Meringues

Somehow I had forgotten how heavenly these little cookies are. The simplest thing to make (provided you have some kind of mixer), and just a few ingredients make a lovely, melt-in-your-mouth delectable treat. Not to mention only about 30 calories a cookie and hardly any fat! At some point I'd like to try them with Splenda to see how well they come out...then you'd REALLY be eating a light dessert.

Ultrafine sugar is best if you have it, simply because it dissolves easiest. Or some meringues are made by heating up the egg whites and sugar together over a double boiler till the sugar dissolves, resolving that issue(and the issue of salmonella). Make sure your bowl is completely clean and dry, and egg whites that are room temperature provide better volume than cold ones.

You can pipe these into little shapes, or pipe them into circles to provide a base for something else (berries, ice cream, etc). I just wanted to eat them, which led me to hastily dropping them onto a cookie sheet with a teaspoon(and that works fine too).

King Arthur Flour's Meringues

• 2 large eggwhites
• 1/2 cup sugar
• pinch of cream of tartar
• dash of salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• extra sugar, for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 200F. In a large bowl, combine the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt. Beat until soft peaks form, then gradually add the sugar, continuing to beat until the mixture is stiff and glossy. Add the vanilla extract at the end.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil, shiny side up. Drop the meringue by large teaspoonfuls onto the paper and sprinkle each meringue with a bit of sugar. Bake for 1 1/2 hours. Turn off the heat and leave the meringues in the oven until they're completely cool, 3 hours or more(no worries - they're worth it!). These are good to make in the evening; they can be left in the oven, with the heat turned off, overnight. Store them in an airtight container to keep them crisp.

You can add your favorite flavored extract to mix it up a little - almond would be good. Or, try folding in 1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips or shaved chocolate before baking.

For cocoa meringues, sift together 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar and 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder. Use 1/4 cup of granulated sugar while beating the egg whites and fold in the cocoa mixture and vanilla extract before baking.

Mmm...crepes

The Frenchies were on to something with these. Light, unleavened pancake things that can be filledwith sweet or savory fillings of any kind. I've been on a bit of a crepe kick since reading about one that Michael Symon did at Lola - a corn crepe batter with red and green bell peppers and scallions in it, with a duck confit filling, topped with cheese and his own barbeque sauce. Now damn that sounds good!

There are a couple different ways of making them. You can use just a regular saute pan with a tiny bit of fat in it - or some people use these handy crepe makers:

You pour a little batter onto it, spread it around like in the picture, flip it, fill it, and serve it. I've had them made this way and personally, I think they come out overcooked and dry. But maybe it was just the guy that made it. There's also another kind of crepe maker, that works as a reverse saute pan:

Dip what looks to be the bottom of a saute pan into the batter, let it sit for about ten seconds, and voila! Peel off a fresh crepe.

When it's made with buckwheat flour instead of wheat flour with a savory filling, according to both Culinaria France and Wikipedia, it becomes a "galette." But I thought a galette was a pastry, filled with fruit with the edges just barely coming up? Like this thing here?

Well, apparently I'm wrong. It's both. A galette can be the crepe made with buckwheat flour with a savory filling or various types of flat, round, or freeform crusty cakes.

Crepes Suzette are probably the most widely known. The story goes that it was the favorite dish of King Edward VII, the British king. At the turn of the century it was usual to spend winter on the Cote d'Azur. The Prince of Wales, who was a great admirer of France, invited Suzette, a pretty French woman who he was courting, to eat with him. When the crepes were brought to the table for dessert, the orange liqueur next to it was set on fire by mistake. With great presence of mind the chef served the crepes, folded twice, as a new creation. The prince was enraptured and christened the flambeed egg pancake with the name of his charming companion.

Crepe batter should be smooth, so a blender is a good tool for making it, but a whisk will suffice. It should also rest for a couple hours in the fridge, then let it get back to room temperature before you start cookin'. The resting process allows the gluten to relax as well as expand and absorb moisture, so you won't get tough crepes. The end result will give you a lovely light and thin crepe. Teflon is usually not exactly my favorite thing, but from what I hear they work well for this.

King Arthur Flour's Parisian Street Vendor Crepes

• 2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 4 large eggs
• 1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
• 1 tsp vanilla (only add this if you're making a sweet crepe)

If you're not throwing it all into a blender, follow their method:

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour and salt. In another, smaller bowl, beat together the milk and eggs. Make a well in the flour mixture and pour in about half the liquid mixture. Blend well, then add the remaining liquid and stir until fairly smooth. Stir in the butter. Cover and let sit for at least one hour.

Heat your pan until it's medium-hot. Wipe the bottom of the ban with a bit of butter (a paper towel works well). Pour a scant 1/3 cup of batter into the bottom of the pan, pick it up, and swirl it so the batter covers the bottom of the pan. Cook until the bottom begins to brown and you can slide a spatula under the crepe. (Or, you can just flip it like a pancake!) Cook briefly on the other side and place on a warm plate.

This recipe makes a LOT of crepe batter (of course it is just my boyfriend and I) - I would suggest cutting it in half unless you've got a big family or company. If you're making a big batch, you can toss them onto a sheet tray in a low oven (around 200F) to keep them warm till serving. I used some of my leftover batter the next day and it worked just fine. Keep in mind, you can play around a little bit with the recipe - add a little cinnamon to the batter for that apple filling, or substitute beer instead of milk for your braised pork and cheese filling.

The filling: The French love their Nutella. They have reason to...it's delicious. Try spreading some Nutella onto the crepe, add some sliced banana, and hit it with a little sift of powdered sugar before enjoying. Add berries and yogurt. Make a sauce to go along with it. Whatever you like.

I mixed some ricotta cheese (about 1 1/2 cups) with the juice of a lemon, and added powdered sugar till it tasted sweet enough, plus about 1/2 a teaspoon of vanilla. I used this and strawberry yogurt as my filling. Success!