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Jan. 22nd, 2005 03:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickThe snow seems to have mostly died down. The weather people were predicting 5-10" of snow. We have three. I am waiting for the last of the flakes to peter out before I break out the snowplow. Also, if I plow, the road to lattes will be unobstructed. Mocha latte? We shall see. First, the snow has to stop. Then there has to be plowing. Then there will be a latte, assuming I still feel like one by then.
Today for lunch I made crepes with organic black raspberry topping. They were yummy.
If you are thinking that crepes are hard to make or that the organic black raspberries came from some snooty yuppie grocery, quit it. Those are improper thoughts. Rearrange your perceptions of the world. Crepes are, as you'll see in a moment, dead easy. Also, the organic black raspberries came from my freezer, where I stuffed them last July after picking them off the unruly canes outside my house. They're organic because I can't be bothered to spray chemicals on them, not because I'm a virtuous, birkenstock-wearing eater of muselix or similar.
Crepes are a very thin pancake type food item that comes in "dessert" and "savory" incarnations. I make the dessert ones. Extremely-simple dessert crepes can be made out of flour, eggs, sugar, milk, and vanilla extract. You'll also need a stick of real butter to grease the skillet.
In a 2-cup pyrex liquid measure, put in 4 Tbsp. flour, 2 Tbsp. white sugar, 1 egg, 1/2 teasp. vanilla extract. Stir well with fork until you have a uniform, gluey yellow mess. Add milk up to the 3/4 cup line and stir smooth. Add more milk, until the level is just below the 1-cup line. Stir until smooth. Let that sit while preheating a skillet to "medium". The skillet is ready when butter boils on it. (Test by swiping the end of the stick across the surface.) You should be able to hear it. The butter should not smoke -- if it does, you need to turn the heat down.
Grease skillet with butter (hold butter stick, mostly still in wrapper, in your hand and run the peeled edge over the surface of skillet). Stir the batter and pour 1/4 cup of it in the center of skillet. Quickly, pick up the skillet and twist it slantily so that the batter runs all over in a big circle. You should be aiming for big-and-thin, here, and you will get better with practice. This is the hardest part of the process.
Cook until the crepe is kind of lightly browned on parts of the bottom and the surface you can see looks mostly solid instead of totally liquid. It'll have a matte finish. Flip the crepe over and cook a fairly short time, until lightly brown on the bottom.
Roll up the crepe with the flipper thingie, remove it from the skillet, and set it aside. Repeat, starting with "Grease skillet", for the rest of batter, to make 4 crepes, total. This is enough (with fruit) for one person for a meal. You will not really need other food.
When you're done cooking them, serve the crepes with some kind of warm fruit topping. Most any fruit can be made into fruit topping by heating it up with a little sugar. You can get more involved if you want, but it usually isn't necessary unless you're trying to impress people. Berries (blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries) are very simple and it is unlikely that you can go very wrong with 1/3 cup berries (sliced, frozen, or slightly mushed) and 1 Tbsp. sugar. Experiment a little.
I am not feeling particularly plow-motivated. *sigh* Not even for a latte.
This is not getting the road plowed or the driveway shoveled. And I bet it's colder than fucking hell out there.
Today for lunch I made crepes with organic black raspberry topping. They were yummy.
If you are thinking that crepes are hard to make or that the organic black raspberries came from some snooty yuppie grocery, quit it. Those are improper thoughts. Rearrange your perceptions of the world. Crepes are, as you'll see in a moment, dead easy. Also, the organic black raspberries came from my freezer, where I stuffed them last July after picking them off the unruly canes outside my house. They're organic because I can't be bothered to spray chemicals on them, not because I'm a virtuous, birkenstock-wearing eater of muselix or similar.
Crepes are a very thin pancake type food item that comes in "dessert" and "savory" incarnations. I make the dessert ones. Extremely-simple dessert crepes can be made out of flour, eggs, sugar, milk, and vanilla extract. You'll also need a stick of real butter to grease the skillet.
In a 2-cup pyrex liquid measure, put in 4 Tbsp. flour, 2 Tbsp. white sugar, 1 egg, 1/2 teasp. vanilla extract. Stir well with fork until you have a uniform, gluey yellow mess. Add milk up to the 3/4 cup line and stir smooth. Add more milk, until the level is just below the 1-cup line. Stir until smooth. Let that sit while preheating a skillet to "medium". The skillet is ready when butter boils on it. (Test by swiping the end of the stick across the surface.) You should be able to hear it. The butter should not smoke -- if it does, you need to turn the heat down.
Grease skillet with butter (hold butter stick, mostly still in wrapper, in your hand and run the peeled edge over the surface of skillet). Stir the batter and pour 1/4 cup of it in the center of skillet. Quickly, pick up the skillet and twist it slantily so that the batter runs all over in a big circle. You should be aiming for big-and-thin, here, and you will get better with practice. This is the hardest part of the process.
Cook until the crepe is kind of lightly browned on parts of the bottom and the surface you can see looks mostly solid instead of totally liquid. It'll have a matte finish. Flip the crepe over and cook a fairly short time, until lightly brown on the bottom.
Roll up the crepe with the flipper thingie, remove it from the skillet, and set it aside. Repeat, starting with "Grease skillet", for the rest of batter, to make 4 crepes, total. This is enough (with fruit) for one person for a meal. You will not really need other food.
When you're done cooking them, serve the crepes with some kind of warm fruit topping. Most any fruit can be made into fruit topping by heating it up with a little sugar. You can get more involved if you want, but it usually isn't necessary unless you're trying to impress people. Berries (blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries) are very simple and it is unlikely that you can go very wrong with 1/3 cup berries (sliced, frozen, or slightly mushed) and 1 Tbsp. sugar. Experiment a little.
I am not feeling particularly plow-motivated. *sigh* Not even for a latte.
This is not getting the road plowed or the driveway shoveled. And I bet it's colder than fucking hell out there.
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Re:plowing
Date: 2005-01-23 12:20 am (UTC)Re: plowing
Date: 2005-01-23 12:34 am (UTC)I don't actually spend time in the fucking cold when plowing. The truck has an excellent heater. It's toasty warm for the actual plowing parts, which I've done.
I went into Breezewood for a latte, but those bastards at the sign of the mermaid went home early because of inclement weather. Three inches isn't very inclement in my book. Wimps.
Re: plowing
Date: 2005-01-23 10:09 am (UTC)I am very, very glad I didn't make my doctor appointment for Tuesday afternoon. The one road I have to take to get there (up a very steep hill to a rickety bridge with a three-ton weight limit) would probably still be a nightmare by then.