Banana Cream Crepes

First things first: Happy Mother's Day. I didn't see my Mom today, but luckily she was just here for my graduation so it hasn't been too long (Love you Mom!!). If I was closer by I would have made her something delicious ... like crepes (Mom feel free to remind me of this when I come home in August). Which brings me to my post today.

One day I was walking through the bookstore and found this book:

An entire book of crepe recipes, on sale, no less. I couldn't resist. However due to my crazy school schedule I didn't get a chance to try it out until recently. For my first recipe I made the basic crepe with banana cream topping. Emily helped me out.

It made for a delicious breakfast. We also had bacon (yum). Emily also had a waffle (we found a waffle that was similar to waffle treats we'd both tried on study abroad).

The filling was pretty simple. I used whipping cream, bananas, powdered sugar, lemon juice, and just a pinch of nutmeg. It came out pretty good, although it made a lot more filling than I expected (I doubled it before I realized that one serving was more than enough banana cream for all). It also had a strong banana flavor. I think next time I would do a little less banana for a subtler flavor.

We also had other crepe toppings like jam, sugar and lemon juice, and whipped cream. I can't wait to try some more of these crepe recipes.

Currently watching: Holes. Which makes me want to read Holes again :)

Conference: Sister Edition (Part 1)

So Gabby and I have not lived in the same place for quite some time now. It's been really fun to have her up here for school. This year was Conference: Sister edition. Having Gabby here for General Conference was really fun. For any of my friends out there who don't know what Conference is, it's basically this big meeting for everyone in the LDS church. Instead of our normal individual church meetings, the Prophet and other church leaders get together and give talks that are broadcast to LDS people everyone. It's good times :)

Saturday we had tickets so we were able to go to Salt Lake and see the afternoon session in the conference center. Afterwards we did some shopping at Gateway mall (where a found a great dress on sale! yay!). We had a little sleepover and then Sunday morning we watched conference in our PJs then made pancakes.

At first our pancake making went normally:

Big Pancakes

Small Pancakes

Then we tried to get creative:

Mickey Mouse Pancake!

The elusive G pancake. This is one of the harder letter pancakes to pull off.

Then we got a little too ambitious:

This was me trying to make a star pancake. It obviously did not go as planned. Luckily it still tasted good, even if it did look funny :)

Me and Gabs had a great time cooking together.

Currently reading: The Sky is Everywhere, Jandy Nelson

Currently looking forward to: THE WEEKEND!!!

Currently: not forgetting I promised a Mark Zuckerburg post

And in the Morning I'm Making Waffles

Ok so here is that waffle post I've been going on about. But seriously, these waffles are sooo good. Make them. Trust me.

I converted this recipe from a European recipe (find the original here).

Some of the measurements come out kind of weird. We were lucky enough to have a French measuring cup, which saved us some hassle. But I've made sure to convert everything for this recipe!

I loved making these waffles. Emily and I made them together and reminisced over traveling to Bruges (I took a trip their one weekend while I was on my study abroad program in Paris).Plus the waffles themselves were delicious.

Ingredients:

21.2 tablespoons butter

(I only did one stick of butter the first time and it still tasted good, so you are welcome to try that option!)

Half a teaspoon salt

13 1/2 us tablespoons of cold, prefer. sparkling water (.8 cups) I've done it with sparkling water and plain old cold tap water and its worked out both times.

1/8 cup sugar

1 1/3 cup pearlized sugar

1 package fast acting yeast

2 eggs

3.36 cups flour

vanilla to taste

Allow eggs and sparkling water to come up to room temperature first.

Sift the flour into a bowl: make a well in the middle.

Melt the butter over hot water or in the microwave. Allow to cool to lukewarm.

Beat the eggs well: add the butter and the yeast: mix well. Add the water and mix again.

This is what it looks like when you use the sparkling water.

We had some extra which we decided to drink. I didn't like this kind of water at first, but after I had it in France a few times I really started to like it.

Add to the flour along with the granulated sugar and vanilla or other seasoning (cinnamon works well).

Beat the dough for at least ten minutes. It will probably be sticky and difficult to work with. This is normal.

After this beating, allow to stand and rise in a warm place for 15-30 minutes.

