Cassin Crepes

Cassin Crepes

Chip 

When the kids were young,  I would make these crepes every week for them.   The recipe comes from my best friend Bruno, who is french and finicky, and calm and smart, and rides bikes like me, and also has two daughters about the same age as Mara and Jana, so we raised our daughters together, two guys, two dads, surrounded by women.    Now that they kids are grown, I still make a half recipe for myself every week or so for nice dessert with a banana and some nutella or marrons.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup corn starch (or if no corn starch just use 1 cup of flour)
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup milk or heavy cream or mixture of two
• 1/4 cup sugar, or some brown sugar, or honey or some molasses
• a pinch of baking powder
• some melted butter,  maybe 1-2 tablespoons, julia child would put a stick of butter in, which is just purely insane.
• a little vanilla
• a crepe pan if you have one

Instructions

• break eggs into a bowl, stir up
• Add in other ingredients, mix thoroughly with hand whisk into a batter
• heat up crepe pan good, melt a little butter in pan
• I usually pour the batter into a measuring cup at this point for easy pouring
• add some batter to pan, turn pan around a bit to spread batter around
• first crepe usually takes some time to cook, later ones quicker
• a couple of minutes for first side (until top is dryish, only a minute for the second side)
• slide crepe onto waiting plate. cook next crepe
• Makes + or - 10 crepes
• Enjoy!  Good for breakfast with maple syrup and/or fruit, nutella, marrons (chestnut paste), or for dinner with ham, mushrooms and cheese.   Essentially the crepe is like the french version of a burrito or an american omelet, and you can put almost anything in it and it will taste great.

Joy's Apple Crumble

Joy's Apple Crumble

Chip 

Joy came to visit Michelle and I one time years ago, long before the kids were born, and showed me how to make apple crumble.   Its really easy to make, and  tastes great, and I have had friends take this recipe from me and use it for themselves.    I can't say that this is the recipe she gave me, but its the one I remember that has evolved from her, and whatever modifications I have made from hers were made mostly for my convenience.

Ingredients

• 4 or 5 apples - any kind will do
• a little water
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 stick of butter
• maybe a little cinnamon, a little vanilla
• 1 8 X 8 or 9 X 9 baking dish, 1 bowl for mixing crumble

Instructions

• Peel and slice apples into baking dish
• go to sink. add a little bit of water, sprinkle some cinnamon on top if you want 
• in bowl, add the sugar flour, and melted butter, then mix into a crumble
• add vanilla 
• pour crumble on top of apples
• put in oven or toaster oven  at F350 for 1/2 hour, or lightly brown on top
• Let cool a little
• Enjoy!  Great with ice cream or cool whip on top

About Janice

She was first Janice Cassin, then Janice Hebert, then Janice Isenberg, and then – in the end just plain old Janice Cassin again, who she always felt she was anyway.   Born with a sharp tongue that always got her into trouble, or got people laughing, she went through life never afraid to tell anyone what she thought, which is a blessing and a curse.   Along the way she married, raised 4 children while the husband was away, then finished on 4 more that another woman had kindly left for her, loving them all.   She was a mother to us all, always sitting at the kitchen table early in the morning, with a cigarette and a cup of coffee, always willing to give one of us comfort, and sometimes guidance as well, when needed or asked for.  And even after her stroke at 72, when the entire universe of her words were reduced to “So, So, So”, still, still with just one of her many looks you could always tell what she was thinking, and what she needed you to do.   Five more years she lived.  So now she is has departed from this mortal coil, and all we are left with is the photographs and the memories, and of course the finest gift of all, the warm and lasting comfort of knowing that we were all lucky enough to have her as our mom.