smile and pass it on

This lovely little idea comes from the little red house. So SMILE and pass it on!

a big pile of crepes

There are few things so motivating as mummy guilt. I often feel guilty the I am not able (due to my work hours and commute) to volunteer for many of the tasks at our boy's school. So a couple of weeks ago when an email went around asking for volunteers to make crepes for the annual crepe luncheon, I volunteered to make a batch for the boy's class. Which is how I found myself making a huge stack of crepes a couple of weeks ago. Each crepe volunteer had to send in 30 crepes.In the primary grades, it takes 3 batches to fill up the children's tummies, with more and more batches being added through the intermediate grades. But I digress. My husband, whose job it was to transport the crepes to school, was slightly staggered by the weight of the crepe bag and I did have to assure him that I had only done 1 batch.

a partial pile of school crepes

  But being around so many crepes, I also whipped up some for our consumption. I got the week wrong (as in I was a week too early) but we had a pancake supper for pancake Tuesday. It was just the wrong Tuesday. Oh well. The pancakes - ham and sauteed mushrooms rolled into crepes and then covered and baked in a cheese sauce, were yummy.

As was the crepe I heated up just before bed, covered in lemon juice and sugar.

Crepes (from the school recipe)
1 1/2 c flour
1 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 1/2 c milk
2 tbsp butter, melted and cooled

In a mixing bowl, combine the eggs and the salt. Add the flour and sugar, alternating with the milk, beating well until smooth. Beat in the melted butter.

Let the crepe batter sit for at least 1 hour but not more than 6 hours at room temperature (or overnight in the fridge) before making the crepes using a crepe pan or saute pan. The batter should be the consistency of heavy cream so add water to thin if necessary.

heart cookies

I bought the last issue of Martha Stewart Living because of the cookies on the cover.

They were so cute and I was inspired to create them for our boy's friends as valentines. So I did. I made the cookie dough one day, divided the dough into 3 and coloured the dough into a soft pink, a darker pink and what I tried to make red. A couple of days later (ok, Wednesday night) I rolled the dough out, cut out the hearts, baked the cookies,

made the frosting and made up the cookies

and then the valentine treat bags (one heart cookie and 2 chocolate kisses). The boy loved the cookies and reports his friends did too. I gave extras to his teacher (school and before/after school care) and still had a tin left to take to work. A small, sweet treat that was a bit different for Valentine's day. I made a couple of bigger cookies as presents for my boys.

And now I'm thinking I could do the same idea - coloured dough, shaped cookies and filling for other occasions.