eclaire (what’s in a) name?

as promised in an earlier post, i’m sharing another delicious lemon recipe! lemon bars hold a special place in my heart – i can remember picking them out from behind beautiful glass bakery cases when i was a kid, after swimming lessons (or maybe after ballet lessons? i’m not entirely sure – eating at yummy bakery memories blend for me – it was a rough childhood, i know). while i tend to favor chocolate desserts, and just plain old chocolate in general, lemon bars are one of the few exceptions i make to my chocoholic nature.

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how is it possible that christmas is only five days away? this season has definitely slipped by at our house. but we managed to squeeze in some holiday cookie time last week, and i thought you may want to use this recipe in the few days before christmas, too!

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way back in october, while answering the door for trick or treaters, i had a conversation with nancy about a cooking demonstration she watched online (via cook’s illustrated) in which she learned several tips for making perfect peanut butter cookies. during the course of our chat, i realized that i have never made peanut butter cookies. this may not sound like a big deal, but they are mike’s favorite cookie in the whole world, and peanut butter is one of my all time favorite foods. so how is it possible i’ve never made them?

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hi everyone, i’m back from my trip to the midwest, and finally sitting down to post after a long week at work.  i had a fabulous time with my family in indiana and chicago – we had beautiful weather, and spent time celebrating my great uncle’s 99th birthday, looking at pictures with my great aunt (my grandmother’s older sister), walking around the campus of purdue, viewing exhbits at the chicago art institute, taking the “l” to wrigley field, and most importantly, getting to know our family in the midwest a lot better and learning about my norwegian heritage.  i discovered that my love for cooking and welcoming friends into my home is decidedly norweigian, and learned that norwegians get upset when people visit without calling, because they can’t prepare coffee and bake cookies before inviting guests into their homes.  to that end, when our friends came over this weekend, i decided i had to honor my heritage and make some cookies (albeit with them, not before they came over).

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i don’t know about the rest of you, but i am extremely excited about our 44th president! the night before his inauguration, i was driving home and listening to npr when this story played over the airwaves. in case you’re the kind of person who won’t click on that link (meaning that you and i are more alike than you know!), an NPR correspondent interviewed members of the DC Central Kitchen. DC Central Kitchen is a charity organization that has grown in the past 20 years from collecting leftovers from previous inauguration dinners and distributing them to homeless shelters, into a culinary arts program for people who have been in prison or homeless. thus, instead of feeding people with challenging circumstances, the DC Central Kitchen now trains them and places them into jobs as the complete the program so they can feed themselves. for this inauguration, the DC Central Kitchen made over 8,000 shortbread cookies from Michelle Obama’s own recipe. i haven’t had a chance to try these out, but i wanted to share the inspirational story above as well as the recipe with you (recipe is after the jump). here’s to a new administration of change and hope!

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