At Squat & Gobble crêperie and café on Haight in San Francisco, CA, the land of the awesome breakfasts. Also, all that juice on the omelette is hot sauce — those two Tobascos on the right. I couldn’t help myself.

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Savory Crepe Ingredients

• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 cup all-purpose flour, preferably bleached
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted, plus 2 or 3 teaspoons butter for coating the pan.

Savory Crepe Recipe

In a blender or food processor, blend the eggs, milk, water, flour, salt, and the 2 tablespoons melted butter for 5 seconds, or until smooth. Stir down and repeat if necessary.

Or, to mix by hand, sift the flour into a medium bowl and add the salt. Whisk the eggs until blended, mix in the milk and water, and whisk this mixture into the flour and salt; stir in the 2 tablespoons melted butter.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (though 2 hours is preferable) or up to 24 hours.

Gently stir the batter if it has separated. Heat a seasoned 6- or 7-inch nonstick crêpe pan over medium-high heat until hot. (Use a 9- or 10-inch pan for larger crêpes.)

It takes just 2 or 3 teaspoons of butter to coat the pan for a batch of crepes. A paper butter wrapper with a small amount of butter o­n it is a fast way to achieve this.

Coat the pan lightly with butter, lift the pan from the heat, and pour in 2 or 3 tablespoons of batter for a 6- or 7-inch pan, or about 1/4 cup for a 9- or 10-inch pan, tilting and rotating the pan to coat the surface. Cook until almost dry o­n top and lightly browned o­n the edges, about 1 minute.

Loosen the edges with a metal spatula and flip the crêpe over using your fingers or the spatula, then cook the other side for about 15 seconds, or until lightly browned.

Turn the crêpe out o­nto a clean tea towel to cool. Repeat with the remaining batter, wiping the pan with butter as needed and stacking the crêpes as they are cooked.

For serving immediately, cover the crêpes with aluminum foil and keep them warm in a preheated 200 degree F oven.

For serving later, wrap them in plastic wrap in quantities intended for each use and slip them in a self-sealing plastic bag. Refrigerate crêpes for up to 3 days, or freeze them for up to 2 months.

Keep a stack o­n hand in the freezer for unexpected guests. The crêpes will quickly defrost at room temperature, then separate with ease.

Via Chris Abraham & Sweet and Savory Recipes for the Home Cook

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I was cruising food blogs tonight for a client of mine and I stumbled upon an article over at the Cookthink Blog called NPR: Understanding the economics of French toast. Wow, this is very interesting, check this out — it really reminds you how profoundly bio fuels take food out of our mouths — in this case, by upping pricing on staple ingredients, just like Mark warned over on Biodiesel is Food Not Fuel by Mark Harrison:

On Sunday night, I caught a great story on the rising costs of food, all told through the lens of French toast.

For one baker in DC, 100 pounds of wheat flour has gone from $18.50 to $54.00, an 190% increase from this time last year. Eggs have gone from $1/pound to $1.50/pound. Just taking into account the increase for flour and eggs, one 600-pound batch of brioche dough costs the baker $162. This time last year, that batch was $55.

Factor in the rising demand for bio-fuels, the rising global demand for beef and the increase in fuel costs, and you have an environment where, as an economics professor from Duke says, the price of “everything has gone up.”

From What’s Cooking America

Loco Moco Recipe

1/4 pound ground beef
1 egg
Hot prepared gravy
Hot pepper sauce
Tomato ketchup
Soy Sauce

Form the ground beef into a patty. In a frying pan over medium-high heat, cook patty until cooked to your liking; remove from heat and set aside.

Fry egg (sunny-side up or over easy) in the grease from the ground beef.

Assemble this dish by putting a bed of cooked rice in a large bowl, top with hamburger patty, fried egg, and 1 to 2 ladles of hot gravy. Add hot pepper sauce, ketchup, or soy sauce according to your preference.

Makes 1 serving for a very hungry person.

