Texas-Style Potato Salad

This post is going to be short and to the point. The sun is shining and I'm going to spend the weekend outdoors!

Bottom line: if you want to add a little heat to your basic potato salad recipe, this version is an awesome way to do it! The gist is that you pickle your own onions and jalapenos while the potatoes cook. I could have eaten the pickled onions straight - they were so good! The hot potatoes are tossed with a bit of the pickling liquid and allowed to cool for 20 minutes to absorb the flavor completely. Then, the pickled peppers, onions, potatoes, eggs, and celery (if you like celery) is tossed together with a mustard-heavy sauce to coat and allowed to chill in the fridge until ready to eat!

I have written before about how every single pregnancy I have experienced an intense craving for all things vinegar. This has caused me to crave eating mustard and ketchup by the spoonful with a side of pickles and a cider vinegar shake. Gross,but oh-so-good at the same time. I think this is the reason both my kids are huge ketchup eaters. They also will just eat ketchup by the spoonful. Anyway, this potato salad - with the huge punch from the pickling juices and mustard sauce - was a dream come true for this pregnant gal. I kept sneaking bites of it from the fridge. Delicious!

Paul also loved this salad. Not surprising since he is always trying to add jalapeno to everything we make. The kids, of course, would not touch it. There was definitely a little too much heat for them. A little too much "Texas." However, Emma made up for her inability to eat Texas-style potato salad by dressing like a cowgirl for story time.

Texas-Style Potato Salad
from Cook's Country

1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
Salt and pepper
1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
1/2 small red onion, sliced thin
2 jalapeno chiles (1 sliced into thin rings; 1 stemmed, seeded, and minced)
3 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch pieces
6 tablespoons mayonnaise
6 tablespoons yellow mustard
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 large hard-cooked eggs, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1 celery rib, minced (We omit because Paul cries if I put celery in anything)

Combine vinegar, sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and mustard seeds in bowl and microwave until steaming, about 2 minutes. Whisk until sugar and salt are dissolved. Add onion and jalapenos and set aside until cool, 15 to 20 minutes. Strain onion and jalapenos through fine-mesh strainer set over bowl. Reserve pickled vegetables and vinegar mixture separately.

Meanwhile, combine potatoes, 8 cups water, and 1 tablespoon salt in Dutch oven and bring to boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until potatoes are just tender, 10 to 15 minutes.

Drain potatoes thoroughly, then transfer to large bowl. Drizzle 2 tablespoons reserved vinegar mixture over hot potatoes and toss gently until evenly coated. (Reserve remaining vinegar mixture for another use - like a vinegar shake - kidding!) Refrigerate until cool, about 30 minutes, stirring once halfway through chilling.

Whisk mayonnaise, mustard, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and cayenne together in bowl until combined. Add mayonnaise mixture, reserved pickled vegetables, eggs, and celery to potatoes and stir gently to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover and refrigerate to let flavors blend, about 30 minutes.

Batter Fried Chicken

We chose to make some fried chicken for Easter because we never, ever eat or make fried chicken. It's just not that appealing to pour 4 quarts of oil into a pot. I can almost feel my thighs getting bigger as I listen to the glub glub glub of the oil leaving the plastic container. If someone else made fried chicken (or fried anything) for me, I would gratefully accept and wolf down a couple pieces because I'm more removed from the process. However, making it myself is a different ballgame. Paul has been itching to deep fry something for a long time and since I would not let him deep fry our turkey at Thanksgiving, he had his chance when it came to the chicken for our Easter dinner.

Nothing sexier than a man in an apron.

We chose to use the Batter-Fried Chicken recipe from Cook's Country as our starting point. We seasoned the batter differently because we didn't care for the seasonings they used in the original recipe. We've been really hating paprika lately - don't ask us why! Basically, you first brine our chicken for an hour. During that hour, you make up a really thin batter of cornstarch and water. The batter was the consistency of a crepe batter and it made Paul nervous. After the brining period, the chicken pieces are removed, patted dry, and placed in the batter. The gigantic pot of oil is preheated to 350 degrees exactly - carefully monitored through the use of a heavy duty candy thermometer - and the chicken is then added and allowed to fry away for a good 12-15 minutes. Once the first batch is cooked, it is placed in a preheated 200 degree oven to remain warm and crisp up just a bit more while the rest of the chicken is cooked. Seriously, this was easy peasy!

