eclaire (what's in a) name?

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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disclaimer: i am not a pastry chef. but i like pie – no, actually i LOVE pie – but i feel like a bit of an amateur, as about half of my crusts used to turned out well, while others turned out soggy or too dark. and honestly, i’m a little nervous posting this because there are so many amazing pie/pastry chefs out there….but here goes with my story of how and why my crusts turn out really well every time now (and because i just wrote this, i’m sure my next one will flop!).

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last weekend, we were invited to a bbq at a friend’s parent’s house and when we asked if we could bring something, dessert was requested. it was a very fortuitous request, because my dad had just sent me the recipe for a blueberry tart from the new york times (thanks, dad!), and i was waiting to make it for a group so mike and i wouldn’t consume the whole dessert ourselves.

on the morning of the bbq, we awoke early to the sound of mike’s cell phone alerting him to a technical issue with his company’s servers. mike rarely drives these days (he commutes to work on a bike), so we had lent his car out to his sister while hers was in the shop earlier in the week, and thus he headed over the hill in my car to fix the issue. i could have called her and asked for a ride to the store to obtain the ingredients for the tart, or for that matter, i could have called any of my other family members and friends dotted across the west side of santa cruz. but since the day was sunny and i needed some exercise, i decided to strap on my tennies and walk to the store. before leaving, i took one last thorough read-through of the recipe and realized that the dough needed to chill for 30 mins before baking. i had all the ingredients for the crust on hand, so i set to work making the dough, then stuck it in the freezer, grabbed my list and headed out listening to this american life on my ipod.

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when i received a beautiful tart pan for my birthday this year (thanks, mom!), i decided that i had to utilize the new present and try my hand at tart making – something i’ve never tried before and frankly intimidated me a little bit. at about the same time, a coworker lent me a lunches, picnics & appetizers version of the tassajara cookbook, and while thumbing through the pages i found a lemon tart recipe that spoke of being the best of all lemon bar recipes, but reinvented into a tart. (i have to give credit to my talented husband for the gorgeous pic above, and while i’m at it, he also gets credit for about half the pictures on this website.)

i absolutely love lemon bars and figured that this would be a perfect way to ease my way into the art of tart baking – because how can you go wrong with lemons, butter, and sugar?

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earlier this month, the new york times posted an article about the hunt for perfection in chocolate chip cookies. this article created a stir in the food blog world as everyone scrambled to make the recipe outlined in the new york times, critique it, and offer their own commentary about the best chocolate chip cookie.

i was planning on doing the same for you, dear readers, but every time i went to make the recipe from the ny times, my hands uncontrollably reached for my recipe box to get ahold of the card with my personal favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe instead.

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