Sometimes dinner isn’t about what’s sensible. Sometimes it’s about what makes you smile — and on this particular evening, that happened to be crêpes, berries, cream and a generous helping of kirsch.
We needed something to put the “skip back in our step” — if only the aches and pains from our various injuries would have allowed us to actually skip.
We’d eaten well all day, but tonight I decided we needed something a little more indulgent. No main course, no worrying about protein or carbohydrates or sugar. Just something delicious that might make us forget about the aches, pains and worries for a while.
There was nothing about a main course that I felt was going to achieve any skipping, and then I remembered we had a fresh container of cream and some frozen blueberries. My mind immediately went to crêpes.
Ah yes. Now that was something that could easily help us ignore the injury pains and worries for a while.
So out came the skillet, my beloved bamix and a bowl, and I quickly gathered the ingredients together. Geoff, always interested in whatever culinary delight had made its way into the galley, came to investigate all the commotion.
When I told him we were having crêpes for dinner that night — no main course, just crêpes — his face lit up like a child’s does on Christmas morning when viewing his presents, and he hadn’t even tasted the goods yet.
Goal almost achieved already, and he hadn’t even tasted the goods yet.
As quickly as I could, I made the batter and put it aside while I prepared the berry filling. The blueberries and raspberries went into a saucepan to warm through, along with a rather generous dash of kirsch and a little grenadine for sweetness, as the berries were a little tart.
Then all I had to do was whip the cream with my beloved bamix.
A simple task, or so it seemed at the time.
Lesson to self: do not raise "my beloved bamix" out of the bowl to add the icing sugar while it is still running if you don’t want whipped cream everywhere.
I gave a yelp, and Geoff laughed.
And there I stood with cream splattered across my chest, the counter, the wall and just about everything else within range of the airborne cream.
I couldn’t help laughing too. Nothing was going to spoil crêpe night.
I quickly cleaned up the evidence and moved on.
Then it was time to make the crêpes.
You are probably thinking disaster number two is about to be told, involving flipping the crêpes, and I hate to disappoint you.
I didn’t flip them in the air because I was using a skillet rather than a proper crêpe pan. I had tried that once much earlier in our travels and spent the next half hour trying to remove raw, half-cooked crêpe batter that had escaped the skillet and fallen down the very narrow gap between the stove and the stove-side mounts.
So there was no repeat performance this time.
I simply and successfully turned each crêpe with a spatula until they were all done.
I then quickly put together two serves of crêpes and, oh my, those serves did look mouth-watering.
We sat together in the cockpit of Onyx, sharing our very unconventional dinner as the sun slipped lower.
For a while, the aches, pains and worries seemed to take a back seat.
Sometimes you don’t need anything particularly elaborate to make an evening feel better. Sometimes a plate of warm crêpes and a good dollop of freshly whipped cream will do the job quite nicely.
Judging by the look on Geoff’s face, I’d say the prescription worked perfectly.
A few people have asked about the crêpes. They were simply thin crêpes filled with warm, kirsch-laden blueberries and raspberries, then topped with a generous serving of freshly whipped cream.
Nothing fancy at all.
Just very, very good.
If you fancy making your own… I used the crêpe recipe from RecipeTin Eats as my starting point, then added my own berry filling of blueberries, raspberries, kirsch and a little grenadine.
MEMORIES FROM THAT DAY
Let’s catch up again soon.
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
What simple moments have become the memories you treasure most? We’d love to hear about one.