The best part about using a candy thermometer to monitor the oil temperature? We avoided splattering. Because the oil was always around the optimal temperature for frying, we did not have to dodge spurts of oil haphazardly shooting out of the pot. I actually boast a couple scars on my arm from earlier in our marriage when we tried to fry something without the proper knowledge and equipment. This might also have something to do with why I never fry anything! However, using a really good thermometer to keep an eye on the oil temperature is a huge lifesaver. That and we also finally invested in a grease splatter shield.

Emma was already digging in at this point. She could not be troubled to turn around for the picture!

The chicken turned out so well! We loved it, the kids loved it, and it went pretty perfectly with the potato salad we made (I'll post that recipe soon!). If you're going to make fried chicken, the recipe better be good - and this one was awesome. It made a delightful crust on the chicken that was perfectly crispy, not too thick, and seasoned to perfection. Paul actually ended up frying off cakes of just the batter after the meal was over because he loved how much the breading tasted. I balked at this and told him he wasn't allowed to eat it. I want him around for a little while longer.

It might not look pretty, but if you're craving some delicious fried chicken, this recipe is pretty hard to beat!

Batter-Fried Chicken
adapted from Cook's Country

For the Brine:
1 quart cold water
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup sugar
4 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces

For the Batter:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup cornstarch
5 teaspoons pepper
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1-3/4 cups cold water
3 quarts vegetable or peanut oil

To make the brine, whisk the quart of cold water, salt, and sugar in large bowl until sugar and salt dissolve. Add chicken and refrigerate for 1 hour.

To make the batter, whisk the water, flour, cornstarch, pepper, paprika, baking powder, salt, and cayenne in large bowl until smooth. Refrigerate batter while the chicken finishes brining.

Heat oil in large Dutch oven over medium-high heat to 350 degrees. A heavy duty candy thermometer, preferably one that can be attached securely to the pot, is highly recommended. As the oil comes to temperature, remove the chicken from refrigerator, pour off brine, and pat dry with paper towels.

Re-whisk the batter and transfer half of the chicken to batter. One by one, remove chicken from batter (allowing excess to drip back into bowl) and transfer to the prepared oil. Fry chicken, adjusting burner as necessary to maintain oil temperature between 300 and 325 degrees, until deep golden brown. White meat pieces should register 160 degrees and dark meat pieces should register 170 degrees. This will take about 12-15 minutes.

While the chicken is frying, preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

Drain chicken on wire rack set inside rimmed baking sheet. Place in the preheated oven to keep warm while the second batch of chicken is fried. Bring the oil back to 350 degrees and repeat with remaining chicken.

Serve!

Easter Sunday 2015

Easter Sunday began with gloomy, ominous-looking cloud coverage and a light splattering of chilly rain. My first thought when I woke up was: "There goes any chance of an outdoor egg hunt." However, Matthew excitedly bouncing into the bedroom already fully dressed for Mass in his button-up shirt, vest, and khakis swiftly made my somber thoughts dissipate.

That is, until I had to dress myself for Easter Mass and shed a few tears over how gigantic I've become. This is how we know we're getting close to our baby's due date - I cry about once a day over my rotundness. Vain.

We all cleaned up pretty nicely and headed to Mass. The kids gave us the best Easter Sunday gift by being incredibly well behaved throughout the entire Mass. I actually listened to every reading, clearly heard the homily, and sang every song. I can't tell you the last time that happened! Normally, Emma needs to be taken out at least once because she has no volume control and usually chooses the most quiet times to suddenly yell: "I a dinosaur! ROAR!!"