Loco Moco (loh-koo moh-koo) is Hawaii’s original homemade fast food and can be found at just about any fast food joint, roadside diner, mom and pop restaurant or lunch wagon in the Islands. It is truly unique to Hawaii, and it is a comfort food, or “local grind,” of the Hawaiian Islands. Local food is not the cuisine that is served in upscale hotels and restaurants of Hawaii. It’s basic structure was established soon after World War II – the best fast food or mixture of cuisines from many Pacific rim countries, with a special Hawaiian twist.

Loco Moco is a mountainous meal consisting of a heap of white rice topped with a hamburger patty and a Sunnyside-up egg, and then smothered in gravy. This dish is popular for breakfast, lunch, or dinner and is a candidate for the Cholesterol Hall of Fame. As you eat, break the egg – then blend the burger, egg, rice, and gravy on your fork for each bite for a real taste of paradise.

There are many people who claim to have invented Loco Moco, but it is generally agreed that around 1949, either the Cafe 100 or the Lincoln Grill (both in Hilo, Hawaii) originated the first dish of Loco Moco. According to the story, the dish was created for teenagers who wanted something different from typical American sandwiches and less time-consuming than Asian food to eat for breakfast. The nickname of the first boy to eat this concoction was Loco (“crazy” in Portuguese and Hawaiian pidgin). Moco rhymed with loco and sounded great, so Loco Moco became the name of the dish.

According to John Penisten of the web site Tropi-Ties, Inc:

Rudy Legaspi, former member and unofficial historian of the Tropi-Ties (also recently retired Executive Assistant to the Mayor of Hawaii County and admitted loco-moco fanatic) says “The loco-moco had its origins with the Lincoln Wreckers Athletic Club, an informal organization for local teenagers, in the late 1940′s. The group used to hang-out at the Lincoln Grill Restaurant across the street from Lincoln Park in downtown Hilo.

The Lincoln Wreckers, who played in the local “bare-foot” football league of the time, had some success on the field, but its main claim to fame was their creation of the loco-moco. The popular local dish has become a staple on restaurant menus throughout the islands and is a recognized cultural cuisine icon, as much as a taco is to Mexican fare or a pizza to Italian fare.

The loco moco story began in 1949, after Richard and Nancy Inouye opened the Lincoln Grill Restaurant. The teens used to hang-out at the eatery, playing the pin-ball machines, cards, dropping nickels in the Wurlitzer jukebox and constantly feeding their hungry appetites. And in those days, when teens didn’t have much money in their pockets, the standard fare was a bowl of saimin noodles or a hamburger, things which didn’t quite fill the always hungry teens.

So the club devised a plan to ask the Inouyes to create a special dish just for them, something filling and affordable. For the task, the Wreckers nominated a guy nicknamed “Crazy” for his wild and madcap play on the football field. “Crazy” approached the Inouyes with the club’s request and the rest is history.”

Loco Moco on Wikipedia

The Loco Moco is a dish unique to Hawaiian cuisine. There are many variations, but the essential loco moco consists of white rice topped with a hamburger patty, a fried egg, and brown gravy. Variations may include bacon, ham, kalua pork, Portuguese sausage, teriyaki beef, teriyaki chicken, mahi-mahi, shrimp, oyster and other meats.

Its roots are not entirely clear. James Kelly writes that the dish was created in 1949 by the Inouye family, who owned the Lincoln Gril in Hilo, Hawaii in 1949. In keeping with the standards of Japanese Cuisine, they used rice as a staple starch and finished it off with the hamburger and gravy to create a dish that did not require the preparation time of bento. The egg was added shortly thereafter. The name derives from the nickname of one of the teenagers who frequented the restaurant (‘Loco’) combined with a rhyming (‘moco’), meaning snot. It is a widespread and popular dish in Hawaii and a favourite of local fast food restaurants, but is almost completely unknown elsewhere, except for in Japan where it is very popular.

Loco Moco is also the name of an American restaurant chain featuring Hawaiian rice bowl dishes.

