Aunt Theresa’s Crepes

Holidays and Special Foods are a tradition in our family. Pick a holiday or a celebration and I can name a food, recipe or menu we’ve shared as a family. What can I say, we have many home cooks and bakers in our family and we enjoy celebrating and sharing!

I posted about Palacinkas (Slovenian Crepes) before and how our girls and now our grandsons enjoy when they are “scrambled” to make something we’ve always called “bucca.” They top the scrambled palacinka / “bucca” with syrup, usually Log Cabin, and enjoy themselves!

In this recipe, we use the palacinkas / crepes to create a dessert by adding a delightful, sweet filling. My Aunt Theresa introduced her creation at a July 4th picnic at her son Steve’s (my cousin) one year and we loved them. I remember so vividly that she topped them with a homemade strawberry syrup and whipped cream and proudly added them to the dessert table! They were chilled perfectly for a warm July 4th afternoon.

I made them recently, for our July 4th family picnic and topped them with a blueberry syrup. Our syrup was made from blueberries that Bob and our youngest grandson picked from newly planted bushes in our backyard! The recipes for Palacinkas and Blueberry Syrup follow… Enjoy!

Palacinkas / Crepes:

1 cup flour

2 cups milk

2 eggs

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon butter, melted

Palacinka Filling:

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 pint heavy whipping cream, whipped

Blueberry Syrup Topping:

1 cup blueberries

1/4 – 1/2 cup sugar (depending on personal preference of sweetness)

Directions for the Crepes:

Combine all the the ingredients for the crepes in a medium size bowl and mix until smooth. Let this batter rest for about 10 – 15 minutes.

Using a small nonstick pan sprayed lightly with some vegetable oil / Pam, add enough batter to coat the entire pan (approximately 1/3 cup) by swirling the batter to make a thin pancake. It is important to make them as thinly as possible. It will take a little practice, but, I assure you it will be worth it!

When you see the edges starting to brown slightly, carefully flip the pancake to lightly brown the other side. Place this crepe onto a dish and continue using the rest of the batter to make additional crepes.

When all of your crepes are finished and cooled they are ready to fill.

Directions for the Filling:

In a medium bowl, mix the softened cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar and vanilla together until smooth. Then, gently fold in the whipped cream until it is all combined.

Directions for the blueberry syrup:

Put the blueberries, sugar and vanilla into a saucepan. Heat this mixture over a low – medium heat until it is all combined and the consistency pleases you. You may want larger berries remaining in your syrup or you may want a smoother, thinner consistency. You may even want to use a handheld blender to blend it at the end.

Assembling Dessert Crepes:

Place a crepe onto a marble / cutting board and add some of the cream cheese filling on one side, end to end and then, roll the crepe and place on a dish. Continue with the rest of the crepes.

When all of the crepes are filled, place in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

When you are ready to serve them, top the chilled, rolled crepe with the blueberry syrup and some homemade whipped cream!

Enjoy!

Bucca – What?!? Palacinkas – Meatless Meals 2

What is Bucca????
My Goodness…what an odd name lol!

Well, let’s start with the Palacinka! Maybe some of you have heard of this one…

A Palacinka / Palatschinke is a thin crêpe-like variety of pancake common in Central and Eastern Europe. (see more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatschinke )

There are many different names or ways to spell palacinka! Check some of these out below!

Did you figure out why I spell it palacinka? Our heritage is Windish/Slovenian. We make a lot of our foods with Slovenian, Croatian, Hungarian, Yugoslavian and Slovakian influences in mind. My Great Grandmother came to Ellis Island from Yugoslavia when she was 23 years old. Her name can be found at Ellis Island in New York. But that’s another story. 😉

Oh the many things we learned from Great Grammy, Grammy and family!

We learned to eat really well!!! LOL!! ❤

So…..Anyway…..

As a meatless meal during Lent or really anytime of year (because we love it so much), Grammy and Mom would make us palacinkas. These amazing thin crepe-like pancakes were filled with any jelly or jam we chose. For mom, dad and Grammy, they would have a cheese filling. Oh and don’t forget to cover them with some powdered sugar! 😉

What an easy meatless meal it was too! I’ll give you the recipe later lol!

Now that you know what palacinkas are….

Bucca—–What?!?!?!

Bucca is always a favorite in our home! Jackson absolutely loves it! Who am I kidding? I absolutely love it too! Now…

Take the same recipe that I will give you shortly and rip them up in the pan! Then cover it in pancake syrup or a syrup of your choice! Oh YUM!!! I love palacinkas and bucca soooooo much that I have an inner struggle every time I make them just because I don’t know which way I want to eat them! They’re both soooooo good!!!!!! YUM!!!!!