We headed back home and banished the children to the upstairs to change while Paul prepared the Easter hunt and I slid the blueberry buckle into the oven. When the eggs were all hidden, the children were handed their Easter baskets and told to start searching in our living room first. Matthew went tearing into the room like a tornado and quickly found 90% of the eggs while Emma proceeded to try to wear her bucket as a hat. Paul and I had to majorly encourage her to find at least one egg in the room: "Here Emma - what's this behind the couch? Matthew, we know you see it, let your sister find one!!!"

The egg hunt continued throughout the rest of the house and Emma gradually picked up speed once she discovered there was candy inside the eggs. Suddenly, she became a pretty good little egg hunter. We still had to keep Matthew at bay from sweeping the entire room clean. He was on a mission. He did not even really care about the candy inside the eggs - he just liked the hunt! This was clearly illustrated after we declared all the eggs found. Emma sat down and began to enjoy eating her loot while Matthew continued to aimlessly wander throughout the house with his basket looking for more eggs even though we had explicitly assured him several times that all eggs had been found. At least this pointless mission kept him occupied out of the kitchen so I could finish preparing our breakfast.

We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast of blueberry buckle, hard-boiled eggs (the kids ate about 5 each...gross), fresh fruit, yogurt, and granola. Oh, and the best coffee in the world - Peet's Coffee!!

Speaking of hard-boiled eggs - they were the ones we dyed on Saturday with the kids. Paul was pretty stressed about them spilling the multiple teacups filled with dye, but the kids did great! They only cracked eight of the two dozen eggs in the process.

After a quick clean-up, we saw that the temperatures had risen and the rain, while still threatening, had stopped. We asked the kids if they wanted to go outside for a walk and they quickly agreed as long as they could bring their umbrellas. They had been waiting for an opportunity to use them! So, we headed outdoors and enjoyed a relaxing stroll. Matthew loved puddle jumping (thank goodness for rubber rain boots!) while Emma conked out halfway through, exhausted from all that candy eating!

Both kids enjoyed some "quiet time" once we arrived back home while me and Paul called our parents. Then, it was time to make some fried chicken! Paul was in charge and I was happy for him to handle the task. He did a beautiful job - the chicken turned out perfectly crispy, juicy, and moist. The kids loved it as well and gave us Easter gift #2 by eating so well for dinner! There was no complaining!

After dinner and cleanup, we just enjoyed coloring pictures with the kids and enjoying time together as a family. It was really low-key but we rarely find the time to simply be present with the kids without distraction from other worries, concerns, or tasks. It was a pretty perfect ending for the day.

From our family to yours, here is wishing you a very blessed Easter season!

This post is being linked up for Tuesday Talk. Check out the other contributing posts in the linkup by clicking on the button below!

Fish Po'Boys with Spicy Tartar Sauce

I love it when Paul cooks. He has some great ideas and enjoys giving me a break from planning every once in a while. The other day, we were in the grocery store and he spied flounder fillets for sale in our fish market. "I've never had flounder!" he declared and before I could protest, we had a bag of flounder fillets in our cart.

"I'll come up with something to make with it. And it will be delicious!" he promised me.

Po'Boys and Apple Slices! A Gourmet meal!

What better opportunity to utilize our supply of flounder filets than a Friday in Lent? Paul scoured the internet for ideas for a recipe and came across this one from Martha Stewart. I thought it super funny that he chose to use a Martha recipe because he absolutely despises her. Occasionally, I will watch her baking show on PBS and he always comments on how condescending and annoying her demeanor is on television. He just thinks she acts super stuck-up about her kitchen knowledge, especially compared to other arguably more accomplished television chefs like Jacques Pepin or Hubert Keller. However, he likes po'boys and we already had most of the ingredients on hand for this recipe so he went with it anyway.

