Breakfast Crêpes with Eggs, Bacon and Cheese

Our first weekend in the new apartment and it was my mission to make breakfast. I'd carried a box of foodstuffs from our old refrigerator to the new refrigerator so as not to waste anything and that box contained perishables like eggs, bacon, butter and milk. In my pantry, I had flour, sugar and salt. What could a person make with these things that wasn't boring? A vision came to me, a vision of a nun on a beach dancing the hoochie-coochie. But then another vision came to me: Crêpes!

I once made crêpes, long long ago (in 2007), but after that I didn't make them. It wasn't a choice or anything, I just didn't think to make them. Then I was watching Lidia in the new joint (I'm always watching Lidia) and she made an Italian version of crepes and made it look so easy. That's where this idea came from.

And you know what? It is easy. I can sum it up in this paragraph: melt 3 tablespoons of butter. Pour it into a bowl and let it cool. Then add 4 large eggs and 1 1/2 cups whole milk. Whisk that together and then whisk in 1/4 tsp salt, 1 tablespoon sugar, and 1 cup all-purpose flour. (Recipe from Martha Stewart.) Martha says you should do it in a blender but I didn't want to dirty my blender so I used a whisk which worked fine.

Now for the "hard" part. I put "hard" in quotes (and did it again) because it's really not that hard. Tip 1: pour the batter into a measuring glass. Tip 2: melt some more butter, pour it into a little bowl and use a brush to brush a non-stick skillet with that butter. Then turn up the heat.

When the pan's hot, lift it up and pour the batter in a thin stream around the perimeter, tilting it all around and trying to create the thinnest layer you can. See?

Let that cook on medium/high heat for a bit (30 seconds or so) and then slide a rubber spatula underneath it all around. Take a peak: is nice and browned? Then it's time to flip. You can be a pro and do the whole flipping motion thing or you can just lift up a corner and use your fingers to flip it. It's not that hot.

It'll cook faster on the other side so take note, maybe 15 seconds or so. Then slide on to a plate and start again: more butter, more batter, more cooking, more flipping, more crêpe-making. When you have all the crêpes you want, make your filling.

I rendered some bacon in a skillet then added six eggs (beaten together with a pinch of salt and pepper), stirred slowly on high heat until curds formed, then I took it off the heat and added a bunch of grated Cheddar cheese. I piled that into the center of a crepe, in a straight line.

Then I rolled it up.

It's like a French breakfast burrito only better because instead of a tortilla you have a thin sweet pancake.

So give crêpes a go this weekend. You can take them in a sweet direction and fill them with fruit and whipped cream or you can stay in the savory arena and fill them with all different kinds of scrambled eggs. And whatever batter you don't use you can save for later: crêpes for breakfast, crêpes for lunch, crêpes for dinner and crêpes for dessert. So, to quote my earlier post: don't be a creep, make a crêpe.