eclaire (what's in a) name?

in late june, we traveled out to ohio for mike’s family reunion. the event was held in a lush green park with a covered picnic table area, and on the day of, it was warm and humid with a nice breeze and a chance of some showers to liven things up. as we put down tablecloths to mark our picnic bench territory and set up a net for some badminton matches, family began to arrive with homemade goodies of all sorts. as a vegetarian, these events can be quite interesting, and i usually make mike go first in the buffet line to taste the homemade concoctions and determine if they are made with meat or if they are safe for my consumption. (luckily, my mother in law – thanks, barb! – always ensures that there are some delicious veggie items for us at ohio events, but i do love to sample the local cuisine as well.)

at the dessert table, though, there was no need for mike to taste test for me, and i promptly loaded a plate with more baked goods than my stomach should (or would) contain. when i first tasted this cake, my taste buds were delighted, and i mused out loud “what’s in this?? coconut? banana? pineapple?” and immediately went back for another slice. many badminton, bocce ball, volleyball, horseshoe/ring toss, and guessing how-many-items-fit-into-a-container games later, we were forced back under the covered picnic area by an afternoon rain storm. the baker of this cake was telling someone else about it, referring to the delicacy as a hawaiian wedding cake. i shared my delight with the recipe, and was shocked to discover that the recipe contained little else besides pineapple, flour, and sugar – a case of simple concoctions tasting better than more complicated ones. the recipe was so simple that the baker was able to give me the recipe off the top of her head, and i quickly wrote it down and vowed to make it again very soon.

flash forward a couple of weeks to my first opportunity to bake for friends in a long time, and it was without hesitation that i decided to make the hawaiian wedding cake for my beach celebration. i made two modifications to the original recipe: 1) i baked them as cupcakes (because the only thing better than cake is a cupcake!), and 2) i also decided made them vegan – see my parenthetical comments for more details.

here’s the unfrosted cupcakes (and an unsurprising glimpse of mike on his computer):

Read the rest of this entry »

i turned a year older last week, received some amazing presents from my family and friends (many of which will make it into another blog post because i want to share them with you), and had several fun celebrations.

a looong time ago, when i turned 10 years old, my parents threw me a party at natural bridges and had pizza delivered to the beach. i was SO excited by the prospect of having a delivery person show up at the beach, asking for “emilie’s party” that the pizza tasted even better than usual when it finally arrived. so this year, when i debated where and what to do for a small gathering, i realized – hey! i live on the westside now! why not go back to natural bridges and have another pizza party? – but since i’m double the age i was at my last beach pizza party (plus seven years), i decided to make it a little more grown up and make the pizza at home (and ask the numerous fantastic chefs in attendance to bring something delicious to share).

when i tell people that i make pizza dough from scratch, many people try to tell me how much time i could save by buying prepared crusts. but my parents raised me to expect that the default pizza dough would be handmade, so no use in trying to change that now! (that delivery pizza experience for my 10th bday was one of the few times i can recall eating non-homemade pizza.)

for this beach party, i made three different pizzas to appease the variety of eaters in attendance: one with mozzarella, homemade tomato sauce, pineapple, and fake canadian bacon; one with soy cheese, the same homemade tomato sauce, olives, and mushrooms; and the third with a vegan spread (annie’s spread is amazing, if you have never tried it before), plus zucchini and red bell peppers. i was so focused on making it to the beach on time that i didn’t take many pics (with my BEAUTIFUL new camera!!) of the finished products, so you’ll just have to ogle the dough instead.

Read the rest of this entry »

after a fun and food filled weekend, mike and i decided to make a hearty, healthy, vegetable-laden dinner to start out our week and counterbalance the weekend’s excesses.

we made this recipe for the first time a couple weeks ago (it was in last month’s vegetarian times), and it was printed as a two part recipe – the first being a mango teriyaki sauce on grilled tofu and the second part brown rice. the mango sauce, which is salty and sweet and very bright tasting (unlike the bottled stuff), is the most amazing part of the recipe, and i think it would lend itself well as a topping on all sorts of other concoctions. we LOVED this sauce and its juxtaposition with the aromatic and nutty flavored rice so much that we decided we had to make the whole dish again, but this time add lots of vegetables and make it a stir fry instead of grilled tofu over rice.

so the recipe i’m giving you has three components – rice, sauce, and veggie/tofu stir fry. while typing out the recipe, i became a little worried that you, dear readers, might think that it’s a little daunting. but i assure you, we completed the whole meal in less then 30 minutes of hands on time (we started the brown rice in my trusty rice cooker before heading down the hill to new leaf), and while there are a lot of components, each is pretty simple.

Read the rest of this entry »

i just read a very interesting article in the new york times (thanks, dad!) about female swim coaches – somewhat surprisingly there are very few of them in the competitive swimming world – and only three who coach 2008 olympians, all of whom reside in california.

i just don’t get the preconceptions that female coaches will be “easy” or “less competitive” than male coaches, but that’s probably because when i was in high school we had an awesome, laid back male coach who created loooong, grueling workouts for our afternoon practices. but in the morning (we’re talking 6am monday-friday, people), we had this gnarly female coach who made us focus on stroke refinement instead of yardage. i believe it’s due to her that i dropped so much time in my events my senior year – as well as the reason why i was able to in turn teach swim lessons for almost a decade. i ran into her a couple of weeks ago when i went swimming with my mom at ucsc, and she’s still going strong with the coaching, setting up the next generation of swimmers for success.

ok, enough from me, check out this article:

Women Jumping in as Elite Swim Coaches

ps- is anybody else excited about the summer olympics? i don’t know bout all of you, but i plan on spending all of my free time in front of the tv, watching my favorite summer sports!

as promised, i’m sharing the recipe for the delicious raspberry bars i made for the picnic last weekend. these bars came out of our favorite food magazine vegetarian times, and were absolutely amazing, combining some of my favorite foods: oats, cinnamon, and raspberries.  mmm, my mouth is watering just thinking about them!

i made a couple of changes to the veggie times recipe – the main change was using fresh raspberries and mushing them with a fork instead of using the raspberry jam that was called for in the original version.  i found the fresh raspberries gave the bars a delicious and full flavor, but were a little soggy from the extra water in fresh berries vs jam.

so, when i had the occasion to make the bars again this weekend for my sister-in-law’s house warming party (yes, i liked them enough to make twice in one week), i used raspberry jam.  the jam bars were a lot crispier (the top was especially crunchy, with the texture of granola rather than soft oatmeal cookie), but they had more of a hint-of-raspberry flavor than a full bodied, how-did-you-pack-this-much-raspberry-flavor-into-such-a-little-bar taste.  so, my dear readers, when you make this recipe you’ll have to decide: crispy and crunchy with raspberry aftertaste or soft cookie, packed with raspberry deliciousness.  good luck with the choice – i still can’t decide how i would make them the next time.

Read the rest of this entry »