The Crepe Place

After an afternoon at Sunset State Beach, Erika and I had dinner at The Crepe Place. We had originally wanted to try out Lilian's again but they were on vacation and closed. The Crepe Place, located in Santa Cruz, was just down the strip a few buildings. We had the choice of sitting inside or outside. To get to our seats outside, we passed by the bar & mini stage area which are right in the front door and then headed down a hall which leads to the main dining area. The garden and outside seating was just outside this main dining area.

This place had such great potential! I mean, how wrong can a crepe get? I was sadly mistaken.


Since Erika and I ordered dinner and not a la carte, we started the meal off with a honey-wheat bread loaf. Best part about the bread was the presentation. Came on a cute wooden plank, speared with a knife.

Next we had our salad or soup. Erika's salad was just your average garden salad while my french onion soup was very salty. When I first received it, I wondered where the cheese was. The picture you see is what my bowl looked like when I was served. The cheese was at the bottom of the bowl and the croutons were a bit soggy by the time it got to me. As you can see from the pic, the bowl wasn't very neat either.


Crepe Fredo – 12.00 / 16.50 Blue Point Crab, Spinach, White Cheddar Cheese, Swiss Gruyere, Mushrooms, Onions & Herbal Seasonings. Topped with our White Wine Alfredo Sauce.

I was sorely disappointed in the crepe I ordered, which was the Crepe Fredo. I think it would've been better had there not been any crab in the crepe. Also, the Alfredo sauce that the crepe was drenched in was separating and not very appetizing to look at. Presentation wise, I would give it a 3 out of 10.


Crepe Gatsby – 10.50 / 15.00 Sautéed Chicken Breast, Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto, Spinach, Feta & Mozzarella Cheeses, Fresh Mushrooms, Scallions, Tomatoes & Garlic. Sprinkled with Romano Cheese.

The redeeming grace of Erika's crepe, which was the Crepe Gatsby, was that it had garlic in it and it wasn't soaked in sauce. I preferred hers over mine.


My favorite part of the meal was the ginger ale, and then that wasn't even that wonderful. It tasted better with the squeeze of lime and lemon juice.

Being sadly disappointed with our meal, I decided to pass on dessert. It was too pricey for the quality of food we received and the service wasn't great either. At the end of our meal, we had to go and find our waitress so we could just pay and leave. Perhaps if I'm feeling generous in the future, I will go back and try the dessert crepes to see if they are any better than the dinner crepes.

Baking with Jessie

One evening Jessie and I made cookies for a dinner we were going to the next day. We were at the grocery store discussing what we should make and she started talking about chocolate and almonds. Sounds good to me! We went back to my house and found this recipe online. Of course, I added my own touches to it. Since she is a novice baker, I wanted to do something simple, yet delicious, to show her how less can be more when cooking/baking.

Ingredients for Chocolate Chocolate Chip Almond Cookies

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup softened butter
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup white chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup cut up almonds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift the flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda.

Beat the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth. We used Dean's trusty kitchen aide mixer. I just love that thing! [I need to just get married so I can put that on my registry! :-)] Beat in one egg until completely incorporated. Beat in the last egg along with the almond extract. Mix in the flour mixture until just incorporated.


Fold in the chocolate chips & nuts with a spatula, not the mixer; mixing just enough to evenly combine. Drop dough by heaped tablespoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets. The size of our tablespoonfuls were more the size of a very large egg.

Bake in the preheated oven until the edges are golden, 12 to 15 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 1 minute before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.



I had a lot of fun baking with Jessie. She wanted to learn so that made it exciting for me to share my tips. I've had a sous-chef in the past that didn't particularly care about the food we were making and the end product was atrocious.



Thank you Jessie for baking with me! :-)

Have a Jelly Belly Birthday!

My friend Megan celebrated her 27th birthday over Memorial Day weekend. As she was debating whether to have 2 parties within a matter of weeks (bday and graduation) I asked her if she did have a birthday party, if I could make her cake.

I am not so talented with decorating but I hear practice makes perfect. Seeking inspiration, I recalled an incident where I saw first hand (and survived!) how she acts around popcorn flavored jelly bellys, and decided to make this the inspiration for the cake.

Components of the cake were the base (which I did not make from scratch for she requested a funfetti cake), fondant (my first time making the stuff!), rice krispies treats, and frosting (from scratch and pre-packaged). The idea of the cake was to have a base and 3 fondant covered jelly bellys on top.


I was out of town most of Memorial day weekend in Reno with other friends. Her birthday party was on the Monday we got back. I prepped the cake the day before leaving and popped the cake and rice krispies into the freezer and kindly asked Dean and Greg to take them out before I got home so they had time to defrost. The fondant I just placed in the fridge.

Knowing that corn syrup is the main ingredient for marshmallows, I looked for a fondant recipe that used them, as that is what I had in the pantry. I came across this website that I used for guidance. To be honest, I don't really even like fondant but I heard that it is very forgiving of mistakes when covering up imperfections.

Marshmallow Fondant ingredients
16 ounces white mini-marshmallows
2 to 5 tablespoons water
2 pounds icing sugar
1/2 cup Crisco shortening

Looks pretty simple, right? Melt the marshmallows in the microwave or in a sauce pan with 2 tablespoons of water. After it is melted, place 3/4 of a 2 pound bag of the sugar into the pan and mix a little (coat spoon with Crisco). I then put the concoction into a kitchen aide mixer and had it do a majority of the work as it can take up to 8 minutes to 'get a firm smooth elastic ball so that it will stretch without tearing when you apply it to the cake'. I greased up the kneading hook and sprayed the inside of the bowl with vegetable oil as I hear that it can be super sticky. I added a few drops of yellow food coloring. After all, what color is buttered popcorn? In hindsight, I would have put more coloring in but now I know for next time! If it is a little loose, add more sugar. If it is too dry, add more water, a tablespoon at a time. When it began to be a homogeneous clump of sugary goodness, I took it out from the mixing bowl and placed it onto the greased counter where I kneaded it a little by hand. I wrapped it in plastic wrap and placed into the fridge until I needed it in less than a week's time. Not to toot my own horn, but Greg and I usually have pretty good luck having baked goodies turn out great on the first try. The actual decorating part, well, that still needs practice.

I get back into Fremont and my friend Erika was there to help me decorate the cake on the actual day of the party.

We used the funfetti frosting on the base of the cake. Not remembering that I needed extra frosting for the rice krispies treats, we had to make some frosting from scratch. Powdered sugar, milk and butter worked great. I was not shy to put the food coloring into this frosting. Erika frosted up everything and I laid the fondant onto the treats. The day was pretty warm and always being critical of my work, I felt that it was going to melt into a soupy mess so after the decorating was complete (as good as it was going to get) I put the cake in the fridge to set.

Turns out I am not the only person that isn't a fan of fondant. Erika heard a girl at the party say, "I don't usually like fondant but this tastes pretty good." I'll take that as a compliment any day!

As I look at the pictures over a month later, I realize the cake turned out well for it being my first time working with fondant. I like to learn something each time I bake or cook. I need to cut myself a little more slack when trying things out for the first time and need to remind myself that even if I don't get it right the first time, it doesn't mean I should just give up and never try again. And I still need to remember that things usually take longer than expected to be completed. :-)

Happy Birthday Megan!