Don't drink and blog

...Or do. But don't say I didn't warn you.

(If you do, you HAVE to try the Sam Adam's winter sampler. The chocolate bock is to die for. I wish it had more than two in the box.... then again, maybe it's a blessing in disguise)

Otherwise you might start giggling uncontrollably at random produce like I did for a while.

But seriously, how freakin' cute is that butternut squash?!? I bought three and can't wait to use them. They're so tiny and cute I could eat them right up.

Anyways the other day J.D. was off from work so I wanted to surprise him with Swedish Pancakes (pannkakor) for breakfast (recipe linked). His family is from Sweden. Mine being from France, we had quite the back-and-forth over the difference between crêpes and Swedish pancakes. Basically, they're the same thing. Personally I find that the French crêpes are a little heartier, while the Swedish 'cakes are thinner due to a runnier batter.

We had quite the Swedish day. I made the pancakes for breakfast with some lingonberry jam we bought at IKEA a few weeks ago. We then had Swedish meatballs (those Swedes are so creative with their dish names, huh?), roasted rosemary potatoes and salad for dinner. But let's get back to breakfast first:

I had two with lingonberry jam, Greek yogurt and chia seeds.

But for the real twist. The next day I had my Swedish pancakes in a French preparation for dessert. In the traditional crêpe dessert style I folded in the sides to make a square, filled it with NUTELLA, berries and of course, French vanilla ice cream. I mean, I like the Swedes and all, but don't mess with the French and their cooking ;)

Speaking of French cuisine.... I attempted a Poire Tarte Tatin this aftenoon (pear tart with homemade pie crust and caramel sauce). It was involved and kind of tricky to master the technique -- ok maybe I'll get it the next time -- but I think it tastes pretty amazing. Pear is one of my favorite flavors. The caramel did harden up quite a bit, so in order to remove the tart from the pie dish, I had to cut it in half and flip it right-side-up.

But trust me, it's worth it! This is sooooo good:

Pear Tarte Tatin

• 2 cans pears
• 2/3 c sugar
• 3/4 stick of butter (room temperature)

*If you prefer to make your own crust instead of using store-bought, follow the recipe at the bottom.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Put sugar and 3 tbsp. water in a pot and let caramelize. (How to caramelize? Let sugar melt into water on a very low flame. Once melted, turn up the flame a bit, don't stir, but tilt the pot and move it around from time to time. Once the syrup has a pale honey color, you can stop, it's caramelized. If you want a darker caramel, just be careful that you don't let it burn.) Add butter to caramel and stir until it melts. Take off heat and pour caramel into a buttered pie dish.

Cut each pear half into three even pieces. Place pears in pie dish, so that they are squeezed tightly together. You want to do this step as quickly as possible, so that the caramel doesn't harden too much. If you want, you can begin slicing pears while you are making the caramel. Just be careful to check caramel, so that it doesn't burn. Bake for 40 - 45 minutes. During this time you can prepare the crust, then roll it out so that it is a drop larger than your pie dish, and refrigerate it for 30 minutes. Even if you are using a pre-made crust, you still want to spread it out to the right size, and then refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Take tatin out of oven, and let pears cool off a bit. Once cooled, place crust on top, tuck the edges into the dish, and bake for 30 minutes or until crust has browned. Remove from oven and let cool. Then, place a serving dish on top of the tarte and carefully flip over, so that the pears are facing up.

Pie Crust Recipe:

• 1 1/3 c flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 stick chilled butter
• 1 T sugar
• Pinch of salt

Mix salt, sugar, and flour. Cut chilled butter into small pieces and mix into flour with finger tips. Stop working batter once it looks like sand. Make a well and pour in eggs. Incorporate into flour using your fingers and a spatula.

Once homogenous, form a ball, place on a floured surface and knead for 10 seconds. Reshape into a ball, roll out with a rolling pin, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Monique's FAVORITE dessert

I may be a day late on this, but Aimee had the idea of linking bloggers together to run simultaneous posts on the same topic. Her Tuesday Linky Feature is your favorite dessert.

You guys already know of my self-proclaimed love for crêpes (I am French afterall). Since some of you haven't had them before, I thought it'd be fun to post a step-by-step recipe of how to make them! If you try it, PLEASE LET ME KNOW what you think!!!

But you can't eat your dessert until you've had your dinner. At least, that's what my mom always told me. So I guess I'll follow her advice this one time.....

When I came back from work I planned on going for a run before taking the dog to his puppy training class. But he's still showing minor signs of sickness so we opted to hold him back, especially since he'll miss the next two classes when we're at the College World Series. Currently we're trying to get him into another class since he's already missed so many from being sick. Anyways, pre-run I was STARVING and tried my very first PURE bar along with some frozen grapes, an excellent treat in hot weather.

As someone who used to eat Lära Bars -- which I grew a massive distaste for -- I was very pleased with this bar! It didn't taste like cardboard for starters, which is always a good thing. But it was the only one I bought, so I might have to go back to Trader Joe's and purchase some other flavors.