Ok, ok….Here’s the recipe 😉

Palacinka

• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup flour
• 1 egg
• splash of vanilla (shhhhh)
• butter to lightly coat the pan between palacinkas (I don’t bother when I use my crepe pan after the first couple, because it has become “seasoned”)
• choice of jellies/jams

Combine the 1st 4 ingredients and whisk well, try to get rid of all the lumps. Ah….I throw it all in a blender now just to mix them well. Makes for easy cleanup too. It will be a thin batter, if it is a little thick you can add a little more milk. Then pour roughly a 1/4 cup of the batter into a crepe pan or small nonstick pan. Swirl pan around til the batter covers the entire bottom of the pan. Then when edges brown slightly and you start to see some bubbles (similar to making pancakes), flip with a thin spatula and lightly brown the other side. When both sides are lightly browned…place on a plate, fill with favorite jelly/jam, roll it up and dust with powdered sugar! Enjoy!!!

You can keep them covered with foil and warm on a low temperature in the toaster oven until everyone is ready to eat. 😉

I literally flip the palacinkas in the air…learned how in 8th grade and have been flipping ever since! Jackson gets a kick out of it every time! 😉

Making Palacinkas in the crepe pan 😉 (Just flipped)

This is how Palacinkas look on the plate…now just fill with your favorite Jam or Jelly and roll up 😉 Sprinkle powdered sugar too!

Jackson likes to roll them up and dip them in pancake syrup! 😉

Bucca – All cut up and smothered in Pancake syrup 😉 Yum! Grammy used to make it this way for me! ❤

For Bucca:

Do the same as above, but when you flip the palacinka…start to pull it apart into bite-size pieces with a fork and spatula, then when lightly browned…place on a plate and cover with pancake syrup or syrup of choice. 😉

Seriously….Making Palacinkas and Bucca is that easy. We always at least double the recipe because literally 1 batch feeds only Jackson and I for how much we love it! LOL!

We hope you enjoy Palacinkas and Bucca as much as we do! Let us know below! 😉

<img class=” wp-image-666″ src=”https://lifedesigning1.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/2014-03-28-16-40-37.jpg?w=640″ alt=”Jackson wanted his Picture in the post 😉 He said “Mom, ya gotta put in a picture like this, it looks like a flower!” Jackson wanted his Picture in the post 😉 He said “Mom, ya gotta put in a picture like this, it looks like a flower!” ❤

Meatless Meals for Fridays during Lent!

Not sure what to make as a Meatless Meal for a Friday night during Lent?

Well…..

We’ve got some ideas for you! Here is one of our Windish/Slovenian Favorites:

Cabbage and Noodles!

List of Ingredients:

• 1 head of Cabbage
• 1 bag of Egg Noodles (my hubby likes the extra wide ones by Pennsylvania Dutch or Light n Fluffy, doesn’t matter to me lol!) ALSO…any noodle will do 😉
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Little bit of Vegetable Oil or your choice of cooking oil

Directions:

Chop up the cabbage into small bite-size pieces. Place cabbage in a large skillet with a little bit of cooking oil, salt and pepper (we use a large stock pot cuz we’re gonna mix it all together anyway lol). Sauté the cabbage until soft and lightly browned…salt and pepper to taste. While sautéing the cabbage, prepare the noodles according to package instructions. Strain the noodles and mix together with the sauteed cabbage.

Enjoy some Cabbage and Noodles hot off the stove!!! YUM!!!

Some people use this as a side dish, but we eat it as a meal! I absolutely love it!!! I usually eat way too much of it and get way too full…oops! But I do it every time! LOL!

Now, back in the day, my Grammy would chop the cabbage, place it in a large bowl with about a Tablespoon of salt sprinkled on top and let it rest for about an hour. She would then squeeze the cabbage (really builds the muscles lol) to release any water in the cabbage (the salt helps pull it out) and then sauté it. Sometimes I still like to do it Grammy’s way 😉

On the other hand, my mother-in-law would boil the cabbage in salt water until soft and then brown it lightly. And others like to put some chopped onion in too…that’s up to you! Different ways to come to the same delicious Cabbage and Noodle outcome! 😉

Let us know if you try our recipe and how you liked it 😉

More Meatless Meal recipes to come….

Family Recipe: What is a Rosette?

 

Rosette Cookies – A “Generation” Family Recipe*

 

1 cup milk
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg (2 – if a flakier pastry is desired)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour, sifted

oil for frying
Rosette iron
paper towels

Mix the first five ingredients together and then slowly add the flour until the batter is smooth.
Heat enough oil (in a wide pan) to be able to deep fry.

For each rosette follow these instructions:
Dip “batterless” (rosette) iron into the hot oil until the iron is hot.
Dab the iron onto a paper towel – then dip into the batter.
Make certain you — do not — go over the top of the iron! It will run the entire batter.
Dip the “battered” iron into the hot oil — the batter will loosen itself – if you need to, nudge it off with a fork.

When it looks light brown… Turn the Rosette cookie to brown the other side.
When that side is light brown…. remove and drain on paper towels until cool.

Sprinkle with confectioners’ / powdered sugar.
Serve! and Enjoy!

We always know when people sample our cookies…….. by the powdered sugar on their shirts! 🙂 Enjoy!

*This family “generation” recipe was submitted to a local cookbook:

1992 – Ethnic Recipes, Traditions and Customs — St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church – Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Compiled by Mary Ann Lipsky
Illustrations and Narrative by Janet Kovalchick (a local artist and dear friend)
Small Drawings Assistant – Robin Gwen Lipsky (age 18)

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