CREPES

In my family it's tradition to make crepes for breakfast
on a sunday morning!
Me and my son have been making them for a long time and
I have been experimenting lots of different recipes to find
the supreme one.
The recipe I have chosen among them all it hasn't been given
to me by one of my friends in Paris but by a mom of a dear
Italian friend.
I changed it slightly but I'm still calling it:

ANTONINA's CREPES

Ingredients for 8/10 crepes:

1 cup white flour (100 g)
250 dl milk
2 eggs
1 TBS melted butter (15 g)
1 TBS Cognac or white wine or beer


Separate whites from yolks and beat them to obtain soft peaks.
Beat egg yolks, add flour and milk little by little.
Add cognac and butter.
At the end add egg whites and mix gently with a wooden spoon.
Let it rest for 10 minutes.
Warm up a medium frying pan, spread base with butter
(use a solid piece of butter)and spoon in mixture.
Move frying pan around so mixture can spread covering the all pan.

After few minutes (when you start seeing little bubbles) turn crepe upside down with
a spatula and let it cook for couple of minutes or till golden.
If you want a sugar and cinnamon flavored crepe, this is the time you sprinkle it with them so sugar has a little time to melt!

Remove crepe in a plate and repete operation till mixture ends.

For breakfast you will sprinkle crepes with cinnamon and sugar if you want to reproduce an original French crepe or you will spread them with Nutella
if you want them Italian style.
If you then want an American flavor you will cover them with maple syrup and blackberries!

I remember that my aunt would prepare cannelloni with a crepe base instead of pasta.
So use your imagination and create lots of different delicious savory crepes.
My favorite is the traditional ricotta and spinach!

GREEN TOMATOES JAM

When I was young and still living in Italy, I discovered
this original jam at my friend Marisa's house.
Her mother Clelia would make it at the end of summer
so she could use all the tomatoes that were left unripe in
the vegetable garden....clever!!!

Passing by a neighbour garden recently, I saw green tomatoes
hanging, forgotten on few plants.
My memory went quickly back to the past, so I knocked at my
neighbour's door catching the opportunity to be able to make
the precious jam.
"Precious" because if you don't have a vegetable garden it's
impossible to find green tomatoes at the shop.

So here I am with the recipe and some pictures from my recent
jam making!

GREEN TOMATOES JAM

Ingredients:

2 kg of green or half-ripe tomatoes
1 kg of sugar (I use the brown one)
2 organic lemons

Wash tomatoes, clean them from all imperfections (rotten side, insects bites)
and slice them in small pieces.

Wash lemons, grate peels, then squeeze juice.

Mix tomatoes with sugar and lemon juice and let them rest, covered, in the fridge
for one night.

The next day, transfer tomatoes in a big pot and cook them slowly for about one hour.
In the middle of cooking add the lemon zest and stir.
After one hour, spoon out a bit of jam on a plate to check if it is dense,
then you know that jam is ready!

Sterilize glass jars in the dishwasher.
Pour jam in jars when still warm, cover with lids and put them
upside down in a big pot.
Divide jars with a cloth and cover them with cold water.
Boil for 35 minutes in order to sterilize jam so to be preserved.

Keep jars in the pot till water is cold.
At this point the jars with Green tomatoes jam are ready to go on your pantry shelf!

I love this jam on a slice of fresh baguette or to accompany a slice of cheese.