From a lovely and helpful reader of this blog, Bree, in the comments section of Who Knows Nicole Richie’s Diet Regimen, “OK here it is all those looking for Nicole’s Diet, I havent tried it yet but Im definitly going to!!! hope this helps….” Thanks Bree!

Nicole appears to be shrinking before our eyes. The 23-year-old has hit the gym with a vengeance (2+ hours a day) and now weighs an astonishing 91 stone.

The Diet
Breakfast: 2 Egg Whites; 1 Scoop of Protein Powder mixed with Water.
Lunch: 4oz. Chicken, Mixed Greens, 1c. Orange Juice
Dinner: 4oz. Fish, Steamed Veggies
Dessert: Fruit

The Workout
1 Hour Weight training
90 Minutes of High Impact Cardio
…….although they say……..
Her recent transformation is a prime example of how drastically a balanced diet and increased physical activity can change a person’s appearance. Nicole exercises four times a week and does something different during each session. Besides integral training (cardio and weight work combined) the newly svelte starlet likes to use the indo board for balance and leg work. Furthermore, according to her trainer Adam Estner, “Richie now eats more food than before, but she eats the right kind.???

The folks around the office have been gushing about Starbucks’ breakfast sandwiches. I finally tried the $2.99 ham, egg, and cheese “Egg McMuffin” myself and here I am gushing* right along with them. I really hate Starbucks’ lunch menu. It is offensive to charge over a fiver for a cold prepackaged sandwich. Everything changed last month. No, lunch still sucks at Starbucks, but they introduced breakfast sandwiches. No joke.

I received a brilliant response to my analysis of an ineffective viral protest campaign. A foundering meme, if you will. It begins,

“Who are you fooling, you embarrassingly transparent lackey?”

Here is the entire comment in full:

“Who are you fooling, you embarrassingly transparent lackey?”

“What the “Left” has to do if it wishes to meet the present Republican party on this battlefield is show an equally cynical willingness to baby-talk sweet nothings to the masses to get their passive consent, then do whatever they damn well please with the power they gain.”

“What’s hobbling the Democrats right now in their struggle against the radical right is that they are clinging to the original, romantic notions of democracy being about truth, honesty, transparency, debate, and freedom of opinion. Those are liabilities when facing a rival party where unity and loyalty are prime, and all those other things are tertiary at best.”

“We know the jaded old adage well: “Democracy is the system in which the people get the government they deserve.” Most of the American people deserve – and want – to be lied to and controlled. A horrifying percentage of Americans still cling desperately to the utterly and completely discredited fantasy that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11. Even our President, who got so much mileage off this disinformation has conceded that it was a lie – and yet huge numbers of our countrymen simply refuse to give up this myth, like children clinging to their belief in the Easter Bunny. If the Democrats would just grasp this power concept as the Republicans have, perhaps they’d be allowed back into the positions from which they can give the people what they want.”

“Yes, it’s a shame that the democracy that our Founding Fathers envisioned is eroding down towards a one-party sham-democracy. And it’s a shame that those great democratic notions of truth, honesty, transparency, debate, and freedom of opinion are withering under this current cynical onslaught. And it’s a shame that those many Americans who know that Easter eggs actually come from chickens have to watch as the democracy we’ve known and held dear for generations slowly degenerates into a caricature of itself, but perhaps Americans just aren’t ready for democracy.”

“And hey, if you don’t like it, go to Russia. It’s actually quite nice there right now if you have some money, and the women are absolutely wonderful. One of the greatest things about being American is that you can live anywhere in the world you want to – it’s a big, beautiful place out there. Check it out, you might actually prefer it to the present theater of the absurd back home.”

“To sneer or not to sneer? Chris, drop the spin doctor’s hat. You’ve been behind closed office doors and at dinner tables with the world’s wealthy, educated, and powerful. We all sneer and look down our noses at the “normal people”, Democrats and Republicans alike. The Republicans are just showing the good form to do it in private and entre nous.”

“It’s aristocracy 101; I guess the Dems need some charm school.”

