Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Crepes with Nutella and Strawberries


Crepes and I have kind of a tense relationship. Back in junior year of high school, when I was young and inexperienced, I started "dating" a guy named Mike. I use quotes because I was 15, painfully awkward, and completely out of touch with my girly feelings -- I had no idea how to deal with myself, much less a boyfriend. On my 16th birthday, Mike surprised me with a morning picnic behind the school. He had bought me a dozen red roses, laid out a blanket on the grass, and prepared hand-made crepes with whipped cream and strawberries. I was completely blown away. But rather than gushing my thanks and sharing a happy, hormone-charged first kiss with my very sweet boyfriend, I completely shut down. I mumbled "thanks," shuffled over to the blanket, gulped down a crepe, and said "I'm cold, want to go inside?" -- all the while avoiding eye contact with poor Mike, who I later found out had spent 2 weeks planning the surprise. Ugh. Just typing that out makes me all squirmy and embarrassed. Teenagers suck. 


Needless to say, our love didn't last -- Mike and I stopped talking (literally stopped talking...stopped making eye contact...stopped being within so much as 10 feet of each other...) shortly thereafter, and had a very brief and mutual break up at the beginning of senior year. We eventually became friends again, but from then on every crepe reminded me of my youthful idiocy, and I couldn't eat the damn things for years. It wasn't until college, when I was older and wiser (and time had erased my shame), and happily dating Dan, that I could finally bring myself to try a crepe. Best decision ever. Crepes are delicious!

And, it turns out they're easy to make. The ingredients are simple: flour, butter, salt, eggs, and milk -- not unlike pancake batter. When you get down to it, crepes are just super thin pancakes, after all. Really, the only challenge is getting the batter to spread out evenly in a thin layer in the hot pan 


I've had many delicious savory crepes, but sweet crepes are still my favorite. The combination of fresh fruit, rich nutella, and thin, egg-y pancakes, with just a dash of powdered sugar, make for a perfect breakfast or post-dinner snack. I could eat crepes everyday!

Recipe can be found here, at allrecipes.com.

1 comment:

Andrea the Kitchen Witch said...

the crepes look delicious. I love nutella and strawberry crepes, divine!

Your story was sweet and painful all at once. Weren't we stupid as teenagers? LOL!