iced tea, and some delicious raspberry bars  into our backpacks and biked out to the bluffs of wilder ranch to enjoy the feast and the view.

following is the recipe for my take on tabouli salad. i just kind of winged this recipe and it turned out to be a such a delight that neither mike nor i could stop eating it…that is, until the raspberry bars came out (see my next post for that recipe).

emilie’s “tabouli” salad

• 1c whole wheat couscous
• 1 medium lemon, juiced
• 1/4 bunch mint, minced
• 1/4 bunch flat leaf parsley, minced
• 1/2 english cucumber, diced
• 15 cherry tomatoes, cut into quarters
• 1T olive oil (or more, to taste)
• salt and pepper to taste
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1. boil 1½ cups water in a small pan
2. add couscous to water, turn off heat, cover, and let sit at least 5 minutes
3. combine the lemon juice, mint, parsley, cukes, and tomatoes in a bowl
4. add the couscous and drizzle in the olive oil, salt, and pepper as you stir to combine
5. chill in the fridge for 30 mins to 1 hour and enjoy!