“(P.S. If this insults you, sorry ya’ll… but there is no Santa Claus. We really do sneer – on both sides of the aisle. If you don’t like it, then wake up and use what’s left of your freedoms to kick us out. But you won’t… I’m going back to my life of privilege. Go back to your cubicle.)”

A reflection on a two-month sailing trip from Acapulco to Los Angeles on a 42-foot Jeanneau catamaran. Almost two-years-ago now.

My spiritual experience of sailing during Lent during my Jesus year birthday of 33 and all the important lessons and experience I have been lucky to have as a result. Although I am a member of the Vestry of Saint James’ and its currently both the most exciting time and my favorite time on the Church calendar, Lent, I responded to the call of my best friend Mark when he asked me to come to Mexico to help him complete his sail from Charleston, SC, to Los Angeles, CA.

I joined the sail on March 1, spent my birthday on the boat, and find myself stuck in Cabo San Lucas over a month later.

What I have realized is that sailing allows one to better understand the nature of God’s grace in my life. Little did I know that it would be as much help to me as it has been to him.

I had never sailed with Mark, even though he lives and works from the deck and cabin of a gorgeous yacht catamaran named Kinship II. I have never been much of a sailor and so much of my sailing enjoyment has been vicarious. It just never interested me and Mark never really pressed the issue.

A little over a month ago, Mark called me and told me that the crew of six he started with in South Carolina had started abandoning the vessel beginning at the first stop after a grueling trek from the Keys all the way to Central America, through the Panama Canal, and back up the Pacific coast of Mexico. The faithful remnant left in Acapulco because their money had run out and the time schedule had slipped and slipped and slipped, as sailing schedules are wont to do.

So, when Mark suggested that he would pay for me to fly to Acapulco to join the crew — him — I took this as one of those veiled manly calls for help which never really show either fear or desperation.

When you spend time with men’s men, you have to read between the lines. I was in Acapulco within five days. I might have hurt a relation with a client and leaned on my lovely friend Sarah a little too much, to say nothing of the strain on my new and wondrous relationship with Wendy, but it was Mark! The brother I never had.

We burnt two weeks moored off of the Club de Yates de Acapulco as most of the beatings that Kinship II had suffered on the long passage through the Gulf, along Central America, through the Panama Canal, and up along the Pacific coast were being healed by our angel, Gabriel, who took the time and the pride to get us up to ship shape.

I have been officially sailing the Pacific sea since the first day of Lent, 5 March. An equal time has been spent stuck in port and harbor as it has been sailing miles offshore; some of it has been gentle and awe-inspiring while other parts have been punishing and trying.

Although I have not officially given up anything for Lent save my job, I have been able to use the time to become more essential.

Things have been very difficult for me over the last year or so, at least since 9-11, but including the technology crash. Technology and the Internet is the basket I had been placing all of my eggs and I had been compensated very well for it.

During the last six months, thought, I have be grasping at straws, asking myself what I want to do with the rest of my life. Become a lawyer? Go to business school? Pursue a PhD?

I was stuck in a myopic infinite loop. My priorities, my goals, my desires, and my true wants and needs were befuddled and unclear. Sadly, I have unintentionally hurt people as they were caught in my personal panic as I desperately searched for my equilibrium while not giving myself either the time or the slack with which to find it.

On 8 March, in addition to everything else, I became 33, which to everyone I have spoken to at Saint James’ and elsewhere is my “Jesus year.” Allegedly, the age Jesus the Christ died for our sins. Lord knows this was renting space in my mind as the date approached. Lord knows that there was no way I could even remotely find the time or the money to be able to take this time to both help my friend and save myself. But there it was, and I am still sailing with a lot of help from my friends.

Sailing takes time, and it takes its own time which has nothing to do with either my desire or the requirements of society. The moment one becomes willful enough to disrespect the nature of the sea is the day something breaks. Its as simple as that and is kind of spooky at first. Easy as she goes. Cliche sentiment seem to reverberate on the sea. The 96-hour passages blur one into the other into one long day, and when the limits of my tolerance were reached I was rewarded with a pod of a hundred dolphins dancing in and out of my wake. Or a field of basking green sea turtles in the middle of the sea. Or a dense morning fog clearing to a double rainbow.

