What reminds you of summer? For me, it’s togetherness, traveling, late nights under the stars, laughing until my heart felt like it would burst, bonfires, homemade ice cream, watermelon and barbecues. Sleepovers, the beach and homemade crepes. The crepe recipe reminds me of my inbetween years.

Every summer, I try to slow down and unplug. This is a conscious choice I made a few years ago when I felt everything start to spin out of control. The girls started school and pretty soon extracurriculars that were once a week for half an hour were every day for an hour, then two and now, time together is extracurricular.

What I mean is life started running us and I just wasn’t ready for that to happen yet. Something had to be done. I want to be present for these fleeting summers we have left with our children. They really do grow up so fast. One day, you are praying to God that they will be able to crawl and the next day, you are teaching them about how to put on make-up and listening to them tell you who they think is cute at school. Before I know it, they will be off to college, moving away and getting married. I need more hours, more days, more weeks…more moments together.

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So when summer comes along, I am ecstatic. My family loves to travel together. We love to eat together. Love going for bike rides and night swims.  Rushing into the surf and baking in the sun, we’ll take it. Connecting freckles and impromptu dance parties? We’ll take those too. We love bonfires and singing Cardi B songs at the top of our lungs while laughing so hard that our bellies hurt. I want more of all of that.

I don’t care how anybody else does their summers. I just hope they are happy doing it. For us, summer is when we slow down and just be. I confiscate the electronics. We stay up late. We sleep in. We visit family. We watch movies outside and count the stars. We celebrate the time to slow down and enjoy the journey. And we cook. As a Latina foodie mom, food is one of my love languages. Some of my fondest childhood memories involve food.

This summer the girls are a little older so I have been teaching them to cook some of their favorites. One thing we all love is crepes. I learned to make them when I was in 7th grade in home economics class. Remember that class? Anyways, they don’t offer anything like that in our school so I am taking it upon myself to teach the girls how to sew on buttons, cook some basics and favorites and the fine art of separating, folding and putting away laundry.

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One of the first things we cooked together this summer was crepes because, as you know, there is nothing better than homemade crepes for breakfast.

Recipe for homemade crepes

Prep Time: 10 mins Cook Time: 5 mins Total Time: 15 mins Makes about 15 crepes

This is a simple, easy recipe for crepes with strawberry and cream filling. We also make other variations with Nutella and bananas and lemon crepes with fresh blueberry filling, my husband’s favorite. I will share those recipes in the upcoming weeks.

Ingredients

Crepes:

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 1 1/3 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 Tablespoon raw sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil

For the filling:

• 2 cups sliced strawberries
• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 pint heavy cream
• 3 Tablespoons powdered sugar

Instructions

Crepes:

1. Add eggs, milk, flour, salt, sugar, vanilla and oil to a bowl and mix on medium until smooth. The mixture will be runny.
2. Refrigerate batter for 30 minutes.
3. Heat a large non-stick skillet to medium heat. When skillet is hot, lightly grease it with butter.
4. Hold the handle of the skillet and as you pour a few tablespoons of batter in, tilt the skillet around in a circular motion to allow the batter to evenly coat the bottom of the pan, in a thin layer.
5. Cook for 30 seconds-1 minute until the edges of the crepe curls slightly and the bottom of the crepe is light golden brown. Flip to the other side and cook for another 30 seconds.
6. (Adjust your heat between medium-medium high until your crepes are cooking in about 30 seconds on each side. Re-grease your pan every few crepes, as needed.
7. Remove crepe to a plate. Add more crepes to the plate as you cook them, and cover the plate with tinfoil to keep them warm.

Filling: 


1. In a small bowl mix together the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla until smooth.
2. In another mixing bowl, beat the cream and powdered sugar on high speed until stiff peaks.
3. Spoon most of the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture and fold in until smooth. Save a little bit of whipped cream for topping on the crepes.
4. Spoon a thin layer of the filling into on a crepe. Add some fresh strawberries on top and then roll it up.
5. Serve sprinkled with powdered sugar, extra strawberries and whipped cream, if desired.

Just a warning the filling is so good, you will want to eat it by itself. Try to resist the urge to do so because believe me, it is even more delicious inside of these homemade crepes!

Maybe it’s not a crepe recipe that reminds you of your childhood summers but what does?