Crepes and adrenaline

A couple of months ago, I picked up a crepe maker at a neighbor's yard sale.  Several women had set up their tables with the usual fare:  an eclectic collection of CDs (only here can you see Jethro Tull rubbing shoulders with the Indigo Girls); children's books and clothes; beverage coasters; VHS tapes boasting films from the '80's and '90's ("Anyone?  Anyone?"); assorted garden items; jewelry to attract a certain 5-year old girl; toy tractors and trucks to attract a certain 2-year old boy.  Our neighbor's mother also came and set up her table, and under some pots and pans and a folded bed sheet I spied this Electric Crepe Machine by Grandinetti. 

According to the mother, The Machine had never been used in the 15 years that she owned it.  It was marked for $1 (you can still see the green sticker pasted to the box top), but she said she'd be happy to give it away for free.  I couldn't resist.  It's not everyday that you get something for nothing--and not just the thing itself, but a whole host of associations, beginning in the Fußgängerzone in München, buying freshly-made crepes with cheese and jam at a little kiosk on the Marienplatz, which evokes other memories of hiking in the foothills of the Swiss Alps, taking a bike tour around the Bodensee (which led us through parts of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland), and exploring Longwy, France, in the spring.  

When we gathered all of our yard sale items together to tally up the total, I added a dollar for the crepe maker--it was worth the trip--but she insisted I just take it.  It took several burnt and flaky tries, but I eventually got the feel of both machine and batter.

All this, of course, leads up to my daughter MK's first day of kindergarten.  She is now beginning her third week of school, but on her first day I made crepes for breakfast.  Crepes with Nutella is a favorite of ours (and nostalgic again for me), though we do sometimes try other fillings.  She was so excited about school, and the crepes, but she was pumped so full of adrenaline that the crepes went uneaten.  Oh well--it was worth the time to make them and it was worth seeing my daughter so excited about school.