Today, of course, is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. To help celebrate this exciting day, I made these chocolate *ship* muffins for my mateys at work. Originally, I had intended to draw skull and crossbones on each muffin with white icing, but that was a big fail. So instead, I made up these little jolly rogers (pirate flags!) to go on each muffin.

I found the design for the flag on Wikipedia in a vector SVG file. Working in Adobe Illustrator, I resized it down to an inch wide, and copied it so there were two set directly next to each other. Then, I just copied and pasted that design so I had enough for each muffin. After printing, I cut out the flag sets, put Tombo Mono Adhesive on the back, and folded them in half over a toothpick. mmm piratey

In more exciting news, my Computrainer arrived today!! It’s a totally nerdy indoor bike trainer. I was a little disgruntled that the box was simply left on my doorstep by UPS, no signature required. I’m thankful that we live in a nice, quiet neighborhood. I would hate for someone to make off with that expensive box. O_O yikes. So I got the thing assembled, and I’ve done a little test riding. It seems that the heart rate monitor is a little finicky, so I’ll fiddle with that tomorrow. I need to read the manuals, so I’m 100% familiar with the system’s capabilities. I’ll report in tomorrow night with more details!

I found a cookbook at the thrift store called Crepe Cookery by Mable Hoffman. This book has several different crepe batter recipes and hundreds of lovely things you can make using your crepes for any course of a meal. They’re not just for breakfast!

For dinner this evening, I made a batch of the “All Purpose Crepe Batter I” (pg. 12). Also from the thrift store, I happen to have a Perfect Pancake pan that used to be sold on TV. I got mine for $2.99! Since I’m terrible at flipping and turning things over without losing them to the floor or ripping them to shreds, I decided it would be great to try out Perfect Pancake on my crepes.

I made the batter exactly as specified in the book. When it was ready, I heated up Perfect Pancake. The first few crepes I made were too thick, which makes them mushy in the middle. Surprisingly little crepe batter is needed to make them just the right thickness. I used this mixing spoon — a level spoonful was just the right amount to put in the Perfect Pancake.

I swirled the batter around to coat the pan like the book suggested, and then let it sit until the edges started to brown.

Then, the fun part! FLIP!

Because the first half of Perfect Pancake has a curve to keep the batter in, I found that the crepes needed to get flattened a little after flipping to cook as evenly as possible.

I wasn’t counting, but I think I got about 30 crepes out of the batch. I made a pizza crepe to eat tonight, and I’m freezing the rest to use later. (I put them in plastic freezer bags separated with freezer paper. According to Crepe Cookery they store for up to 4 months in the freezer and can be reheated by microwave.) For my pizza crepe, I layered on: sauce, zucchini, fresh tomato, sliced “baby bella” mushrooms, fresh basil, turkey pepperoni, and feta and mozzarella cheese. I put it in the oven at 350 for about 12 minutes. The crepe stays soft in the middle, so you can’t pick it up like a regular slice. Folding it N.Y. style worked well.

If you want to get a copy of the book, used copies can be gotten very cheaply on Amazon and eBay. I recommend it. It contains more than you’d ever want to know about cooking with crepes!

I got started late so I didn’t finish it yet, but I’m making an Easter Birdy (tutorial from Molly Chicken). I’ve had this one on my to-do list for quite a while, and decided to make one finally. It’s a super cute pattern. Here’s the progress so far:

As for the barbacoa (made yesterday), it was fabulous! Still not exactly like Chipotle, but getting closer. I’m sure the other ingredients play a hand in that flavor too… When I got home and started preparing everything to make burritos, I discovered I didn’t actually have that can of black beans that I thought I had. I called my husband and told him to pick some up on his way in. He came home with a can of refried black beans. Not the same. I used it anyway. Close enough.

I heated the tortillas and let them get singed a little bit over open flame, in hopes that they would pick up a bit of that fresh-made flavor. Not bad! Tongs are highly recommended for this process…unless you have some hair growin’ on your knuckles that you wanna get rid of.

Then added the hot rice, beans and barbacoa, the pico de gallo, and the green Tabasco - just like I do at Chipotle! I rolled it all up and it was good to go, no foil wrapper necessary. Overall, a tasty meal, and very close in flavor to the original. And more importantly, you don’t have to ask for more of your favorite ingredients! Don’t be stingy!

I had a taste-test this morning, and it is pretty darn good! My only gripe would be that the sauce is a little thin, but I think it’ll thicken up on reheating. So, it’s in the fridge now, ready to be heated up and assembled into delicious burritos when we get home. I’ll snap a photo of the final product to add to my crafty post this evening!

Edit - I’d like to add that I did get up at 1am (as I mentioned I was going to do in my last post) to check on the progress of the barbacoa, and it was not nearly done. Maybe the “Low” on my Crock Pot is a little too low. I just left it on low until I got up at 6am and it was perfectly done at that time. So it cooked for about 10 hours total. Perhaps putting my pot on “Medium” would’ve cut it to 5 hours. This worked out fine though. Now I know I can start it, go to bed, and wake up to the lovely smell of roasting spices and not crusty burnt meat.

I am obsessed with Chipotle barbacoa burritos (despite their incredibly high calorie count!) I have attempted to make it from this recipe, which was good, but it definitely was not Chipotle’s barbacoa. Not actually having any chipotle in it should have been a clue!

Armed with a new recipe, I am determined to make “the real” Chipotle barbacoa. This one has chipotle peppers in it! I found the recipe here; however, I have just discovered that it originated here and that the author is charging a very minimal price for the recipe. So, if you make this too, support the original chef. It looks like he has books available! I definitely will be purchasing a few!! Super excited! Here they are at Amazon (a smidge cheaper than the official site): Top Secret Restaurant Recipes, Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2, Top Secret Recipes, Top Secret Recipes: Sodas, Smoothies, Spirits, & Shakes, More Top Secret Recipes . . . Wow. . . too many to list! Search by author to find them all. He has even made lite and low-fat cookbooks of restaurant recipes. (I think I saw this guy on TV once a long time ago…) Wow it makes ya so hungry to read through the table of contents in the previews.

Back on topic, I followed this recipe to the letter! I even toasted and ground the cumin and cloves, just like it said. I sprayed a bit of Pam in a pan and put in the cumin and cloves on a light heat for about 2 minutes, stirring almost constantly. Then I dumped them in my Ikea mortar and ground ‘em up.

To blend the sauce I used my Blend Master! I wish I had a real food processor. (I’m secretly hoping I’ll find a brand new, neglected food processor at a yard sale someday).

I took a tiny taste and the sauce seems really tasty. I dumped that into the Crock Pot with the roast, some chicken broth, and 3 bay leaves. I stirred it up a little, put the lid on, and got to work on the other parts of the burrito.

Due to lack of food processor and my chopping laziness, my pico de gallo is very chunky! haha I was very disappointed in the cilantro I bought. It’s nearly flavorless! My husband will like it though, he’s not a cilantro fan.

I was a little lazy on the cilantro lime rice too. I’m using some leftover basmati rice from Indian take-out we had a few days ago. Might as well put it to good use! It has a little anise in it, but I don’t think it’ll matter. Basmati rice is so much more flavorful than plain ol’ white rice.

I’m going to use canned black beans instead of pintos. I’ll make those tomorrow when it’s supper time! I have the Crock Pot set on low, and hopefully it’ll be okay tomorrow morning. It only really needs to cook for 5 hours. Maybe I’ll get up at 1 and flip it to “warm”.

Soooo… I’ll report back with the taste test results tomorrow morning! Wish me luck!