Rosie Cooks Lunch For Herself Today. And, Damn, Was It Ever Good!

After being industrious yesterday and actually cleaning out my refrigerator, I was inspired today to clean out my laundry area and my hall closet/pantry. And believe me when I say I worked up quite an appetite doing this. I decided to fix myself a special lunch. Remember the other night when I caught, cooked,

and picked the blue crabs? Well, I'm having crab meat crepes with Grand Marnier sauce for lunch today.

Here's my starting mise en place: spinach green onion Block of delicious Swiss cheese given to Mr Hawthorne by Jason, who owns Corolla Pizza, deemed by many to have the best pizza on the Outer Banks. Round of unsalted butter we bought from the Amish Market in Yanceyville, NC. My crepes, leftover from last Thanksgiving (Julia Child's Gateaux de Crepes) (Yes, they were frozen. And no freezer burn, thankyouverymuch.)

Let's get started with my lunch.

Butter in the pan, then the torn spinach.

Cook down for a few minutes.

Now, here's a tip for you gardeners out there. Have you an asparagus bed? I know you're used to thinking asparagus is a spring crop. It is. But it can also be a fall crop. If you have a nice, healthy asparagus plant, cut down the foliage now. Within a day or two, you'll have new shoots. WHOOT!

I sauteed my asparagus bits.

Added in the spinach and the crabmeat, just to heat through. Don't mess with the crab meat. Leave it in nice big chunks.

Add in a bit of sherry.

Add in some lemon juice.

Now, I've prepared some toppings: green onions cucumbers red pepper tomato

I'm getting ready for my Grand Marnier sauce. Here, I have the juice of one orange.

And here are the main players: Grand Marnier heavy cream fresh orange juice flour butter

Melt butter, then add flour, and cook to get the raw taste of flour out.

Add in the Grand Marnier.

Add in the orange juice.

And finally, the cream goes in.

Stir constantly, until nicely thickened.

Here's everything waiting for assembly: crepes in the foreground crab meat/spinach/asparagus to the right Swiss cheese slices to the left back right - toppings of tomato, cuke, green onion, red pepper

Place the crab meat mixture in the crepe with two slices of the Swiss cheese.

Roll up. I got four crepes out of 6 crabs plus the additions.

Next, I picked the biggest crepe out (natch), and sauteed in buttah.

Turn over and it's lookin' good.

Plate the crab meat crepe and pour the Grand Marnier sauce over top.

Top with the fresh, diced, veggies.

Oh my.

Oh mymymymymy!

I'm at a loss for words. Because THIS? Is SO freakin' good.

Mr. And Mrs. Hawthorne's Dinner.

You know how fond Ina Garten is of saying, "Have 10 basic recipes and 3 variations of each."
And I always say, "That's called dealing with leftovers!"

So tonight, let's just say,
"I'm dealing with leftovers."

And good uns at that.

Here are my crepes, frozen since Thanksgiving,
leftover from Julia's marvelous Gateaux of Crepes.
I always make extra.

In the container is my crab meat, leftover from my
crab meat boule from the other night.

Divide the crab meat among the crepes and roll up.

Here are my three crepes and the ingredients for some kind of sauce, I just don't know what exactly yet, but my brain is working around the ingredients and it's going to come up with something soon.

As for the possible ingredients, I have:
Grand Marnier
heavy cream
tomato
orange
lime
parsley
provolone
Swiss cheese
nutmeg
(That's a whole nutmeg in that little grinder thingie right below the Grand Marnier.)

OK, I added more ingredients for my topping.
Chopped tomatoes, red pepper, yellow pepper from my garden, and cucumber from my garden.

Decided to add in some red onion too.

Mix chopped ingredients together.
Add a bit of sugar, salt and pepper.

Finally, chop some fresh parsley.

Apparently, with this presentation, I'm starting at the end and working my way backwards.
That's just how my brain is working tonight.

All right.
Switch gears to the beginning.
My sauce for the crab meat crepes.

Start with sliced garlic.

Zest some orange, lime, and lemon.

I thought this was a pretty picture.

Finally, the sauce is coming together in my head.
Kinda.

I decided to add some chopped fresh squash along with the garlic.

Saute the garlic and squash in butter.

Add in the zests.

Looking good.

Next, I'm taking the pan OFF the flame and adding in some Grand Marnier.

Return the pan to the flame, and WHOOSH!!!!!
You know how much I love my flame ups.

WHOOT, Sistah!

Flames are out.
So I added in some orange juice.

Some lime juice.

And some lemon juice.

Then some cream.

Finally, I added my cheeses - Provolone and Swiss.
Heated through.

Then poured the mixture on top of the crepes and put under the broiler.

Here it is.
Crab meat stuffed crepes with Grand Marnier/Cream/Cheese Sauce.

Top with the tomato/pepper/onion/cucumber dice and sprinkle with parsley.

A lovely presentation, if I do say so myself,
albeit a bit messy,
but I like messy.

What can I say?
Besides delicious.