Day 96

I love Simon’s sweet little face every morning after eating and falling asleep with a full tummy.

Afternoon nap with daddy.  Again he wouldn’t fall asleep on his back so we watched him closely while he slept… well, Ron fell asleep so I watched him.

We met up with friends at Social Kitchen & Brewery for dinner.  While we were waiting for our food, Simon helped himself to his bottle.  He seems to be learning how to hold it to keep it in his mouth.  It’s quite hilarious actually especially when he grips it with both hands.

The restaurant is quite new, I think it opened only a few months ago, and you could tell that it was new.  The main entrees took a while to come out although the appetizers were fast.  The waitstaff also seemed a bit disjointed, they couldn’t remember or didn’t know who ordered which drinks or which entrees so they ended up placing them in front of the wrong person.  Also, we needed to change Simon’s diaper so Ron went to ask our waiter if they had a changing table in either restroom, the waiter said “no” so Ron went to a corner on the 2nd floor to change Simon’s diaper.  When I went to wash my hands in the ladies’ restroom (both restrooms are on the 1st floor from what I could tell), I checked the wheelchair accessible bathroom and there was a changing table right there.  The food was decent but not spectacular and the beers were interesting, all a bit on the bitter side and inexpensive (ranging from $3-5 depending on the size of the glass and type).  They offer a free sampler of their beers, just ask!

I had their loco moco burger which has homemade spam and a fried egg on top.  It was a bit too tall to eat, I had to cut it in half and could only eat parts, not the entire thing in one mouthful.  The spam was different, not solid like store bought spam, reminded me more of canned corned beef.  It was all a bit salty for me though, especially the fries were overly salted.

Ron ordered the duck breast, looked really yummy but I only had a small bite so can’t really comment on it.

We had a whole bunch of appetizers too.  Tempura battered sweet potato fries, mussels, soft pretzel with cheese dip, the complimentary pretzels with mustard… my favorite was the sweet potato fries.  Simon really wanted to join us in dinner so shared Ron’s plate.  He’s so funny staring at the fork he’s holding.

It was a good night catching up with old and new friends.  I’m no beer expert so not sure what to say about their beer.  I had a glass of their Easy IPA and I liked it because it was very light and a bit fruity.  I don’t think this is how IPA should be but I enjoyed it.

When we got home from dinner, we dug into the creation we made this afternoon.  Our friend Virginia just came back from New York and mentioned this delicious cake she had from a bakery called Lady M, their Mille Crepe Cake.  So I looked up the recipe online and found this one on Smitten Kitchen that is comparable so Virginia and I thought we’d try to make it.  I made the crepe batter and pastry cream the night before and put them in the refrigerator.  Today we made all the crepes and finished off the pastry cream then assembled it.  It had the cool in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, then be removed for 30 minutes, dusted with powdered sugar then time to slice and ready to eat!

Photo before powdered sugar dusting.  We weren’t able to make 20 crepes, so this is more like 16 crepes.  The things I changed in the recipe are that I used whole wheat flour for the crepe batter, substituted 1 tbsp vanilla extract for the pastry cream (instead of a vanilla bean) so that the cream turned out a bit yellow, and did not add kirsch (did not have any).

Side view.  As you can see, some of the crepes got a little burned on the edges.  It was our first time making crepes.

After cutting the cake in half and removing a quarter.  All those yummy layers of crepes and pastry cream.

It was delicious!  Except that it did need a little something… the recipe has the option to brulee the top with sugar so that it will be a little crispy, that probably would have helped since there is no variation in the texture of the cake.  Otherwise, it’s really dense and the cream is yummy.  If we make it again, we’ll have to learn how to make the crepes a little bit thinner and we will try to make an all-purpose flour batter versus a whole wheat flour batter to see if there is a taste difference.  I think the whole wheat may give it a bit more “nutty” flavor but we’ll have to test it out again someday.

Making the cake wasn’t as hard as we thought it would be and now we’re inspired to have a crepe making party!  Can you imagine making your own crepes and filling them with fresh fruits and fresh whipped cream or savory things like cheese and ham and spinach?  Mouth watering yet?