The farmer’s market is one of my favorite places in the summer – I love the fresh vegetables, unbeatable prices, and some of the “fun” stuff at a few of the different booths.  The original Ratatouille calls for onions, but since my little family doesn’t “do onions”, I left those out.  Also, just as an FYI…my garlic turned green (I know, EW), so I didn’t use that either (even though I left it in this particular recipe).

This particular recipe will prepare 8-10 servings of a side dish OR about good 4 bowls if it’s the main dish… which is purely acceptable.  Just serve it up with some bread and Parmesan and VOILA!  Supper is served.

Also, can I just say… if you love your feet…you may want to chop your veggies up as “do ahead prep work” – or enlist someone to help – to save you lots of time.  Just sayin’!

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 lb tomatoes (4 large)
• 8 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 20 fresh basil leaves, torn in half
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 lb eggplant, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 2 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 3 assorted bell peppers (green, red, and/or yellow; 1 1/2 lb total), cut into 1-inch pieces
• 4 medium zucchini (2 lb), quartered lengthwise and cut crosswise into 3/4-inch-thick pieces
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

How To

First, you’ll want to cut an X on the bottom of each of your tomatoes.  Then, you’ll blanch them.  (Stick them all in  a 4-quart of boiling water for about a minute, then get them out.  It makes the skin come off SUPER easy.)  Starting at your X, begin peeling the skin off as soon as your tomatoes have cooled enough to handle.

Coarsely chop the tomatoes and transfer them to a 5-quart heavy pot with garlic, parsley, basil, and 1/3 cup oil. Simmer, partially covered, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes break down and sauce is slightly thickened, about 30 minutes.

While sauce is simmering, toss eggplant with 1/2 teaspoon salt in a large colander and let stand in sink 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a 12-inch skillet, pour 3 tablespoons oil and cook the bell peppers with 1/4 teaspoon salt over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 10 minutes. Transfer peppers with slotted spoon to a separate bowl (which you’ll be adding all of your veggies to, so make it a big one!). Add 3 tablespoons oil to skillet and cook zucchini with 1/4 teaspoon salt over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until just tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer zucchini with slotted spoon to bowl with peppers.

While zucchini are cooking, pat eggplant dry with paper towels. Add remaining oil (about 1/4 cup) to skillet and cook eggplant over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, 10 to12 minutes.

Add vegetables, remaining teaspoon salt, and black pepper to tomato sauce and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are very tender, about 1 hour. Cool, uncovered, and serve warm or at room temperature.

Welcome back!

Our local Farmer’s Market had samples last weekend, and this was one of them.  I hadn’t planned to buy as much as I did, but then I tasted this salsa and saw how easy it was to prepare and was SOLD!

I forgot to take a picture (actually, my feet just hurt and I really just wanted to lay down…sorry…next time!).

This is a really great summer salsa that can be served up with Tortilla Chips or Flatbread Chips.  But, you could also use it in a wrap or as a topping/garnish on your dinner.  The color is beautiful and very festive!  (Plus you can freeze your leftovers!)

Fresh Veggie Salsa

Ingredients

2-3 large cucumbers

2 tomatoes

1 yellow bell pepper

1 small red onion (I only use maybe 1/5 of an onion)

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 cup black beans (I used a little more)

1/2 cup fresh whole kernel corn, cooked (you can used can also)

1 ounce package dry ranch dressing mix

1/8 cup apple cider vinegar

1/8 teaspoon sugar

Directions

1.  Wash all vegetables.  Finely chop the cucumbers, tomatoes, bell pepper, and onion.

2.  Combine in a large mixing bowl with cilantro.

3.  Drain and rinse beans (if using canned corn, drain that too)… add your corn and beans.

4.  In a small bowl, mix together ranch vinegar and sugar.  Pour over the veggies.

Serve immediately or chill in refrigerator until ready to serve.  Makes 10, 1 cup servings.

Have you ever found yourself elbow-deep in a recipe just to realize you don’t have one of the key ingredients?

Check out the following websites of substitutions:

- Cook’s Thesaurus

- Joy Of Baking.com

- Cooking for Engineers

We’re studying about Christopher Columbus this month, and I wanted to share with you some of the great links I’ve found so far!  (I’m hoping to share pictures of our other studies and activities in a future post – we’ve been busy!)

• Activities Calendar For Toddlers (November)
• TeePee Cupcakes
• National Geographic Kids Christopher Columbus Video – good for all ages
• Mini Sailboat Directions
• Wampanoag Toss And Catch Game
• Talk Like A Pilgrim
• Banana Gobble Pancakes
• How To Draw A Turkey
• Succotash Recipe
• Thanksgiving Preschool Pack

ENJOY!

