Lay off me, I'm starving!

When Life Gives You Leftovers, Make Crepes!

After a week in Peru, we were excited for some good old home cooking. Yesterday I went to the farmer’s market and got a bunch of stuff to make a roast chicken with sweet potatoes and salad. We had a some left overs, so tonight I mixed them all up, sauteed them with some more leeks and green onions, and added a bit of cream and parmesan. I served them in a crepe that had minced sage and lavender in the batter.

And guess what? It was so flippin’ easy.

To make savory crepes, you need:

1 cup flour

pinch salt

1 1/4 cups milk

2 eggs

2 tbs oil or cooled melted butter

Optional: 2 tbs herbs (they’ll mince in the blender)

Blend together the milk, salt, and flour (my Vitamix came into good use!). Then blend in the eggs and the herbs if you’re using them. It’s best to let it sit in the fridge for a while to allow the batter to relax, but if you’re in a hurry, it’s not the end of the world to skip that step.

Heat a non-stick pan and add a bit of butter. When the butter is bubbling, pour in enough batter to coat the bottom of the pan. When the edges are all bubbly and look kind of done, flip the crepe using a spatula, or, if you’d like to try it, hold the pan handle with both hands. Slide the crepe to the lip of the far side of the pan, and then quickly “flip” it with the pan, being sure to catch it. For my first crepe tonight, it didn’t land 100% correctly, and was folded over a bit at the top. My second crepe, however, was flipped perfectly , and I was mad proud of myself.

So, yeah, another easy way to make your leftovers interesting.

To add some greens to the meal, I served the crepes with a beet salad.

Chocolate Popcorn

For our wedding, a family friend gave us a popcorn set to make some of the homemade popcorn they enjoyed when they were first married.

Las tnight, I made her favorite kind—the Hershey’s kiss popcorn. To pop the popcorn, place 3 tbs of popcorn oil in a pot with a heavy bottom along with 1/2 cup of popcorn (this made like 4 cups popcorn). Cover the pot and turn on the heat to medium high. Once the pops become less frequent, take the popcorn off the heat. 

Now you’re free to add your seasonings. Here I added 1 cup of Hershey’s kisses and a few shakes of kosher salt. Seeing how easy this is to do, I’ll probably start experimenting with more seasonings in the near future.

Wrap It In Prosciutto

To make something more delicious, wrap it in prosciutto. Seen here, roasted prosciutto-wrapped rockfish with white asparagus and truffle parmesan potatoes.

I wouldn’t have had so much white on the plate, but that’s what you get when your husband takes over the grocery shopping.

You Know What’s Really Easy to Make? Panna Cotta.

Basically, you place an envelope (.25 oz) gelatin in 1/2 cup of milk, and let it stand for 5 minutes. Then you turn the heat to low, and stir the mixture until the gelatin dissolves fully.

Add another 1/2 cup milk and 2 cups cream, 1/2 cup sugar, and your flavoring (you can use a vanilla bean, mint, tea, etc.) and stir on low heat until the mixture steams. Take the pot off the heat, cover it, and let it sit for 15-30 minutes to allow the flavor to infuse into the mixture.

Take out the flavor thing (I used a tea bag, so I took out the tea bag), and then pour the mixture into 6 ramekins. Let it chill until it’s set (not jiggling).

Dense and creamy, you’ll be very happy to have such a lovely dessert after such little effort.

Bo Ssam

Here are the photos of that bo ssam I was talking about. It’s so, so easy.

I took a 2 lb. pork shoulder and let it sit in the fridge over night covered in 1/4 cup of sugar and 1/4 cup of salt. In the morning, I put in in the slow cooker on low for 9 hours. When I gott back from work, it’s ready.

I served it with some mustard greens from the school garden and the ever-so-delicious ginger scallion sauce. The meat is velvety and flavorful and was a big hit all around.