Mother's Day Crepes

Let me start by saying, I love my mom=) Yupp Mommy you're pretty awesome. She's kinda my bff, like for realz. We're super tight and share so much. Especially our love of food. If I didn't have her in my life, my passion for food would be ka-put! She's helped me to blossom my dreams in the kitchen and seriously always puts up with my temperamental nature. When recipes go astray, she helps me reign them back in and look on the bright side. Plus, she'll eat ANYTHING I make. I can't say that for everyone else in my family... We both share this love of food and that's a bond I really don't get to form with others. We are connoisseurs, gourmands, hungry women, who love food, but most importantly each other.


So for my mommy, I asked her what she wanted for her Mother's Day breakfast. Of course I already knew. Strawberries. DUHHHHH. And crepes. Beautiful, light, delicate crepes.

I got up early and went to work on these babies. I made them all first, then called my mom down to start eating. They were DA BOMB! Unfortunately for me, my sister hadn't woken up yet, and my mom and I had finished off the whole batch, so I had to make a whole other batch for her. Grrr... but now I'm a crepe master, and she loved loved them!


Basic & Delicious Crepes
found here

1 cup all-purpose flour2 eggs
1/2 cup milk1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and the eggs. Gradually add in the milk and water, stirring to combine. Add the salt and butter; beat until smooth.
* I actually just put it all in a blender. It's easier for cleaning up and pouring into the pan. Just make sure you don't have globs of flour stuck on the sides. You've got to pulse!2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each crepe. Tilt the pan with a circular motion so that the batter coats the surface evenly.
3. Cook the crepe for about 2 minutes, until the bottom is light brown. Loosen with a spatula, turn and cook the other side. Serve hot.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Filling
found here

1 8oz. block of cream cheese
1/3-1/2 cup of your choice fruit spread (strawberry in this case)

Assembly:
Spread an even amount of your strawberry cream cheese filling into a crepe, and roll it up. Top with powdered sugar, sliced strawberries, and a generous amount of whipped cream.

Crepes Parisiennes: A Restaurant Review

I have been waiting to go to this place forever! Crepes and blintzes are my favorite breakfast items ever!!! We were on our way to an applefest (which had a $5 admission!! So we skipped) but instead ended up in Oakland perusing the shops. Tucked away down some cellar steps was this place: Crepes Parisiennes. Though the downward descent into what seems like a cellar might throw some people off, I found it very quaint and authentic.

There are some other interesting things to note about this place as well. When, you walk in, before you sit down, you wait in line to reach the counter to place your order. After you give your order and they give you a number, you may then take a seat. It's not too bad because while you wait there is to perfect view of the crepes as they are made. There are not many tables, however, so going at a busy time of day would be unfortunate.

There are both savory and sweet crepes. The list of savory crepes contains dishes with spinach, mushrooms, sausage, ham, cheese, eggs, tomatoes, etc. Anything you want basically. The sweet crepes list is extremely impressive. Black forest or white forest crepes, fruit preserve crepes, Russian blintz crepes, nutella, nutella and banana, nutella, banana, and chocolate crepes, pineapple and coconut crepes, white chocolate or plain chocolate crepes, and more I can't remember. There is also frenh toast varieties and waffles. There are authentic french drinks like cafe au lait and french hot chocolate, whose name escapes me.

You are served pretty quickly and the staff is nice. The prices themselves aren't too fabulous. Anywhere from $6- 8 crepes. For one crepe. And after you see how big they are, you know it's too expensive. Besides the size, you need to consider taste. I ordered the white forest crepe and my mom got a blueberry Russian blintz. All sweet crepes are served with whipped cream and walnuts unless they are told otherwise.

My crepe itself was nice and soft, a bit chewy though. The white choclate was nice, although the raspberries on top were very overwhelming. They also had tons of seeds which wasn't very pleasant. All together, if you got an even combination of the crepe, white chocolate, raspberries, whipped cream, and nuts, it was nice. But before I got to enjoy my crepe, it was gone. I neede more. So the verdict: good, but certainly not great.


My mom's crepe was actually a blintz, my favorite. Blueberries were a stretch for her since she usually gets strawberries but we both thought something different would be good. I only got one bite but here's what I thought. Her crepe was a tad crispier and we both prefer ours soft. Also, the blueberries were extremly tart and that was not a good thing. the filling to me was not was I was hoping for, as I have had many blintzes before. It was chunkyish and not smooth and creamy. Verdict: I've had quite a few better.

This trip was necessary, but not something I'd do again. For those high prices and that small of food, and the 'meh'-ness of the taste, we probably won't go back. All the while we kept thinking, "I like our homemade ones so much better."

While we were out we stopped in the Williams Sonoma store, and I fell in love. Ahh, it was such heaven! There were samples out as well and we tried some pecan pie, butternut squash soup, and hot apple cider. They were all amazing! We did end up buying the butternut squash soup we tasted and decided it would make a great Thanksgiving dinner item.

So that's the review. And I will say this, my mom and I have decided to give Pamela's the benefit of the doubt. We will be returning, though this time at a different location. Then we make our final decisions about the restaurant. I can't say when it will be, but hopefully we'll get around to it soon.

Protein packed crepes make a healthy and yummy breakfast

Okay, so no pictures with this post but I just had to tell you about my breakfast=).

It was a real spur of the moment kind of thing. I got home from my super early volleyball practice and needed food! But, I bought this expensive protein powder stuff to have after those draining practices. I bought the vanilla flavor since I'm not the biggest chocolate fan (GASP!), but it kinda tastes like crap. So I've been trying to think of ways to use it in recipes because drinking it is repulsive.

Well this morning a random idea came to me. Crepes! So I looked up your basic crepe batter and then downed the recipe to only about 2-3 servings. So I ended up with something like this:
1/3 cup of flour
1/4 pinch of salt
1/16 cup of sugar
1/4 of an egg
1/3 cup milk
1/2 tablespoon melted butter

So instead of flour I used the recommended serving size of the protein powder. It wasn't enough for the 1/3 of a cup, so I used flour for the rest. And yes, it is kind of weird to only use a 1/4 of an egg or a 1/16 cup of sugar, but whatever.
First combine your flour, salt, and sugar, and make a well in the middle. Then add the egg and milk and whisk until smooth. Finally, whisk in butter slowly.

After that I pretty much just heated my small skillet and poured in a third of the batter, depending on how big you want them. I spread it out as thin as possible and waited for it to cook. It became a pretty pale color, not your usual yellowish pancake-ish color. I actually had no trouble at all with cooking them or flipping them. It yielded 3 delicious crepes for me.

With the crepe on my plate, I spread a small amount of grape jelly on one end, then rolled it up. Then, I heavily dusted it with powdered sugar=).

They tasted really good. I think my mom makes delicious ones, and I think they have more of a pancake flavor without the protein powder, but with the jelly and powdered sugar they taste just fine.

So if you have some kind of protein powder or other powdered supplement that you're looking to experiment with, go for it. And I most definitely recommend trying crepes, with or without substitute powder. They may seem intimidating to make (or at least I thought they did...) but they're actually super simple, and if you maybe don't flip them perfectly they're still going to taste great!

Also I may post some other recipes I've tried to substitute protein powder in and let you know how those go.