thinking of my mother

Bless her heart, my mother is 78 years old and lives near Stuttgart in Germany. I was thinking about her today as I was making crepes.. Sounds weird huh, not so much for me... because my mother loves through her food. She has a recipe for every occasion or reason. I snagged some of her recipes, but I also left a ton of them behind. Like "Potcake"; its a loose translation of the name of this dish. She made it when ever funds were tight or when it was right after harvest. I hated it growing up and to this day I won't eat anything that is made with shredded potatoes into a casserole. Basically that's what it was. Shredded potatoes, eggs and seasonings mixed and baked into a deep dish casserole, served with apple sauce.

One of my favorites though is crepes... I whittled the recipe down to a single serving.

1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg
1/4 to 1/3 cup of milk
a knob of butter
all whisked swiftly together to break the butter into the batter. Let stand a few minutes.

Heat a crepe` pan or omelet pan and ladle batter in. Cook on both side and lay out onto a plate. Make 2 to 3 depending on your ladle.
Now I filled my crepes today with home made cranberry sauce. Just a thin layer, and rolled them up to serve. This is so yummy and a great treat for me. It's all I have for dinner today.

Back growing up my mom would make a huge batch of these and cut the entire stack into quarters. Then she would serve them alongside split pea soup... yummy.

That recipe above is a basic recipe, if you want them for dessert you can add a bit of vanilla and a teaspoon of sugar to the batter or cinnamon and fill them with whip cream and strawberries, as we often do in the summer. Or if you use them to accompany soup like my mother does, you add a dash of salt. You can also fill them with shredded chicken in a white sauce and cook them rolled up with salsa over the top or cheese in a casserole. There are limitless meals you can make with them, really your imagination and taste is the sky.