The po'boys were delicious!! The recipe came together really, really quick and everyone enjoyed them. I was unsure whether the kids would eat the whole sandwich, but they happily crunched their way through! The tartar sauce was incredible. I had a little trouble getting Matthew to try it at first, but once I told him that he did not have to have it on his sandwich if he truly disliked it, he sampled a small spoonful and discovered that he actually really liked the taste! He asked for a generous portion to be slathered on his sandwich! I was happy to oblige.

Thanks Paul for the wonderful meal!

Fish Po'Boys with Spicy Tartar Sauce
barely adapted from Martha Stewart

Note: If you don't have flounder, any mild white fish - like sole, tilapia, or even catfish - can be used. It will have a slightly different flavor (flounder is extremely mild), but will still be delicious!

For the Fish:
1 pound flounder fillets
2 tablespoons cornmeal
Salt and Pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil

Cut fillets into 1 1/2-inch wide strips. Pat fillets dry. Toss with cornmeal and a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper.

Heat oil in a large skillet over high heat. Brown fish on both sides (about 7-10 minutes total), being careful when turning the fish as flounder is especially delicate. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate and season with additional salt if necessary.

For the Tartar Sauce:
1/2 cup reduced-fat mayonnaise
2 tablespoons chili sauce (the ketchup condiment, not the Asian condiment!)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
A dash of lemon juice (to taste)
2 tablespoons grainy mustard (we used Grey Poupon Country Mustard)
2 tablespoons finely chopped gherkins or pickles
Hot Sauce, like Frank's or Tabasco (to taste)

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and season with hot sauce and lemon juice to taste.

For the Po'Boys:
4 soft French Bread Rolls, split
1 large beefsteak tomato, sliced
Romaine Lettuce
Red Onion

Spread a generous amount of the tartar sauce on both sides of rolls. Add lettuce, tomato, onion, and fish. Serve!

Easter Sunday Plans

Since I have no new photos to post, I just keep dipping into the archives in order for everyone to have something to look at besides text! Plus, it's kind of fun to look back and see what the kids looked like during this time last year. They certainly have grown since last Easter!!

 

With Palm Sunday coming up this weekend, we are not too far away from the closing of the Lenten season and the beginning of my favorite time in the liturgical year: Easter!!

One of my favorite memories from Easter Sunday growing up was being able to debut my brand new, spring-themed dress. My sisters and I always dressed super fancy on Easter Sunday in flouncy pink chiffon dresses with white lace gloves and pretty strappy sandals. Sometimes, we sometimes even wore pretty white straw hats with pink bows on our heads, probably more to hide the bad 90s haircuts we were currently sporting than to complement our outfits. I don't remember my brothers ever wearing anything special except maybe Raymond who would break out a stylish pair of Amish-inspired suspenders to hold up his pants. We always felt so fancy going to Mass and it was always breathtaking to walk into the church interior that had been previously an unadorned, quiet, and somber space for duration of Lent and find it completely transformed into a joyful space filled with the beauty of fresh flowers and the sounds of holy water flowing from the baptismal font.

Look how small sweet little Emma was on Easter Sunday last year!

After Mass, we always were excited to head home and search for eggs and baskets filled with goodies. My Dad normally wrote a little riddle personalized for each child that led us to our hidden baskets. Michael's basket was almost always to be found on one of the toilet seats. I don't know why he even bothered reading his clue most years. After the hunt was over, we sat down to a delicious breakfast of hard-boiled eggs (dyed the day before), pineapple and strawberries, and my Mom's delicious walnut twist with brown butter glaze. That walnut twist is still my favorite pastry in the whole wide world and one I need to share on this blog very, very soon! The only reason I will not be making it on Easter Sunday is because my picky, picky children will carefully extract every single nut from their piece before eating it. That or stick one of the nuts up their nose where it will have to be dislodged by an ENT. It's just not worth the aggravation.

