Anyway, because we were pinching our pennies for more important things like beer and late-night meats on sticks, for lunch one day we found a crepe cart offering just the ticket for starving yet elitist ne’er-do-wells like ourselves. I’d heard of crepes before but never had one, and so with my limited pence I ordered a suzette, the simplest kind with just a smattering of powdered sugar and squeezes of fresh lemon juice. My first revelation: crepes are just really thin pancakes. My second: I can see myself having a long relationship with them.

Fast forward to present day, where, seven months into our existence here in the DC suburbs, there’s crepes happening on a regular basis at our house, especially whenever we have friends coming over. My family discovered the CucinaPro Cordless Crepe Maker a few years ago when my sister Angel took my parents and other sister to a crepe party. The hosts set up several of these little griddles set up and an array of toppings. Since then, my family always has a crepe morning the day after a big meal, whether it’s Thanksgiving postmortem or right after we’ve run a 10K and roasted a pig.

Making crepes with the CucinaPro is easy. I use Alton Brown’s foolproof crepe batter recipe, but I have to triple this recipe to have enough batter to feed a party of 10-12. I make the batter first thing in the morning to give it time to settle. The key to a good crepe is the lack of air bubbles in the batter, and there’s usually a fair amount of froth capping the batter from having to swirl all of the batter ingredients in a food processor.

The batter, as you’ve probably surmised by now, is really just a conduit. Much like a waffle or pancake, which can transform from just another flour-based cake into a magical creation smothered in chocolate, nuts, fruit and syrup, crepes are only as good as the toppings that are layered onto it. Unlike a pancake or waffle, the thin, delicate weight of a crepe allows for two wonderful developments in the world of turbo-eating (which is what I call taking out a whole load of food and just eating and eating and eating). First of all, crepes are thin enough that savory ingredients can also get neatly bundled up around a semi-crisp layer of carbs, resulting in a flavor explosion of meat, cheese and veggies akin to a sandwich without the bulk. Secondly, the thinness of crepes allows for the consumption of multiples. This is important to turbo-eaters like myself because it means I can eat lots of different kinds of crepes without having to tap out early and mourn my inability to try all of the different toppings available.

I always make a smorgasbord of toppings. At our last crepe morning, I deep-fried some cornmeal oysters. We had smoked salmon and prosciutto and goat cheese and shredded Comte cheese. I mixed up some whipped cream, which sat smugly in a bowl next to four different types of fresh berries. There was fresh spinach next to diced tomatoes and bacon. Of course, Nutella was there. There’s always room for Nutella.

Not surprisingly, when you have hot griddles sitting out in the open for several hours on a weekend morning along with around a dozen gourmet ingredients, things start to get a little weird. The last time our crepe morning went sideways, the hubby pulled out some leftover prime rib from our Thanksgiving postmortem dinner and started searing slices on the hot griddle of the CucinaPro.

“Voila!” he exclaimed with a flourish as he lifted each meaty hunk from the griddle with the chopsticks he was using as impromptu tongs. The reactivated meat was juicy and triumphantly medium-rare. He’d picked only the rarest bits for his hacked use. “Instant bulgogi!”

My family, rejuvenated by this newfound use for the CucinaPro, clamored around the steaming griddles, poking fingers at the prime rib to get at the best parts. A new process was invented: sear meat, remove from griddle, wipe clean, dip griddle in batter and make crepe, top with seared meat. Repeat.

Korean barbecue aside, one product of these never-ending afternoons of griddle play is that we’ve developed some interesting new combinations for crepes, three of which I’ve posted here. I’m not sure of many things in this life, but one thing I know is that when it comes to these three combos, you can’t go wrong.

Alternatively, you could just get the CucinaPro for your small-scale meat searing needs. I hear it’s great for that, too.

Note: I was not paid or provided with a CucinaPro Cordless Crepe maker in exchange for writing this post. I just really, really like to make crepes.

Note: the method for frying oysters is based on this Garden & Gun recipe.