Monday, May 5, 2008

Two! For the Price of One!

Ladies and Gentlemen, today we have a double header at Wonders Never Cease!

Today's Co-Wonders of the World are...
(Drum roll please)
Crepes!!! (Yes, I know the first e should wear a circumflex/hat; just ignore it.)
And
The-One-Who-Helps-Dad-Make-The-Crepes!!!

Here they are, in all their finest!

Or maybe instead of "in all their finest," I should say, "in their comfiest Spiderman jammies" and "on a blue plate."

On the right, in all its tasty goodness, is a plate of crepes (these particular ones are raspberry,)
and on the left, in all his three- year- old sweetness, is my baby Sammy, better known as
The-One-Who-Helps-Dad-Make-The-Crepes.

Why such a long name for such a short person?
You are smart. You can probably figure that out. He got the name because when he was nearly three and started making crepes with his daddy, he made up the following song:
(Important: To get the real gist of this song, you must sing the hyphenated words really quickly together. And be sure to sing the entire ditty in a taunting voice.)

The One-Who-Helps-Dad-Make-The-Crepes gets the first crepe,
And the other ones don't
And it's too bad.

I'll tell more about Sam. But first, allow me to expound on crepes.

When we lived in France, we lived on crepes.
I am not exaggerating. (Well, maybe a teensy bit. But we did eat a lot of them!)

They are not just thin pancakes. They are a Wonder of the World.
For the uninitiated, let me tell you about them. Crepes are very, very thin pancakes, crispy on the edges and soft-ish in the middle.
At the risk of sounding like Forrest Gump, you can have sweet crepes or savory crepes (also called galettes.)
You can have...
crepes with ham
crepes with ham and cheese
crepes with spinach
crepes with crab
crepes with lemon and sugar
crepes with nutella and banana (my absolute favorite)
crepes with jam
I could go on and on...Instead I'll share a much, much abbreviated menu, (thanks to roboppy at flickr.)


We bought them in restaurants, on sidewalk stands, while traveling, and while at home in Clermont. (You can have them on a dish, you can have them made with fish...)

Here's a sidewalk stand, thanks to flickr.


Here's a little restaurant in Corsica, thanks to Todd.

I'm probably telling him to put the camera down and come eat his crepe.

And we made them at home.

Whoops! That's not us. That's the scene on the lid of a tin that I got for about a dollar at a junk store.

Anyhoo, soon after we discovered how much we loved crepes, a French friend showed us how to make them. Todd likes to experiment in the kitchen (he cooks things he finds interesting, like shark, crepes, collards, barbecue, and other assorted pork products--otherwise he's not so into it) so we found him a proper crepe pan, and he became our family crepe chef. As soon as Sam could stand in a chair without toppling off, he became his apprentice. Therefore we have this...


Just ignore my messy French kitchen. You're seeing every bit of my counter space so we couldn't exactly spread out. When they were cooking I tried not to interrupt.
They made crepes every Sunday morning. It was a lovely tradition.

After we moved home, we still wanted our crepes. Sam was bigger then, so he took over.
Here's a recipe he decided to write out two years ago, when he was six. It's a good one, so good in fact that my mom made a copy and framed it for our kitchen, along with a picture of the chef.


I love how he wrote spun for spoon. And ster it up, and ster agen.
It makes me want to squeeze him.

He does everything by himself now, except handle the hot crepe pan, though his dad has been working with him on that lately.
Here he was at six, with a masterpiece in hand.


He still looks the same, except he's taller and wears my shoe size.
Also he needs a haircut at the moment. (Like Samson, he fears haircuts will cause him to lose his powers-- of coolness, that is.)

So there you go! Two for the price of one!
Go make yourself a crepe, and have a Marvelous Monday!

18 comments:

Rebecca Ramsey said...

Sorry about the weird font sizes. Blogger is messing with my mind.

La Belette Rouge said...

If I bring some Nutella over, can I have a crepe. Mium-mium!! Crepes in the states are just not the same as the crepes you get in France.
Crepe sous chef is very-very cute.