Paul and I planned way ahead for Easter this year. We have already gathered everything needed for the Easter baskets. Paul especially enjoys selecting candy for the kids because he has a huge sweet tooth when it comes to candy: "Robin Eggs! It would not be Easter without Robin Eggs!" In addition to hoarding a ton of candy for the kiddos, we have also sat down and completed our Easter menu. We traditionally cook the meals together for that day and both look forward to it very much. This year, we debated about cooking rack of lamb for the first time but after gawking at the meat prices and thinking of how upset we would be if our kids scorned our protein of choice, we decided to go a completely different route. No, we are not doing ham or pork rib roast (as we have done the previous two years because it is so gosh darn good!). Instead, we are going to keep things simple and summer-themed.

I doubt it will be as sunny this year as it was last year. We loved having the egg hunt outside!

Our menu plans for Easter Sunday is as follows:

Easter Breakfast

Blueberry Buckle - so delicious!
Fresh Fruit of some sort - Strawberries, blueberries, bananas, pineapple
Yogurt
Granola
Hard Boiled Eggs - Paul hates eating them straight, but the kids love them!
*Ideally we would also have bagels and Lox but my midwife will not allow it until after Baby Lucy arrives!

Easter Lunch

Candy from our Easter Baskets - I wish I were joking!

Paul's comment while previewing this post: "We didn't even take the tag off Emma's basket last year?!
What the heck is wrong with us?!?!"

Easter Dinner

Fried Chicken (We never make it and the kids love it!) - either this recipe or this one
Potato Salad (Mom's recipe)
Seven Layer Picnic Salad - Can be found here
Strawberry Pretzel Salad
Biscuits or Challah

Hopefully, the weather will be semi-decent so we can try to get outside for a little bit. My sister Catherine gifted a beautiful dress for Emma to wear for Easter. Matthew will probably wear the same exact outfit he wore last year (and pretty much every Sunday since) because he loves it so much. He refers to it as his "Easter outfit" even though he has worn it through Ordinary Time, Advent, Lent, etc.

We are looking forward to a beautiful day and some great time spent together! What are your plans for Easter Sunday?

 

On Childhood

All these pictures are throwbacks from this time last year.
It warmed up really early - by the end of March we were enjoying lots of outdoor activities.

While playing with Matthew and Emma yesterday afternoon, I began to reflect on childhood and what a fleeting, sacred time it is in life and how childhood experiences shape the adults we all become. As a child, I remember always using my imagination to be other people, in other places, doing more exciting things than riding my bike in a circle around our one-story home in Montana. I remember looking forward to my next birthday the day after my last one. Reaching "double digits" was a milestone that seemed to take a million years in my little child brain. Waiting for Christmas made December the longest month of the year. I couldn't wait to be a teenager, to enter high school, to start driving, to graduate from high school, to go to college, to get married, to start a family, and so on. I was always trying to fast forward my childhood and catapult myself into adulthood. Do all children do this?

I see signs of this desire to grow up in my son. He is always looking forward to the "next thing" rather than enjoying the moment he is in. This has only been a recent behavioral development and I have been trying my best to encourage him to enjoy his time as a child. Because, in the average lifespan of a person, it really is a very, very short period of time.

Paul and I often have discussions about how we used to view the world as children. It always amazes us to discover we shared some very similar playtime activities while growing up. Along with our siblings, we liked to pretend play Robin Hood and Winnie-the-Pooh by assigning each sibling to a specific character based on their personality, looks, or what have you. For the record, Paul was always "Gopher" and I was "Rabbit" while playing Winnie-the-Pooh. No sibling was ever assigned the role of Christopher Robin (we tried once, but that person refused). To this day, I think those are still the characters that best align with our personalities. We also found it funny that we used to refer to certain candies we would receive in our treat bags on Halloween - like Smarties - as our "medicine". We also both admired and loved Davy Crockett - and would both pretend to be him during play. Did I mention that I was a major tomboy and used to be quite disappointed that I was a girl? Boys always seemed to have more fun - all the little girls I grew up with wanted to pretend to "play house" or have tea parties. I wanted to be a cowboy!