God can be very remedial in his lessons when you are sailing. He also protects fools and drunks and I am most certainly a fool at the very least. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction and Karma is direct, reciprocity is king on the sea. When I am tempted to be willful and push myself past either my abilities or my energy, I always either hurt myself or break something onboard. This is not a joke. It seems gentle — the sea always does — but it is life or death.

The lesson I have learned thus far is that there is a definite rhythm I have been blind to, within which everything works beautifully.

As a striking example, last week we were on route from Manzanillo to Cabo San Lucas and it was to be a milk run. Easily enough diesel to motor from where we were anchored at the Las Hadas Resort to where we were to moor in Cabo San Lucas. First impossibility: we ran out of diesel prematurely because the engine was detuned and was drinking the fuel quickly. So we ran out with just enough to bring us in to port when we finally made it to port, which was still 150 miles away.

That’s okay, we have a sailing catamaran. We sail easily in 5 knot winds. During the second day, the main sail halyard snaps at the block, at the top of the mast. That’s okay, we have a redundant halyard — which snaps four hours later! We string up the Genoa line and limp the rest of the way. Impossible, but normal I guess.

Things like this happen a lot. When we arrived at Cabo San Lucas, we could not find anyone who would climb the mast, until we ran into Sebastian and his family, from Vancouver, BC. He shimmied up the mast for free and we were back on schedule. We ran into many people like Seb along the way and the Cruiser community around the world is amazing generous.

Sartre was wrong, hell is not other people: grace is other people.

Every day of this trip has humbled me; every day has given me confidence. Not once have I felt humiliation and every day has been a celebration. The confidence not to fear what will happen next, to remain present and observant, to remain vigilant but not aggressive.

And I have been thriving and I am strong and worthy of supporting Captain Mark as his only crew and of protecting the delicate fiberglass exoskeleton Kinship II so that she is seaworthy and makes her voyage to Los Angeles on one pristine piece.

On the sea, nothing needs to be forced, nothing needs to be rushed; in fact, there are very few things that can be rushed. I have had to turn on the hourly chime on my wristwatch because I have experienced a couple of these 96-hour days. Time shrinks and expands. Being on watch exacerbates this experience. Time is relative in a practical sense as it can stretch or compress, and some nights I have been on a watch for what feels like an hour starting at 0100 and then the sky lightens and turns pink and the morning comes. Other times, I fight for wakefulness and after making a go of trying, I wake Mark and ask him to take the watch instead so that I can catch some sleep for a little while. This is too much to risk, too much to lose, if I were to try any harder and fall deep into an exhausted sleep leaving no one at all to keep an eye out for cruise ships or super liners.

What’s on the line is the safety of the boat — a quarter-million-dollar investment — and the safety of the crew. There is only one person, usually sleepy and bored, who takes watch and single-handedly keeps the fragile and absurdly delicate vessel going 8 knots out of the way of container ships moving at 25 knots. There is a feeling of trust, the kind of confidence-building experience that can easily undo damage done in the workaday world of corporate America, can rebuild the confidence and self-love that might have blossomed in simpler times. I know they did for me. On the sea, either alone or with a crew, one can renew one’s faith in oneself and others.

Post Enron, dot-com, 9-11, and Clinton, my world changed in significant ways. I am a pretty technologically-savvy fellow and when I graduated from GW in 1993, during a low point in employment and jobs, I became an Internet and web developer in addition to photography and writing. Although a student of literature at University, I didn’t choose graduate school right away but instead became part of the great excitement of the dot-com explosion. I have been using the Internet since a bet version of Mosaic; since I played with MacWeb, when I noodled with lynx. I am pre-Internet and as a teen I was part of the BBS culture. It was natural for me to join the excitement and during the 90s I didn’t explore graduate school or law school, but rather put all my eggs into the Internet economy. And I was rewarded for a time.