Anonymous said...

"the one..." is a cutie and the cepes look really good! I haven't had crepes in ages!!

Manuela

Anonymous said...

We love crepes. I am reading your book right now (my husband just finished it) so when I think of Sammy I think of him at 3....not growing up at all. I took a crepe class here at a cooking school and we make them all the time - sweet and savory. We have 2 crepe pans, better because you can make 2 at once. I might have to make some right now....

David Ebright said...

Holy crepe!!! Your post reminded me that I haven't had a crepe since October 13th 1975. My wonderful wife had them for breakfast the morning after we were married & she made me try one.

Susan Tuttle said...

All I have to say is...YUM!!!

Hubbie and I ate so many amazing crepes on our honeymoon in Quebec 10 years ago - I haven't had a comparable one since.

Susan

Ada [The Duchess] said...

OMG! He's so adorable. I just want to pinch his cheeks. He has the same sunny smile of my little brother (who's 4). So cute!

The crepe good enough to gobble up in 5 seconds flat. Too bad I can't climb through my laptop's screen and dig in.

Rebecca Ramsey said...

Y'all are officially invited to come for a crepe anytime you're in the neighborhood! Sammy would be glad to treat you! (His third grade friends don't often share his crepe enthusiasm.) So come on over!

Ele at abitofpinkheaven said...

How adorable. Sometimes the hair just cannot be cut! These crepes look so delicious! Thanks for visiting me.

David Ebright said...

Rebecca - Thanks for the kind comment on my blog post. Your post & pic of the circus poster caused me to remember that cherished painting, so I took a picture of it & posted the story that goes with it. So, you inspired my post with yours - so thanks for the idea. Glad you liked it.

Anonymous said...

awwwwwwwwwwww, so cute! They grow up so darn fast, unfortunately.
We have crepes on my daughters birthday every year, because strawberries are in season then and we can pick them. Then there is the whipped creme we put on top, yum!
A couple of great "wonders" today.

Attic Clutter said...

Hi Becky ..
Oh the children are darling and congrats on the Book WOW I am impressed always wanted to get my poems and afew childrens books (attempts) publish .. but not yet................
~~~CREPES~~ ah I love em have made them since childhood too so delish..glad you stopped in I'll add you to my FAVORITES (:) Patty ~~Oh I hear ya.. a cabin on the lake would be fabulous~!!

Anonymous said...

I can take or leave the crepes - but Sam...I swear. You need to give him a sloppy aunty kiss and hug from me. He is just the best. We really just cannot get enough of some Sam.

Leah (and Steve...and Luke..etc. etc.)

May Vanderbilt said...

Blogger is messing with my whole life!

Love, love, love this post. And, um, how did Samuel grow up so quickly? It must have been all that sterring.

Okay by my count we've had recent pictures of Sarah and Samuel. Where's Ben? What's he up to? I loved him in French by Heart.

Rebecca Ramsey said...

Hi May! We miss you and Anne! Do we Good Girl Lit readers need to form a posse and march over to Blogger and set them straight? I've got some chants at the ready if we need to do a sit-in on their doorstep. (Do they have a doorstep?)

(Aunt) Leah, give yourself a hug for me!

And the rest of you, give yourselves big hugs too! I don't know why it took me so long to start blogging. You people are the greatest!

Rebecca Ramsey said...

Oh, and May, don't you worry. Ben will be shown in all his teenage glory soon.

Parisienne Farmgirl said...

So darling - my fav is with Grande Marnier or just egg, cheese and pepper...the stand by St. Germain des Pres in Paris has great memories...
My husband makes em pretty good too!

Anonymous said...

Ah... send little Sam right over, will you? One of the best memories we have of France is sitting on the roof of a restaurant in St. Malo, looking out over the ocean, eating *the* most heavenly seafood crepes (and apple ones for dessert for good measure!)Oh yum... worth returning if only for those! Deb