Over the years, several of my girlfriends have reflected on how they wish they could have had a glimpse of what their husbands were like as children and see if their childhood personalities are at all reflected in the men they are today. I realize that I am quite lucky to have actually known my spouse as a child. We were only eight or so when we first met and I have some very distinct memories of Paul and his twin Peter being complete imps. They were very, very small in stature so they had to make up for it by being complete pains. Plus, there were two of them so they could gang up and take down someone twice their size. I always thought they were wonderful because, despite the incessant teasing, they were very, very kind and sweet. In my sixth grade diary, I wrote about one encounter that occurred between Paul and I during literature class. We were seated next to one another during a reading exam and, as was typical during those days, we were to grade one another's papers at the end. Paul handed my test back to me and said: "You got 100%. Congratulations, you must be smart!" This was very high praise coming from a Nistler twin and I knew it. I was having some major self-esteem problems during that year and never considered myself to be "smart" in an academic sense. Paul's words, even though uttered a bit flippantly, gave me a much-needed confidence boost in my own intelligence and abilities as a student.

How does childhood Paul compare to adult Paul? He's pretty much the same - just older, wiser, more reserved, with less hair (much less hair). He still giggles the same, loves to play pranks, adores reading the comics or watching a good cartoon. One time a while back, we went to see a children's movie at the theater and he embarrassed me so much because he was laughing harder than anyone else - complete with slapping his knees and gasping for breath. The best part was when we were walking out of the movie, he commented that "it wasn't that good." Please. You almost died from asphyxiation.

While watching Matthew and Emma play and use their imaginations - Emma was "making coffee" for Matthew at the play kitchen and he was building a "T-Rex for a pet" - I realized what a distinct privilege it is for me to know my children as children. I will watch them grow, evolve, and change into adults, at which time they will go leave our home and have their own families, careers, vocations and responsibilities. I get to see them as children, now, and help guide and form them into adulthood. I will encourage them not to grow up too fast but rather to savor this time of imagination, play, discovery, learning, and care-free living.

This concludes the random musings on childhood of an extremely tired, coffee-deprived (our coffee maker isn't working!!!!) pregnant mama.

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Fancy Kid Lunch: Gateau De Crepes with Peanut Butter and Jam

Lunch is normally a rushed affair in our house. Since Matthew started preschool, we normally go about doing chores and running errands in the morning before he starts school at 12:30. Inevitably, everything normally takes a tiny bit longer than I anticipated and I can usually be found frantically slapping peanut butter on a piece of bread with half a sliced banana and encouraging Matthew to swallow it whole while putting on his coat, shoes, and backpack. Emma normally spends the entire trip to school begging for something to eat. Unfortunately, she has to wait until we drop Matthew off and head home. Thankfully, we live right around the corner from the school so she only has to wait a whopping 10 extra minutes or so.

In addition to being rushed, lunch is normally messy. Matthew is not so terrible, but Emma is in a stage where she feels the need to deconstruct everything I give her. Whenever I make her a sandwich, she normally separates all the filling from the bread and puts them in neat little piles in the various corners of her tray. Then, she will proceed to lick the mayo/peanut butter/what have you off the bread pieces. After that task has been completed, she will systematically eat each pile of filling - usually starting with cheese (if there is any), followed by any meat, and finally any vegetables. Finally, she will eat the bread - but leave the crusts behind in little mangled pieces. This practice is especially messy with PB&J. After lunch, Emma is almost always in need of a bath.

On the days when Matthew does not have preschool, we like to shake things up a bit and maybe do something a little more unexpected. Especially since we are stuck inside all day anyway, I like to make lunch a bit of a project - one where the kids can get involved too. So, we have been having a "fancy lunch day" where we make something a little more involved. Sometimes it is a lot of fun and the kids enjoy helping out and other times I ask myself why I get these brilliant ideas in the first place since the execution of them ends up being so gosh darn painful.