Recently, times have become tough and I have lost much of my confidence in my choices, what I have to offer, and in myself. Luckily, I have never lost my Faith.

While on Kinship II, Mark and I went over my life because I needed distance and clarity. I was able to note the five things that are most important to be in my life, and I am proud to say that I have four out of five of them in spades: A partner, my family, my friends, my spiritual life, and money.

I am told that there are so many rich Americans who suffer from a true lack in their lives. So many Americans who might have money and a partner, but lack friends, family, and spirit. Or have money and nothing else. I am reminded every day that in a conscious, present, spiritual life, money is the easiest to secure for many of us as it is the most valued. Surely, it can feel that way. There are days when I lose sight of all the things in my life for which I am amazingly grateful and focus on only the things I lack, in this case money. And then it is often a downward spiral, where lack begets lack and before I knew it, I find myself feeling not only like a loser but like the worse kind: the fellow who failed to live up to his potential. In these times, I lose sight that I have had money before and that I will have money again. Its easy when one lives in a small world — or a world, shrunk — to find oneself skewed: both in perspective and proportion.

But on the sea, its different. As a geek, I liken it to rebooting my desktop computer. Rebooting the PC is the secret we techies have for fixing most of the problems wrong with most desktop PCs. Most of the time, these slowdowns occur because there are too many things going on on the PC that the user is no longer aware of: memory leaks, infinite loops, crashed software. These things cannot fix themselves and most users cannot truly sense this chaos in any way short of system slowdown. Not all problems result in the blue screen of death, some just send the computer into a morass. A skilled technician can fix some of the problems from the keyboard or by using a piece of software as an elixir, but the simplest thing one can do to set everything right is to turn the machine off, wait a minute and then turn it back on. Reboot.

So as I sit in an Internet cafe in Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico, wondering if I am spending Lent the way I should. Mexico is a traditionally catholic country, truly religious. I have not given up coffee, chocolate, or even beer; I am not attending church and I am three thousand miles away from my pew in my parish, Saint James’ Episcopal Church, Capitol Hill.

Yes, I am spending Lent better than I could have ever imagined, in my opinion. For all the fears, stresses, and anxieties I have been suffering under, I have had my head truly buzzing so that I couldn’t hear myself think clearly, to say nothing of the soft voice of my Faith.

On the boat, I have had time to think. At first, way too much time! I felt guilt and boredom; I felt like I needed to do something, needed to get back to the office to make sure everything was all right. After two weeks — yes, I buzzed for a fortnight — I started to relax. I felt my heart, my face, by body, and then my mind become more tranquil. On the boat, I have been getting a good lesson in Faith, in trust, and in moving with the flow as opposed to opposing it, striking against it. To force it makes it break; to avoid it doesn’t make it go away; to fear it doesn’t help. Whatever it is. To be completely honest, I have not felt so good about myself and what I have to offer in ten years. I feel like a tiger!

So I have done the most irresponsible thing imaginable in dropping everything and flying three thousand miles to help a friend by replacing his crew and becoming a sailor for what will be over six weeks. It would never have happened had the request come in any other form than what I perceived as a mayday, an SOS. But it did and I am here and I am changed. Does this mean that I will be doing this irresponsible thing again and again? Will I need to do this again in the same way, taking an unscheduled, selfish, and fool hardy escape again? Probably not I have learned so many things and the next time I become overwhelmed or lose faith in myself or my life experience and am myopic and suffused with fear, all I need to do is remember; or, be reminded. Quite possibly this very writing will be enough; if not, then Mark, my friends, my parish family, or you.

Instead of being changed into a bum, a drop out, or a vagabond, am becoming more clear that I want the life I have, that I can handle the life choices I make, that I make fine life choices. I have had an amazing growing up, brilliant parents, a world-class education, and have many friends, and a fine girlfriend. When I make a life choice there is a good chance that my decision is a result of a very fine coming up and I should not worry too much. My choices will probably — based on a thirty-three year track record — be moral and kind.

