Crepini Cafe Crepes with Alouette Cheese

So, a couple times now you may have noticed me talking about Crepini Cafe‘s crepini, which aren’t quite a crepe and not quite a blini, but they’re filled and they taste good.  (You can check out my reviews for Crepini Cafe Greenwich Spinach and Four Cheese and Basil elsewhere on this fine blog.)  Well, I also asked to try just some of their crepes by themselves since I figure I’ll probably never own my own crepe cooking device.

(This is due in no small part to the fact that I am cheap and my wife hates crepes.)

Also, the good folks at Alouette sent me some coupons to try their cheese spread.  Since I was in an experimentin’ mood this weekend, I thought I would blend them and make a Mexican style crepe using Crepini Cafe crepes instead of tortillas.

How Was It?

REALLY good.  Despite the fact the Crepini Cafe crepes have been in my freezer for a while now, when I baked them for a few minutes in a 350 degree oven, they were still pliable and chewy.  They also tasted great and they went very well with the Alouette, which had great flavor and complemented the vegetarian topping very well.

Mexican Crepe Recipe

This recipe is very simple.  The veggies are actually my wife’s quesadilla blend and make great taco filling or nacho toppings.  It also goes well with some sauted chicken.  However, when making this recipe, the one thing to be careful of is not to overdo the Alouette.  I think when Alouette cheese was first invented, it was designed to stand on its own (which it does very well, but a blog post on Alouette and crackers would be lame.)  However, this makes the Alouette a little salty if you use to much.

All things in moderation (except reading this here blog.)

You will need:

• 2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1/2 cup frozen corn
• 1/2 cup black beans
• 8 Crepini Cafe crepes (about 1/2 a package)
• 4 tablespoons Alouette cheese

Preheat your oven to 350.  As you are cooking the vegetables, you can bake the crepes for 1-2 minutes each.  Once they are done, stack them on a plate in between pieces of wax paper or put them on plates 2 at a time.

Melt the butter in a skillet over medium-high heat.  Then saute the onions until they start to turn brown.  Add the corn and black beans and continue stirring until hot.

Spread 1/2 tablespoon Aloutte on each crepe and then top with the vegetable mixture.

Roll and serve.

Enjoy!

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Turkey Black Bean Soup

Ah…this recipe takes me back.  The first article I ever wrote for BIAO Magazine was a Black Friday special that used Thanksgiving leftovers for a quick, healthy meal you could fix after a long day of Black Friday shopping.  With that being said, this is not a revisiting of that recipe.  It is a reimagining!  I am tooking the same basic concept and using more spices and peppers for a Mexican-inspired flavor since, at this point, I do not want to eat anything that even vaguely reminds me of Turkey Day leftovers.

With that being said, if you have some leftover mashed potatoes, we’ll be using them as an optional thing little extra for the bowl!

Making Turkey Black Bean Soup

This dish is really easy and can use up as much or as little of that leftover turkey as you want.  Don’t overdo the leftover turkey since there are two more recipes I’ll be sharing (ha ha)!  Still,  in all seriousness you want the black beans to stand on their own and not have this turn into a turkey casserole.

You will need:

• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 1/2 red pepper, finely diced
• 1 stalk of celery, sliced
• 1 poblano, diced
• 3 cans black beans
• 2-3 cups stock
• 2 tablespoons cumin
• 1 tablespoon ancho chili powder
• 1/2 cup cream (you can omit if you would like)
• Left over turkey

In a soup pot  over medium-high heat, add the onions.  Let them cook a 2 minutes and then add the red pepper, celery, and poblano.  Cook until all of the vegetables are soft.

Open the cans of black beans.  If you are worried about salt, wash away the liquid the beans came in.  If not, there’s good flavor in there!  Add the beans to the pot and pour in the stock so the beans are almost covered. 

Add the cumin and ancho powder.

You may need to lower the heat to medium to keep the beans from burning, but at this point, all you need to do is stir occassionally until the beans start to open.  This will cause the broth to thicken.  The thicker it becomes, the more you need to stir!

Once the soup has reached the desired thickness, add the cream and the turkey.  Continue to stir until the turkey is warm.

Serve with left over rolls or in bowls lined with mashed potatoes.  Enjoy!

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