savory sunday // bubie's blintzes

Oh you guys, do I have a treat for you today!Jamie's mom, Carole, is in town visiting her grandson (and us), and she makes some amazing dishes. I talked her into making her delicious blintzes for the blog, and thank goodness she agreed. These are super easy and SUPER DELICIOUS. I would also like to note that even if you don't like blintzes, you could easily fill the crepes with, uh, nutella and bananas. Just a thought.OK, so you start off with these ingredients (this is to make a full serving of 8 -- we made a half serving, so if the list looks different from the photo, that's why):• 5 eggs• 1 cup flour• 1 cup milk• 1 tsp salt• 1 large container (24 oz) cottage cheese (you can substitute with farmer's cheese or ricotta if you prefer)• 1 tbsp butter• 1 tsp vanilla• 2 tbsp sugar (or much more if you prefer sweeter blintzes) Bubie Carole's recipe is based on the one found in "The New Settlement Cook Book," which I photographed above. What a find! Also? No photos in this book! But the best part is across from the title page. "The Way to a Man's Heart." Ha!So let's get started! First, you combine the flour and salt with the milk and four of the eggs. While doing this, you may want to begin warming your greased frying pan on medium heat.Mix these ingredients together until you have a very smooth consistency, and then spoon the batter into your heavily greased, hot frying pan. You want the batter to just cover the bottom of the pan -- for my large pan, we used five spoonfuls, but this will vary. The thinner the batter, the thinner the crepe (which is what you want).While the batter is cooking, use a fork to gently separate the edges from the pan (much like we did with the omelettes). After a few minutes, once the batter is looking set, lift an edge with the fork and grab the crepe with your fingers to transfer it to a plate. Flip it and put the cooked side (the side that was closest to the flame) up on the plate.So the photo above shows what the cooked side of the crepe will look like (this is why you flip it). Repeat this until you are out of crepe batter (a full recipe should make 8-10 crepes, depending on the size of your pan).Once your crepes are all made and resting on the plate, mix together the cottage cheese, the sugar, vanilla and the remaining egg. If you like things on the creamier side, you can also mix in some cream cheese at this point.After this is combined, you spoon the filling into the center of the crepe. You want the proportion of filling to crepe to be about what it is above (it varies depending on your crepe/pan size). It's best to use a slotted spoon if you have one -- but if not, just make sure you drain off the excess liquid from the cheese mixture. You don't want it too runny. Also, make sure you spoon the filling onto the cooked side of the crepe (the browner side), as we'll be frying the uncooked side later.Next, you fold the crepe over the filling like an envelope or a burrito, and set it aside.Once all your "envelopes of deliciousness" are folded, melt the butter in your frying pan and place the packets folded-side-down (you want to cook that side first to seal up the blintz). If you are doing batches (or a full recipe), you might want to add more butter between batches to keep them from sticking to the pan.Our audience is VERY INTERESTED in this recipe. As well she should be.So you cook the blintzes on medium heat until they brown (like above) and then you flip them and brown up the other side. You don't want them too crispy, so keep an eye on them.Voila! We topped them with powdered sugar, sour cream and fresh blueberries, but this part is totally up to you. This morning I also had one with sour cream and pumpkin butter (oh man, that was good), and I'm sure peaches, strawberries or anything would be good. Ooooo, honey! I bet that would be good as well! Or nutella! Or bananas! You get the drift.Yeah guys, this stuff is awesome. And they keep well in the fridge as well for leftovers. Yum....