I have been spending the last three years attending Saint James’ Holy Week religiously. Saint James’ offers one of the most spiritually rich Holy Week and Easter I could ever have imagined. From Maundy Thursday through Easter Eve, the Spirit is palpable and the presence of God is undeniable; similarly, I have a profound personal and spiritual experience while sailing. As arcane and transcendent and as undeniable as what I experienced in Church. To be sure, I am grateful to have had spent a truly blessed experience.

The next time I wish someone Godspeed, in my mind and heart that will forever be between 2.9 and 8 knots.

Every man’s man has to have at least one thing he cooks — something he brags about and is known for, at least in the family. My dad made “hash” which was a mixture of corned beef hash from a can, pan fried leftover baked potato from the night before, and sometimes, onion.

Many men are known for their waffles or their pancakes, and some are known for their Sunday fry ups. Well, let me tell you about the moment I knew I would make crêpes my signature dish.

Around six years ago, I attended a Bastille Day up in Bethesda, MD, and there was a crêpe stand. I had eaten a metric tonne of jambon et fromage crêpes while I was in Paris, but this was a time when I was living with Martha Stewart. I owned Wüsthof knives and a Kitchen Aid mixer and a couple Cuisinarts. I eyed stainless All-Clad at one point more than I was eyeballing Porsches. So here we are, Michelle “Martha” Nolan and I, at a phalanx of crêpe-makers. Crêpiers. They used austere steel pans and floppy flexible spatulas. And they took ladles of runny batter and poured them into sizzling blackened bare steel pans.

I went out to William-Sonoma and bought a pan, a spatula, and a book, Crepes: Sweet & Savory Recipes for the Home Cook, which is battered and broken but has served me very well over the years even though I basically use only one recipe from it, which is the recipe for the savoury crêpe. With that simple recipe I have hosted parties, I made desert, breakfast, and dinner.

I have wooed women and have made friends. I have also impressed based o­n the simple formula: people love seeing someone do something masterfully. I make crepes masterfully.

Over the years, I have bought many a crepe pan. I love to season them, use them for a couple months until the steel attains a natural non-stick surface, and then give them away to friends as gifts. People love them, although they rarely use them. After they are thoroughly seasoned they are beautiful and timeless. When they are seasoned, they are never again washed with soap. Grime and gritty bits are rubbed off with salt and a brush.

Then I buy more. I recommend the 9 1/2″ Heavy Duty Carbon Steel Crepe Pan, which is the one you should get. When you bring it home, scrub it well with soap and hot water, to remove the protective surface. Then put it o­n the range under high heat to dry it off. Next, pour some olive oil into the pan when it is dry and turn off the heat. Pour enough in to coat the bottom of the pan. Turn o­n the oven to 350F. When the oils cools, take a rag or a tea towel and rub the entire pan with the oil. Put the oiled pan in a 300F-350F oven for about an hour. Be sure to let the pan cool before touching it. I suggest using olive oil, but other people recommend peanut oil and the traditional way way to use lard, which I will surely try next time out. Don’t buy a blue steel pan, I am not pleased with them. Get the pan I recommend above and you should be good to go. Good luck and I will include my favorite and only recipe below for your enjoyment.

Savory Crepes

These versatile, multipurpose crepes, and the variations that follow, are great for savory fillings. Keep a stack o­n hand in the freezer for unexpected guests. The crêpes will quickly defrost at room temperature, then separate with ease.

It takes just 2 or 3 teaspoons of butter to coat the pan for a batch of crepes. A paper butter wrapper with a small amount of butter o­n it is a fast way to achieve this. For health reasons, if you prefer you may use 2 tablespoons canola, safflower, or olive oil in the savory crepe batter instead of melted butter, but the flavor will be slightly different. Oil may also be used to coat the pan, but butter is preferable for its browning effect.

2 large eggs 1 cup milk 1/3 cup water 1 cup all-purpose flour, preferably bleached 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons butter, melted, plus 2 or 3 teaspoons butter for coating the pan.

