Today is April Fool’s Day, a day when lots of tricks get played on unsuspecting subjects. The kids started playing pranks on Eric & I after Kelly learned a few tricks from a friend in elementary school. My dad (a master prankster) got in on the action and helped the kids to rig up some pranks when my parents were visiting one year when April Fool’s Day fell during their Spring Break. The classic trick that got Eric & I every time was putting a rubber band around the sprayer function of the kitchen faucet so that whoever turned on the water would get sprayed. It doesn’t work that way on newer faucets (thankfully!) but before our kitchen remodel, this was a favorite joke that the kids perpetuated on the unaware, namely me! At least a few times, the kids would set the trick back up to get Eric when he got home from work and I would get sprayed a second time that day. The kids tricks were pretty tame compared to some my father has played on his coworkers.

My dad is an electrical engineer who worked in the Naval defense field. He’s a pretty clever guy. He once loaded a cardboard box with several months worth of paper punches from a three hole punch after first putting a coil spring in the box, followed by a square piece of cardboard to compress the spring. He wrapped the box, labelled it, put the proper postage on it and had the postage cancelled, all to make it look like an official delivery, then set the package on his victim’s desk.  When the box was opened, the spring, cardboard and paper punches shot up and out.  It snowed paper punches for several minutes. This particular coworker was also the victim of the desk drawer trick. Bill had an old wooden Navy desk that he always locked. A couple of the guys crawled under Bill’s desk and took the back off of the desk after Bill had gone for the day.  They removed every drawer carefully, placed a piece of trimmed cardboard over the top of the drawer, then turned the drawers upside down and carefully slid them back into the desk, removing the cardboard. They removed the handles from the drawers and put them back on upside down to make everything look normal.  When Bill came to work the next day, he took out his little key and unlocked the desk.  When he pulled out the center drawer, everything in it fell to the floor. He proceeded to open the other drawers and all his desk items ended up on the floor.

The payback to my dad was the Italian hoagie hoax.  It was a busy, hot Friday in July and my dad had a deadline to get a report out and couldn’t take time to go to lunch with the guys. When they offered to bring him something back, he asked for an Italian hoagie. The guys returned from lunch with a super-sized hoagie, professionally wrapped in white deli paper. The hoagie was made with a whole loaf of bread, 20 inches long.  My dad opened the hoagie and found an entire 21-inch sea bass in the hoagie, the head sticking out of one end of the loaf and the tail sticking out of the other end of the loaf.  My dad got the last laugh on that one too, though. When everyone else left, he took the fish and put it in the top desk drawer of the ring leader of the hoagie prank, making sure the shade on the large window was opened so the sun would beat down on the desk with the fish in it for the entire hot July weekend.

I am not the prankster my dad is. My surprise for the family on April Fool’s Day tends to be sweet treats at the beginning of the day instead of at the end of the day. I’ll leave the true pranks to my dad to play!

Crepes (adapted from French by Carole Clements & Elizabeth Wolf-Cohen)

Serves 4-6

•  2/3 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoon powdered sugar
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup milk
• 4 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons butter
• jam, jelly or Nutella, for serving

In the large bowl of an electric mixer, combine the flour, salt and sugar.  Make a well in the center and pour in the beaten eggs. Thoroughly mix the flour and the eggs until they are well combined. Slowly whisk in the milk and water until the batter is smooth. Allow the batter to rest for 20-30 minutes.

Allow the batter to rest.

Stir the melted butter into the crepe batter. Heat a 7 or 8 inch nonstick crepe pan over medium heat. spray the pan with Pam or melt a teaspoon of butter in the hot pan and swirl the pan to distribute the butter. Pour 2 tablespoons of batter into the pan, quickly tilting the pan to cover the base with a layer of batter. Cook for about 1 minute until the top is set and the bottom is golden. With a spatula, lift the edge of the crepe then carefully turn the crepe over and cook for another 20-30 seconds. Remove the crepe to a plate and cook the rest of the crepes in the same fashion, occasionally stirring the batter, until the batter is gone. Spray the pan with additional Pam (or melt more butter) if needed.

It takes a bit of practice to get the crepes flipped without tearing.

The crepes can be made ahead of time and wrapped and chilled until needed. Rewarm the crepes in a hot pan or in the microwave for 10-20 seconds.  Spread some jam, jelly or Nutella in the center of a crepe and fold each side over the middle.

Kelly was appalled when I put Nutella AND blueberry jam on mine. It was awesome!

Top the crepe with some additional powered sugar if desired.

Sooo good!

Serving dessert for breakfast is a sweet surprise!  ~Linda

Crepes (adapted from French by Carole Clements & Elizabeth Wolf-Cohen)

Serves 4-6

• 2/3 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoon powdered sugar
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup milk
• 4 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons butter
• jam, jelly or Nutella, for serving

In the large bowl of an electric mixer, combine the flour, salt and sugar.  Make a well in the center and pour in the beaten eggs. Thoroughly mix the flour and the eggs until they are well combined. slowly whisk in the milk and water until the batter is smooth. Allow the batter to rest for 20-30 minutes.  Stir the melted butter into the crepe batter. Heat a 7 or 8 inch nonstick crepe pan over medium heat. spray the pan with Pam or melt a teaspoon of butter in the hot pan and swirl the pan to distribute the butter. Pour 2 tablespoons of batter into the pan, quickly tilting the pan to cover the base with a layer of batter. Cook for about 1 minute until the top is set and the bottom is golden. With a spatula, lift the edge of the crepe then carefully turn the crepe over and cook for another 20-30 seconds. Remove the crepe to a plate and cook the rest of the crepes in the same fashion, occasionally stirring the batter, until the batter is gone. Spray the pan with additional Pam (or melt more butter) if needed. The crepes can be made ahead of time and wrapped and chilled until needed. Rewarm the crepes in a hot pan or in the microwave for 10-20 seconds.  Spread some jam, jelly or Nutella in the center of a crepe and fold each side over the middle.