Today, we made a Peanut Butter and Jam Gateau De Crepes - a fancy name for a basically a big stack of crepes. My kids love pancakes and we always have PB&J, so I knew this would be something they would love. The trick was whether or not all three of us would have the patience to stand around and make about 20 crepes before assembling the gateau. However, much to my surprise, we did. The kids were great. I think one of the reasons was because we had to use the blender to make the crepe batter. The kids are in love with the Vitamix - Emma practically gives me a standing ovation each time I bring it out of the cupboard. So, the batter took about 10 seconds to mix up and then came the tedious part - the cooking of the crepes. Crepes can be a bit finicky. The first one is normally a throwaway since you have to adjust the heat of your pan after the first one fails to cook properly and then the rest normally turn out great. The trickiest part is flipping them without breaking them. I do not own a crepe pan and unfortunately the skillet I use has higher sides, making it a little more difficult to turn the crepes. Luckily, I have lots of practice so this part was not as tedious as it could have been. Also lucky for me, Matthew was great at keeping an eye on them for me until he "saw bubbles on top" and told me they were ready to flip. In no time, we had all the crepes we needed to build our gateau.

We got out our fancy cake stand and put one crepe down. I spread a bit of melted peanut butter (maybe a tablespoon) over the top and then carefully placed a second crepe on top. A bit of warm, melted jam was spread onto this second crepe and then a third crepe was added to the stack. We repeated the layers until all the crepes were gone and we had a "leaning tower of crepes" oozing with peanut butter and blackberry jam. Emma helped place some sliced banana over the top and more peanut butter and jam was drizzled over the top. A healthy dusting of powdered sugar and the gateau was ready for eating! The kids were so excited. They "oohed" and "ahhhed" as we sliced into our crepe cake - revealing all the fancy layers within. And then, after I had served them each a generous slice, there was a glorious silence as they ate! They loved it so much that they actually ate without a complaint, a comment, a conjecture, an utterance! This is a rare occurrence indeed. Then, when finished, both children asked for another slice. In fact, our tiny little 8-inch gateau was gone within a matter of minutes. And surprisingly - Emma was a lot cleaner than she normally is after lunch. Maybe it's because she was using a fork and knife like a lady.

This is definitely not an everyday lunch by any means, but it is fun to make something "fun" and "fancy" for lunch every now and then.

Gateau De Crepes with Peanut Butter and Jam

Note: I had the idea for this gateau after watching Hubert Keller make a blueberry and cream cheese crepe cake on Secrets of a Chef on CreateTV one night. For our take on Gateau De Crepes, I used a standard crepe recipe that I've had written down for forever and am unsure of the source.

8 eggs
1 cup white whole wheat flour (recipe calls for all-purpose but we've been rockin' the wheat lately)
2 cups milk (any type)
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2-3 tablespoons of butter, chopped into small pieces (or you can use nonstick cooking spray)
1/2 cup peanut butter, warmed so it is drippy
1/2 cup jam, warmed so it is spreadable (we used blackberry)
1 banana, sliced

In a blender, combine the eggs, flour, milk, sugar, and salt. Process until completely smooth.

Heat a small, 8-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat. When hot, add one of the butter pieces and swirl around to coat the pan. Add in no more than 1/4 of batter and swirl the pan to coat the bottom evenly. Let cook until the bottom of the crepe is firm and bubble appear over the top. It will be easiest to flip when done. If it is not completely done, it will easily become mangled as you wrestle to get it to flip. Just let it do it's thing and wait until it flips easily. Once flipped, cook for about 30 additional seconds. Remove to a plate to cool. Repeat with remaining butter and batter. I like to layer the cooked crepes between paper towels so they do not stick together and are easily separated when it comes time to assemble the gateau.

When all the crepes are cooked, place one crepe on a cake stand. Spread with a thin layer of peanut butter. Put another crepe on top. Spread with a thin layer of jam. Repeat the layers until all the crepes have been used. You can use as many crepes as you like. I had several crepes left over and ended up freezing them for later use (they freeze very well when stacked between sheets of wax paper). Top the gateau with sliced bananas and drizzle with the remaining melted peanut butter. Add a generous dusting of powdered sugar. Slice like a cake and serve!