♫ Mardi Gras ♪ j'frais des crêpes ♫ et t'en auras!

Everyone has different memories of Mardi Gras. Given that my husband is a Louisiana-bred Tulane graduate, I try not to think about the kind of memories he has of celebrating Fat Tuesday, though I'm pretty sure it involves beads and Bourbon Street ;-) For moi, Mardi Gras brings back two specific memories, both of them involving eggs and flour. The first one is the rather painful tradition of French teenagers attacking each other with eggs and flour outside of their schools that day. I'm sure it all started innocently, but if you've ever gotten hit in the face by an egg (or more) you can understand why I am not a fan. I am, however, a big fan of the other French Mardi Gras tradition of using aforementioned eggs and flour to make delicious crêpes. Making crêpes is actually very easy. It's basically eggs, flour, milk, a little vegetable oil, a pinch of salt and for some, like myself, a little beer in lieu of yeast. Once you have made the batter (I personally follow the following proportions: 2 1/2 cups of flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 6 eggs, 2 tbps vegetable oil, 1 1/2 cup of milk and 1 1/2 cup of lager type beer) the steps are simple:

1. spread batter as roundly as possible onto crêpe-maker (or pan)

2. flip crêpe & sprinkle your fave savoury topings on cooked side

(pictured is an egg, mushrooms, ham & gruyere classic combo)

3. fold crêpe in half and cook evenly on each side

4. last but not least, serve warm with a simple salad. Miam miam!

A great merci to my very dear friend C. who has shared my love of crêpes (and macarons) every since we were paired up as "exchange buddies" our sophomore year of high school. She is not only the beautiful hand model on the pictures above but also gave me the Tibos Electric Crêpe Maker also pictured above as a wedding present 5 years ago. It was a great gift, and I have put it to good use. And not just on  Mardi Gras!

♫ Mardi Gras, ♪ t'en va pas... ♫ j'frais des crêpes ♪ et t'en aura!! ♫