палачинка (palachinka)

but you know them as... CREPES! In Europe you often hear these pieces of heaven called "pancakes," but don't be fooled -- you'll have a hard time finding "American" pancakes swimming in butter and maple syrup.

I just love crepes. I loved them the first time I had homemade ones in Romania, with jam and/or nutella. I love the way you can roll them up and let the filling ooze out of the end, and then lick it off. I love the way you can fill them up with something healthy and suddenly they become a meal. If you put your finger on the map somewhere between a pancake and a tortilla... there's a crepe.

In Macedonia (or "Skopje" if you're speaking in Greece) I experienced a crepe filled with eurocream (nutella), folded numerous times, completely covered with whipped cream, and drizzled with chocolate. When I tried one in Greece with ham and blue cheese, I knew crepes needed to have a permanent place in my life, to be put in the rotation of simple things I can feed myself. Much to my delight, I found a recipe in my free sample issue of Taste of Home! Now, I do have a bottle of crepe mix from Italy that I will be trying at some point, but I wanted to test this recipe asap and save the good stuff for a special occasion. Here you have it, "Wholly Crepe!" from Taste of Home, with added tips by yours truly.

Yield: 16 crepes *I cut this recipe in half, since I'm only one person.*
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups 2% milk *I used soy milk and it still worked*
4 eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt
8 tsp butter *the exact amount isn't really important*

1. In a small bowl, whisk milk and eggs. Combine the flour, sugar and salt; add to milk mixture and mix well. Refrigerate for 1 hour. *My batter was lumpy, so I suggest sifting the flour, or straining the batter. I didn't refrigerate for the whole hour and it was ok, but it would probably be better that way.*

2. Melt 1 tsp butter in an 8-in. nonstick skillet over medium heat; pour 2-3 Tbsp. batter into center of skillet. Lift and tilt pan to coat bottom evenly. *My version: spray the pan, pour as much batter as you want, turn the pan quickly to make the shape look nice.* Cook until top appears dry; carefully loosen the crepe and turn it over (feel free to use your fingers), cook 15-20 seconds longer. Remove to a wire rack. *Remove to a paper towel*

3. Repeat with remaining batter, adding butter *PAM* to skillet as needed. When cool, stack crepes with waxed paper of paper towels in between.

To freeze leftovers (if there should be any): Layer crepes individually between squares of wax paper. Place in a freezer container; seal and freeze for up to 2 months. *I used paper towels and a freezer bag. We'll see how that goes when I try to use them. If you have wax paper, by all means, follow directions.*

I still don't have a summer job, so I plan to spend my time increasing my culinary repertoire. Expect more recipes in the near future!