In a blender or food processor, blend the eggs, milk, water, flour, salt, and the 2 tablespoons melted butter for 5 seconds, or until smooth. Stir down and repeat if necessary. Or, to mix by hand, sift the flour into a medium bowl and add the salt. Whisk the eggs until blended, mix in the milk and water, and whisk this mixture into the flour and salt; stir in the 2 tablespoons melted butter. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (though 2 hours is preferable) or up to 24 hours.

Gently stir the batter if it has separated. Heat a seasoned 6- or 7-inch nonstick crêpe pan over medium-high heat until hot. (Use a 9- or 10-inch pan for larger crêpes.) Coat the pan lightly with butter, lift the pan from the heat, and pour in 2 or 3 tablespoons of batter for a 6- or 7-inch pan, or about 1/4 cup for a 9- or 10-inch pan, tilting and rotating the pan to coat the surface. Cook until almost dry o­n top and lightly browned o­n the edges, about 1 minute. Loosen the edges with a metal spatula and flip the crêpe over using your fingers or the spatula, then cook the other side for about 15 seconds, or until lightly browned. Turn the crêpe out o­nto a clean tea towel to cool. Repeat with the remaining batter, wiping the pan with butter as needed and stacking the crêpes as they are cooked.
For serving immediately, cover the crêpes with aluminum foil and keep them warm in a preheated 200 degree F oven. For serving later, wrap them in plastic wrap in quantities intended for each use and slip them in a self-sealing plastic bag. Refrigerate crêpes for up to 3 days, or freeze them for up to 2 months.

Herb Crepes: Follow the savory crepe recipe and add 1/4 cup minced fresh chives, basil, or flat-leaf parsley to the batter while blending it. Or, for pale green mixed-herb crêpes, use 1/2 cup mixed minced fresh chives, green o­nion tops, flat-leaf parsley, tarragon, marjoram, and basil.

Sun-Dried Tomato Crepes: Follow the savory crepe recipe and add 1/4 minced oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes to the batter while blending it.

Blue Cornmeal Crepes: Follow the savory crepe recipe, but replace the 1 cup all-purpose flour with 2/3 cup all-purpose flour and 2/3 cup blue cornmeal.

Buckwheat Galettes: Follow the savory crepe recipe, but replace the 1 cup all-purpose flour with 2/3 cup all-purpose flour and 2/3 cup buckwheat flour.

Corn Flour Crepes: Follow the savory crepe recipe, but replace the 1 cup all-purpose flour with 2/3 cup all-purpose flour and 2/3 cup corn flour (which is more finely ground than cornmeal).

Cornstarch Crepes: Follow the savory crepe recipe, but replace the 1 cup all-purpose flour with 1 cup cornstarch and add 1/8 teaspoon baking soda.

Garbanzo Flour Crepes: Follow the savory crepe recipe, but replace the 1 cup all-purpose flour with 2/3 cup all-purpose flour with 2/3 cup garbanzo flour and 1/2 cup chestnut flour.

Chestnut-Garbanzo Flour Crepes: Follow the savory crepe recipe, but replace the 1 cup all-purpose flour with 2/3 cup garbanzo flour and 1/2 cup chestnut flour.

Whole-Wheat Crepes: Follow the savory crepe recipe, but replace the 1 cup all-purpose flour with 1 cup whole-wheat flour or 1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour, or 1/2 cup all-purpose flour and 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour.

Chestnut Flour Crepes: Follow the savory crepe recipe, but replace the 1 cup all-purpose flour with 2/3 cup all-purpose flour and 1/2 cup chestnut flour.

Nutrition Facts Makes eighteen 6- or 7-inch crepes, Facts per Serving Calories: 52 Fat:2g Carbohydrates:6g Cholesterol:28mg Sodium:46mg Protein:2g Fiber:0g % Cal. from Fat:35% % Cal. from Carbs:46%

Source: Crepes: Sweet and Savory Recipes for the Home Cook