I ended up skipping the run to make dinner, thinking I'd run when the weather fell below 80 in the evening. More on that later. After having Indian food last night, Mexican earlier this week and pasta before that, I was in the mood for some seafood! We have a Costco-sized bag of pre-cooked frozen shrimp in the freezer and a shrimp salad sounded mighty tempting to me. I Googled different shrimp salads and decided on making my own variation of several different tropical shrimp salad recipes.

While I chopped up some carrots, one "fell off my cutting board" and look who snatched it up

So now back to the salad. I started off with five shrimpies and marinated them in chimichurri sauce before grilling them up on my new grill pan!

Then here's what went into the Tropical Lime Shrimp Salad:

• Chimichurri-marinated shrimp
• Mixed salad greens
• Tomatoes
• Carrots
• Cucumber
• Red onion
• Avocado
• Pineapple
• Mandarin oranges (canned)
• Cilantro
• Red peppers

And then I made my own similarly-flavored dressing which consisted of:

• Fresh-squeezed lime juice
• Mandarin syrup from the can
• Orange juice
• Olive oil
• Balsamic vinegar
• Cilantro

And there you have it! A very refreshing and light, yet filling, summer salad. I think it would be fun to throw in some edamame or yellow/white corn next time. Maybe even a little rice or quinoa would be fun too. But I skimped on the grains because I had a good amount of bread to go with my salad.

And also, I was saving room for tonight's DESSERT. Before we get started, get a load of my new apron:

Glad you finally made it to this part of the post. You're going to have to wait a bit longer though. What a trooper you are! You must really like me ;) ... or not? So I started making my crêpes thinking I'd run before eating one. But then I got lazy again, sheesh. So blogworld, you're now charged with holding me accountable. I am waking up early to go for a long run tomorrow. If I admit to skipping another workout in my next blog entry, you've got my permission to admonish/make fun of me!! Please do, I need the kick in the pants to work out when it's this hot and I don't have an air conditioned gym membership.

So now, DESSERT! Here's my go-to crêpes recipe:

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 c milk
• 1/2 c water
• 1 c flour
• 1 T sugar
• 1/4 t salt
• 2 T melted butter

There really isn't a special order or specific way I like doing this. Just mix everything together in a huge bowl. Now here's a preface to this recipe: I've made crêpes THOUSANDS of times in my life, but tonight thought I'd try to "healthify" them. Um, bad call. Crêpes need fat and light flour to work properly.

All I have in my fridge currently is soy milk. I don't think I'll ever do that again. The consistency was weird and I had to add more milk to the batter in its later stages. It's supposed to be fairly runny and not uber thick. I also tried to use some ground flax seed and wheat flour. Bleached flour is much less dense and helps contribute to that runny consistency. And really, if you're going to cook French, you might as well go all in. You saw Julie and Julia, right?! Use that butter and milk, people!!!

So while you're mixing away, turn on a burner and start warming the flatest pan you have on medium heat. Lucky for you guys, I actually have a crêpe pan. Crazy, right?! Take a paper towel, rub it in some butter and then smear that stuff all over your pan to make it really non-stick (do this EVEN if you have a non-stick pan, it's essential for crêpe-making).

Your first crêpe will be a disaster. It takes a while to get the technique and thickness (or lack thereof) down. What you want is a small spoonful of mix in the center of your pan. Quickly rock the pan back and forth until the mix covers all the surface area, unless you've used super heavy wheat flour and it won't cooperate.

Notice how I've literally picked the pan up and turned it perpendicular to the stove. Then put it back on your burner and let it go for a few minutes. You can check under part of it, looking for small brown patches of color. That's how you know it's ready. The first couple won't do this, so make a few practice runs before you get to this point. Then, let 'er flip!

Once both sides are moderately browned, do it all over again! About every three-to-four crêpes you make, you'll have to butter the pan all over again.

And now here's the fun part! TOPPINGS! Basically, anything goes. But if you want to be really French, you have some options. The easiest one is just sprinkling a bit of sugar on top and eating while warm. My personal favorite, however, is the combination of Nutella and fresh fruit. Another classic French pairing is the Poire Belle-Hélène which consists of vanilla ice cream, pear and caramel sauce.

I, of course, went for the Nutella.

Once you've decided on your toppings, adequately fill your open crêpe with your goodies. Then fold it in half and put a bit more on top! I went with Nutella, nonfat Greek yogurt and frozen berries. When I heated up the berries in the microwave, they made their own little juicy syrup that turned out great for drizzling on top of my dessert. See??

Voilà, you're done! But before you enjoy, make sure you don't leave your plate unattended for little puppies to sneak a taste. I would, Woodstock, but you know, it has chocolate on it. And sorry, but puppies can't have chocolate. More for me anyhow :)

What's your favorite dessert? Are you ridiculous like I am and want a dessert after every meal? Oh really, I don't either then.....

Poire Belle-Helene