eclaire (what's in a) name?

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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unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past several months, i’m sure you’re all quite aware of the economic crisis facing our country.  while mike and i are lucky enough to remain in our excellent places of employment, and the majority of our friends are still working and not impacted by the tough times, it has brought up a new awareness for me about finances.  now, mike and i are no financial gurus, but we’ve been using the website mint.com to set budgets and watch where we’re spending our hard earned money.  it’s been eye opening to see how much of our money goes directly to food.  and while this amount spent on food isn’t exorbitant, there are definitely a lot of take out sushi expenditures, and we often throw uneaten produce into the worm compost bin.

recently, a good friend sent me an article from cnn.com with ideas for $10 meals and challenged me to “better and more vegetarian friendly version.”  so i am responding to the challenge with my own twist on saving money in the food realm, because i got frustrated quantifying how much money i spent on a specific meal, mostly since i pull lots of ingredients from my stocked cupboard (spices, flours, bouillon cubes, canned beans, etc).  let’s just say this post was inspired by the article above, but does not direct speak to it…and i promise to hone my pricing skills and get back to you.

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after my first foray with making a soup from scratch at home, i began avidly looking for more soup recipes to create in my own kitchen. i landed on a lentil soup from the amazing cookbook eat, drink, and be vegan, by dreena burton, and immediately whipped up a large pot of the thick and homey soup.

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this week, mike and i packed up our car and headed up to mendocino and calistoga to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary. we spent four days and three nights camping in mendocino (with no internet or electricity – can you believe it?), then headed down to calistoga (where we are right now, living the life with free wifi in our hotel).

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what the heck is a tagine, i bet you’re thinking to yourself. yeah, i was right there questioning with you until i utilized the powers of google a couple of days ago. technically, tagine refers both to north african (think moroccan) stews as well as to the vessel they are cooked in for hours upon hours. while i love moroccan food, there aren’t any restaurants in santa cruz, so i have to head over the hill to san jose or san francisco to consume the amazing four (plus) course meals that are standard at moroccan restaurants. and usually, i’m so involved in the experience of eating the amazing moroccan delicacies served at these two restaurants (and there is only one veggie meal, not a whole menu of options) that i have never before noticed the name of the dishes i love – tagines!

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