Sunday, September 15, 2013

Ratatouille

Here's my recipe and process for ratatouille. 
2 onions
9 garlic cloves
Olive oil. 

3 medium eggplants (plus salt)
2 yellow and 2 green squash 
4 bell peppers
(Cut into circles) 

Spaghetti sauce or tomatoes 
More olive oil

Thyme
Rosemary
Oregano
Salt and pepper. 

Process: 

Cut up the eggplant. 
Put the pieces in a strainer and salt them on both sides. This draws out the water and gives them a non-spongy-weird texture. 

I just leave the strainer in the sink so the eggplant moisture can go right down the the drain. 

Then chop an onion and sauté it. While it is sautéing in olive oil. Chop up some garlic. And throw that in there too. I used 9 small ones in this double recipe. 
And then mix in gobs of thyme. Maybe 2 Tbsp. and mix it up for a long, low sauté. 
While its cooking, cut up all of this stuff. 
When veggies chopped, blend onions in food processor to make a delicious palte that you will smear on the bottom of the pan. 
Then blot your eggplant to remove the salt and excess water - and you are ready to assemble 
I blot mine using the "paper towel sandwich" method. 
Then layer. 
In lue (loo? lu? leu?) of tomatoes, I use sauce. Every time we got 5-6 tomatoes this summer, I'd make a sauce and freeze it. So, garden fresh tomato sauce goes in this recipe instead. I put it between the rows so it can flavor the dish from underneath. :-) 

Ok, fill the pan. Then drizzle olive oil on top, a few spoons of sauce and some herbs: thyme, oregano and rosemary today. 
Cover with parchment paper (or Tin foil) and bake in 375 degree oven for about 40-60 min. 

And it's delicious! Good luck! 

We usually have some leftover eggplant or zucchini. We fry these up in corn meal and coconut flour to make some yummy appetizers! 


Sunday, September 8, 2013

School starts again

It's that wonderful time of year when the air gets crisper, pants are worn, and we sadly say goodbye to summer. 
Clark started school last week at St Raphael's Nursery School. He's in MWF mornings. His class is full of many of the kids from last year, but 10 boys and 5 girls! 
Clark amazes me. I really like his age. He is constantly making up songs, jokes and stories. His content frequently includes "poop" or "pie face" or "pickle pants" or other silly things. 
His latest joy is setting traps around the house. He has made girl traps and mommy traps. He has made bad guy robber traps to keep us safe. Today he was playing and kept getting caught in his own traps by an "evil king who drove by in his castle mobile" 
He is constantly making up games and has lots of fun ideas. 
Clark memorized my phone number just by hearing me say it on the phone or at the grocery store. 
He really wants to learn to read. He uses his finger to follow words on the page and enjoys participating in some very early readers where a sentence has a few pictures in it. He likes to read to Iris and now to his new frogs. 
He saved up his chore money to buy two tiny frogs. He gets a nickel for every pair of shoes he puts away, every cup he finds wandering around the house and returns to the kitchen, and for every night he wears underpants and is dry the next morning. 
He's a pretty great kid. We love him so much and are very proud of him. 

Next week is his superstar week at school. On Friday we will get to go into his classroom and introduce ourselves. I'm also going to read a story. We are all very excited!