Crepes for Lunch!

very morning, I am confronted by the same old problem: what to prepare for lunch, which in Israel, is our big meal of the day. There's nothing earthshaking about this. It's a universal problem. Picky kids with palates that get bored at the blink of an eye. Moms that get stuck in a food prep rut. Nope. Not new at all.

I wracked my brains and came up with...Nada. Couldn't think of a single dish that piqued my interest enough to make me want to bother to buy the associated ingredients and cook them for my kids. Feh. Lunch. Again. Blah.

What I did was force myself out the door. I thought that if I went to the local mom and pop store, maybe I'd see something there that would get the wheels of my brain turning in a "luncherly" direction.Which, in retrospect, was a very good idea.

About halfway to the store, the fog lifted from my brain. Maybe it was the cold fresh air. But BINGO! Inspiration from out of nowhere: I would make them crepes with a variety of toppings. A fun lunch.

I had most of what I needed at home: eggs, milk, flour, sweet butter. I'd just buy some chocolate bars to grate for topping, and anything else that looked like it might be good as a sweet topping for crepes. I bought some Nutella, brown sugar, and sour cream. I had good apricot preserves at home. The funny thing is that I knew they would only use the grated chocolate, and MAYBE the Nutella. I was right.

I had never ever made them crepes during the week for a lunch. I made it for us to break the Yom Kippur fast when it was just Dov and I. But as the kids grew up, they wanted to have crepes with us after the fast. It got to the point where I had to stand on my feet for four hours straight to make enough crepes to feed 12 kids plus two adults after the long 25 hour fast.

I put my foot down. We're doing bagels and lox. No more crepes. But my kids cried bitter tears and one of them, my daughter Michal said, "Wait! Make the batter and show me how to cook them and I will cook them!!"

And that is what we did for many years.

But Michal got married and then nobody was brave enough to take on the task of standing and cooking all those crepes. I persuaded them that bagels and lox was the only way to go. This has become our standard post-fast meal.

Today, it hit me: I have only four kids left at home. Why not make crepes for lunch? It may not be the healthiest lunch choice, but I knew it would give the kids joy.

Did they appreciate my efforts? You bet your sweet bippy! 16 year-old Moshe came home and when he found out there were crepes for lunch, he burst out with an unrestrained, impassioned recitation of his love for me. "I LOVE you," he said. 

Verbal expressions of love for mom from a 16 year-old?? Wowee. I should make crepes for lunch more often.