Ratatouille page 503

We are at a family reunion at Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia. Last night was our turn to cook and we planned a dinner for 15. The menu was as follows;

kale on crostini
herb and garlic encrusted rack of lamb
roasted baby potatoes
Ethiopian black eye peas
ratatouille

We decided to take this opportunity to try JC recipe for ratatouille, page 503. The result was a sweet vegetable blend with a nice, rich sauce. It was time consuming. She recommends cooking the peppers and onions together and the zucchini and eggplant together. Then you peel and seed tomatoes before layering everything.

The only change I made to the original is that I used red peppers instead of green and I cubed them instead of slicing them. I feel certain that if red peppers were as widely available then as they are now, Julia would have preferred them, too.

Adrienne

In the beginning

In the beginning there was Mom and Mom was a cook. In fact my Mom created cooks, Karen, Beverly, Claudia and Adrienne. She gave us a food foundation including a desire to feed others, a passion for fresh ingredients and basic food preparation skills. She cooked in the style of her generation including roasted meats, creamed vegetables and Russian dressing. We gained food appreciation from her and then reinvented ourselves as the cooks that we are today.

Your recipes may differ from my families but your stories of learning to cook may be similar. A new challenge presents itself. Learning and sharing french cooking from an American cook, Julia Childs. Join us...cook one recipe each month from The Art of French Cooking Volume One for the remainder of 2010. Wear pearls and share your results.

Bon appetite!