Bamix, Glorious Bamix!

After work on Friday, I hopped on the bus and headed down to the store to buy myself a new stick blender. (Sort of a practical "new job treat.") Since I burned through my last stick blender in just about a year, I decided to invest this time -- spend a little more on a near commercial-quality blender that will definitely last longer than a year! Meet my new Bamix:

It's efficient, powerful, and remarkably quiet. I can actually hear myself think while blending, and am no longer tempted to don earplugs. (P.S. I am totally sold on stick blenders in general -- never will I buy a traditional blender again!)

The Bamix is in for a work-out this weekend, but not immediately. Spring rolls:

I make a super-simple dipping sauce made of roughly equal parts peanut butter, low-sodium tamari, and rice vinegar.

Lasagna Rolls with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce (Got Bamix's feet dirty while pureeing the sauce):

This recipe tasted fabulous (Ann joined me for dinner after giving me a ride to drop off some stuff at the Goodwill,) but was FUSSY to prepare. I may slightly alter the recipe in the future, or switch to stuffed shells or something.

And now, the tale of my crepes. Thanks to many years of high school and college French classes, I have made and eaten many a crepe in my day. (I possess an "official" recipe, according to an old French teacher.) I love, love, love crepes, but they take an eternity to make, are super fatty and not all that healthy, (especially when you slather them with Nutella,) and don't really fill me up at all. In the end, I probably haven't made a batch of crepes for at least three years.

I have been craving crepes lately. Every once in a while, someone comes in to the store to buy a crepe pan, (either stovetop or electric,) and that gets me thinking about crepes. Lately, I have been thinking about crepes a lot. So much so in fact, I had a dream last night about making and eating crepes. (That really was the whole dream -- I dreamed I made and ate crepes.) So, tonight, I decided to "make dreams come true," and whipped up a batch of basic crepes (courtesy of the Bamix, again!)

I pathetically attempted to make the crepes slightly healthier by substituting half whole-wheat pastry flour, with excellent results. (I honestly couldn't tell the difference . . . but with that much egg and butter, the flour is merely a backup singer, right?) I made up a caramel-apple filling for them, which turned out quite tasty, especially since I didn't use a recipe and didn't measure anything. I have a bunch of crepes left, and will munch on them over the course of the next week. Yum.

Lastly, this is what I get for forgetting to take the placemats off the table after dinner:

Silly Oliver. (Now I have to wash the placemats . . . ! Argh.)

More cooking tomorrow . . . off to tackle the dishes.