One of my favorite annual traditions is to ceremoniously attend the Tonganoxie city-wide garage sale. Usually, this is done in some sort of costume, assembled as I and my band of merrymakers travel from goldmine to goldmine. A hat here, a fringy dress there, and by the end of the day we have nothing of value except a Jack Daniels bottle made into a lamp and the attire we are so proudly displaying for the unsuspecting Tonganoxans who shake their heads (and usually smile and sometimes high-five us) as we make our way around the town.

So you can imagine my despair when I realized they’d moved the date up this year and I was already booked. Booked in a “I-really-can’t-get-out-of-this” way and that is saying a lot because I’d pretty much miss my own wedding to tromp around Tonganoxie with a band of ne’er-do-well women wearing Dottie West outfits and lampshades as hats.

My friend Lulu understood the pain I was in about missing the sale, and thoughtfully brought me a consolation prize to our brunch today. It was “The Creperie” – a vintage never-been-used, still-in-the-box crepe maker, complete with a nifty recipe book that I read aloud from at brunch. Lulu’s a good egg.

Generally speaking, I hate unitaskers – things that sit around your kitchen waiting for their one very specific (and usually rare) intended use. But this? This is different. This is different like getting a manicure the day before you plan to take apart your car engine because you have a hot date that night is different. Impractical? Maybe. Worth it? ABSOLUTELY.

Naturally, I ran right home from brunch and fired that bad boy up. I jerked a bunch of stuff out of my refrigerator. An extra trip to the store would have spoiled the fun. Turns out, Mr. Meat and Potatoes had never had a crepe before. Can you believe that? Has he never had a breakfast buffet at a hotel? Where has he BEEN? It is such a good thing he married me so I could rescue him from a life of ribeyes and frozen pizza.

We were having our crepes for dinner, so I wanted something savory, though you are all quite aware I’m sure that you can put pretty much anything in a crepe. We sat over dinner and I felt like Bubba Gump. “You could have banana and chocolate crepes, Nutella crepes, strawberry crepes, crepes with chicken, crepes with breakfast sausage and cream cheese, bacon and goat cheese crepes, crepes stuffed with guacamole, or just fill that sucker up with jelly and go to town.” He nodded solemnly and then looked at our son with that “I’m sorry, son, but she’s crazy, so we humor her,” face.

Here’s how I went about our first crepe making experiment with my new best friend, The Creperie.

First, I needed a basic plan. This required all of my Sunday Funday brain cells. I needed something Weight Watcher-friendly. I needed something that I had all of the ingredients for on-hand. Also, delicious. I settled on shrimp, which are super-duper awesome on Weight Watchers, being high in protein and low in fat. I always have a frozen bag or two in the house. From there, I stood with the refrigerator door open, surveying the land. My eyes landed on a container of Sundried Tomato and Basil Laughing Cow Cheese. Useful stuff.

http://www.lawrence.com/users/meganstuke/photos/2012/apr/16/233356/

I made a white wine bechamel sauce first.

Cheesy bechamel sauce
2 Tablespoons light butter
2 Tablespoons flour
1.5 Cups fat free chicken broth
4 wedges Laughing Cow cheese (Sundried Tomato and Basil for this application)
1 Tablespoon light sour cream
pinch of salt
cracked black pepper
1 tsp basil
1/3 C white wine

First, melt the butter in a saucepan. Then add the flour and quickly whisk it together to make a thick paste. Add the chicken broth slowly and whisk like mad to remove any lumps.

Next, add the cheese wedges, and stir while they melt. Add the sour cream and spices, and finally the wine. Reduce over medium heat until it is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon.

http://www.lawrence.com/users/meganstuke/photos/2012/apr/16/233352/

I set that aside and started on the crepes. This, thanks to my trusty Creperie, was miraculously simple and fun. Even Mr. Meat and Potatoes was pretty smitten with the process.

Simple Crepes
3 eggs
1 C low fat milk
1/2 C water
1 1/2 C flour
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
pinch of salt

Start by mixing the eggs together at a medium speed. Then slowly alternate adding the dry and wet ingredients until it’s all in. Mix until it’s smooth.

Now, without The Creperie, you can simply do these in a hot oiled skillet. Just add about 1/4 cup of batter into the skillet and roll the batter around to coat. Cook for two minutes, flip for a few seconds to get the other side cooked, and remove. But that isn’t half as fun as dunking this “reverse skillet” into the batter resting in the special plate the kit provided. I just quickly placed The Creperie into the batter, lifted it out, waited about 30 seconds, and poof, a perfect crepe was born, every time.

http://www.lawrence.com/users/meganstuke/photos/2012/apr/16/233353/

http://www.lawrence.com/users/meganstuke/photos/2012/apr/16/233357/

This recipe made about 20 crepes. We only ate a few at dinner and I froze the rest, so we can have a frou-frou brunch for our friends another day and wow them with our fancy French cooking.

For filling, I made a simple shrimp saute.

Shrimp Filling for Crepes
1 lb shrimp, medium size
1 can diced tomatoes
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp basil
1 tsp garlic powder
2 Tablespoons minced red onion
2 Tablespoons white wine
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
salt and pepper

Add all the ingredients to a saute pan and cook over medium heat until the shrimp are pink and everything is warm.

http://www.lawrence.com/users/meganstuke/photos/2012/apr/16/233355/

Assemble your crepes. Lay a few shrimp along the center of the crepe, and add a bit of the tomato “sauce” as well. I also added a bit of the bechamel to the inside of the crepe. Then roll it up and add more bechemel to the top. I also sprinkled a little Parmesan cheese on top.

This made enough for 8 shrimp stuffed crepes (and about 15 more crepes to put in the freezer for later.)

http://www.lawrence.com/users/meganstuke/photos/2012/apr/16/233358/

1 shrimp crepe with bechamel sauce = 4 Weight Watchers Points Plus

It tasted more like 14 points. I served it with a heaping pile of steamed broccoli on the side, and look forward to taking the leftovers for lunch and making everyone think I’ve fallen off the Weight Watchers wagon. Who knew dieting could be this fun? And delicious.

A big thank you to Lulu for this super-fun find. It still smarts I can’t go to “Make a Fool of Yourself in Tonganoxie Day” (I mean, where better to make a fool of one’s self, right?) but this did make me feel immensely better. My family is gonna get so sick of crepes. I can’t wait.