When I was a kid, my grandmother would make crepes, or naleśniki, all the time. Blueberry was the favorite, but always filled with some sort of fruit and sweet cheese. As a child, I saw it as magic. I would head over and dozens of thin pancakes would be stacked, one on top of another, waiting to be picked up, filled and eaten. How did she ever get them so thin? I could easily eat 4, 5, 6 in a sitting. If I was staying for the weekend, the stack might just last the whole time. Things got harder when my brother came along and I realized I needed to share.

As I grew up, went to college and moved away, crepes became more of a special treat rather than a weekly fixture. I was living in Philly and might head home once every month or so. It’s not that the trip was far, just under two hours when I was really lucky, it’s just that there was too much going on. Life took over. When my friend and I moved into our tiny row house in Philly it somehow dawned on me to try my hand at crepes. I’ve never been very good at being Polish, other than the fact that cooking for two means feeding an army, so I didn’t pursue a traditional naleśniki recipe. Instead, I found a simple crepe recipe and practiced. At first my crepes weren’t much thinner than regular flapjacks, but over time, my skill improved. I would make crepes every few weeks, usually for breakfast, filled with whatever fresh fruit was on hand. I don’t think they ever became as thin as my grandmother’s but for our purposes, they were fine.

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