Crepes

Time off in the summer is glorious.  The sun is shining, a pool and the beach are mere moments away, and in my free time I go cooking crazy.  The fact that I haven't posted since last summer is a fair indicator that there is so much going on at my job during the school year, that I just don't take the time to post...let alone cook at all some days.

On one of these lazy summer mornings I got a bee in my bonnet to try something different for breakfast.  According to my New Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book, crepes take just 5 ingredients, all of which I had at my disposal.  Ingredient availability is paramount in this house, so I jumped at the chance to try my hand at crepes.

In all of the cooking shows, crepes are one of those "difficult" dishes that people struggle to pull off, so I fully expected a challenge.  However, the mere quarter page mention of the "Crepes" recipe in the cookbook made me wonder if this had all been a great deception.  Time to bust this crepe mystery wide open!

Popovers

One of the lovely things about getting married is receiving the advice and words of wisdom passed down from those who have loved and learned before you.  One of my favorite bits of advice came in the form of this cookbook, Williams-Sonoma Bride & Groom Cookbook: Recipes for cooking together by Gayle Pirie & John Clark.  It is part of a set, which also contains a guide to entertaining, for a true amateur such as myself.  The books set the stage for a sharing, harmonious kitchen, if only you would follow their simple directions.  As we all know, marriage is no fairy land and we make do with what we have, but there are some great tips and recipes in here.  I was inspired to make breakfast for my slumbering hubby, and as usual I had failed to plan for something fancy for breakfast, so "Popovers" stood out to me as something that didn't require a ton of technique and had a really short ingredient list.  Best of all, while simple, they're really easy to dress up.

Pancakes

When I moved into my new apartment, all I wanted was some comfort; something familiar and warm to make me feel at home in unfamiliar surroundings.  Add to that the complication of not much food in the house yet and just a mini-fridge for perishables, options were slim.  Pancakes - good old fashioned pancakes - came to mind as something simple and easy to make.  Not to mention, pancakes always remind me of my mom and cozy weekend mornings with my family.  As always, when I go for the basics, I reach for Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook.  I've probably made these 100 times, but I can never remember the portions.  I do, however, remember the page number of the pancake recipe in this book (p.128 if you're interested...)

Now if you've never made pancakes before, there is a fun yet overly complicated episode of "Good Eats" that will give you more information than you ever need to know.  I prefer to use the knowledge learned peering over the countertop as my mom cooked them, but whatever floats your boat.  On with the yumminess!