5 to 10 minutes before baking, add the pearl sugar. I didn't have pearl sugar, so I just crushed up sugar cubes into smaller pieces and mixed those in.

Heat the waffle iron. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto each quarter or section of the waffle iron. Bake until well browned.

Serve hot off the iron, dusted with confectioner's sugar, or top with whipped cream or ice cream if desired. Emily made a cookie spread out of Speculoos cookies we had leftover from a creme brulee recipe we did earlier this semester. It tasted delicious.

Many waffles were enjoyed by all :)

We even made a baby waffle when the dough didn't work out evenly. We didn't want to waste a bit!

Currently watching: How I Met Your Mother and 30 Rock

Currently excited: to see Marcus Zusak at the Provo Library this weekend

Creme de la Creme

Yesterday Emily and I made delicious creme brulee! Now this isn't your typical creme brulee. Instead of caramelizing the top, we did a recipe that puts a cookie on top. An amazingly delicious Belgian cookie.

Speculoos Cookies and my little Ramekins

It called for a Belgian cookie called Speculoos. Emily bought some while she was in France, so we had the real thing (By the way, Emily also has a blog. It's called Movies and Mayhem. Check it out here)! The recipe was also French, which meant we spent the morning converting measurements and translating before we could get started.

Emily bought an amazing little creme brulee cookbook while she was in France, so this shouldn't be our only creme brulee adventure this semester. If you don't have time to run to France or Belgium to pick up cookies you can try the american version which happens to be sold at Walgreens. I'm definitely going to try and find these once we run out of the ones Emily bought. They taste kind of cinnamon-y, almost like a graham cracker (except classier? lol). At least that's the best comparison I could think of.

Here's the recipe we used:

Pots de creme a la vanille et speculos (Makes 4-6 servings)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cups Whipping Cream

1/2 Cup Milk

Just under 1/3 cup sugar

4 egg yolks

Vanilla (just under a tablespoon)

4-6 speculos cookies

Put milk and vanilla in a saucepan on low heat.

In a separate bowl whisk the egg yolks and sugar together. Add the whipping cream and mix well. Little by little, add the hot milk/vanilla mixture to the cold mixture in the bowl. Put in the fridge for at least two hours.

Set the oven for 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Put the contents of the bowl in your ramekins. Place the speculos cookies on the top of the mixture in each ramekin.

Bake for 60 - 75 minutes.

When we put the ramekins in the oven we placed them all on a cake pan together, so we wouldn't have to worry about them wobbling around or getting to messed up when we took them out.

This is what they should look like when you take them out of the oven.

Put in the fridge for at least one hour before serving (2 hours is probably a safer bet). Then you're done!

Emily showing off our finished creme brulees. They looked just like the picture in the book; we were so proud of ourselves :)

Now Eat!

We had so much fun making these!

Currently catching up on: Modern Family

Healthy Cooking

Lately, I've been trying some healthier recipes out. I have made my oat bran muffins a thousand times (which taste quite good despite having the word bran in the title), so today when I needed a healthy snack I decided to try something new. I went to one of my favorite recipes sites (Allrecipes.com) and found an interesting new thing to try, a vegetarian chickpea sandwich filling. I love anything I can put on a pita, and I really love falafels (the main ingredient for a falafel is also chickpeas) so I decided to give it a shot. It turned out to be really easy to make.


Next time I would probably chop the celery myself to add more texture (the food processor completely pureed it). I also would probably add some tomatoes to the sandwich itself to give it a little extra. Overall I thought it tasted pretty good (especially considering how little time and effort I had to put in). I'm not sure I love it as a sandwich though (not quite enough substance). I think tomorrow I'll toast some pita triangles and use it as a dip on pita chips :)

Here's the recipe:
(Or look at the original web page to see the original recipe as well as other people's versions and tips)

• 1 (19 ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• A little less than 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon dried dill weed
• garlic to taste
  
• salt and pepper to taste

Basically you throw everything in a food processor and blend.

My next post will be about my infinitely more successful cooking adventure: Braised Balsamic Chicken!

Currently: thinking about my next NON-healthy cooking project, chocolate chip cookie dough cup cakes