I have a lot of “hobbies” – another of which is cooking/baking/experimenting in the kitchen.  The following is an original concocted by my hubby and I:

SOUTHWESTERN BAKED ZITI

Ingredients:

2 T Olive Oil
2 – 3 cloves of garlic, minced or crushed
3 1/2 c whole tomatoes (I used fresh tomatoes, but you could use from a can too)
28 oz can of tomato sauce
4 T tomato paste
2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
a sprinkle of basil and oregano
10 oz Rotel (diced tomatoes and peppers) *
4 links of Jalapeno and Cheddar Polish Sausage, browned*
150 slices (3 pkgs) of pepperoni
8 oz Mozzarella Cheese
1 cup Parmesan
4 oz Mexican Cheese, shredded
16 oz box of penne or ziti

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F.  Coat a 13x9x2-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Sauce.  Heat oil in a 3-quart saucepan over medium heat.  Add garlic  and cook for one minute.  Stir in whole tomatoes and their juice, breaking tomatoes apart with your hands or a wooden spoon.  Stir in tomato sauce, tomato paste, sugar, salt, pepper, basil and oregano.  Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes.
3. Remove pan from heat.  Stir in Rotel.
4. Ziti and Cheese.  Boil noodles for 10 minutes.  Drain and transfer to a large bowl.  Add half the sauce to bowl with ziti and meats and stir to coat.  Pour ziti mixture into prepared dish and top with remaining sauce and sprinkle with cheeses.
5. Bake at 375 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes or until bubbly and lightly browned.

*For a more “Plain Jane” version, substitute diced tomatoes for the Rotel and plain Polish sausage.

My husband rocks the grill.  It’s not really a secret – he’s great at it and nobody minds eating his cooking.  Ever.

And, while my cooking skills are pretty good too, he definitely has me beat with the whole “grilling” thing.  Yeh, I don’t grill.  Something about little shooty-darty-flames and my attachment to my eyebrows.  Or, maybe it’s just because I recognize that I like catching marshmallows on FIRE for my s’mores so me cooking other food over an open fire might result in… flame throwers.

I digress.

Anyhow, he’s great at grilling.  And, I happen to know a few of his secrets:

Seasoned salt.  Worcestershire sauce.  And, a really bad-A apron.

Yep, that about covers it.

We really like Morton Season All Seasoned Salt… ESPECIALLY with THIS COUPON.  And, the rest basically goes like this:

SUPER AWESOME BURGERS

Mix 1 lb ground beef, 1 tsp Morton Season All Seasoned Salt, 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce, and 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper in a bowl.  Divide and pat out into patties.

Grill.

Serve.

Walk around like the awesomeness that you are as everyone inhales your burgers and wish they were you.

You can see more recipes for the Morton Salt Season-All Salt here.

And, if you’re really bored, you can see photos of our shopping trip for Season All Salt on Whrrl.

This was a compensated post for Collective Bias on behalf of Morton Salt. However, this is an honest and accurate depiction of what I think about this product and was not influenced by the compensation.

Recently, I received a wonderful new book in the mail – Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking by Jeff Hertzberg MD and Zoe Franois. I had had my eye on it for a while, and I was eager to try it out. Unfortunately, life happened and my kitchen and I were separated for a while – making baking bread a bit of a difficult task.

This past week, however, Lala and I had the opportunity to try one of the basic breads from the book.

And…I love it! If you’re thinking that you can’t bake bread in just 5 minutes a day, you’re correct in that…this isn’t some microwave bread BUT it’s recipes that don’t involve kneading or punching down bread or long rising periods. You simply mix up the ingredients, let them rise, refrigerate it and pull out what you need, when you need it! Once you’ve mixed up the dough and let it rise/refrigerate, the actual ACTIVE time you spend with making of this bread is about 5 minutes…and that’s if you lost your pizza peel!

I adore carbs (in taste and theory, not particularly how they make my jeans shrink) and this book is a treasure chest full of “bread” recipes – including pizza dough, pastries, cinnamon rolls, and ….YOU GUESSED IT! Artisan Bread!

You can buy the book for $17.83 on Amazon – which is about what it’d cost to go to the bakery and buy 4 tiny loaves of Artisan Bread. My only complaint is that the recipe I used requested I have a broiler pan and … WHAT THE HECK IS A BROILER PAN? We don’t like using the “broil” option on the oven because we tend to catch things on fire, so having a special pan for it was a little new to me. Once I figured out what that was, it made things a lot easier, especially since mom had one to let me “borrow”. So, my one complaint is really just me admitting that I didn’t know what an apparently very important kitchen item was….

We’ve already made several loaves of yummy bread and are excited about trying some cinnamon rolls next week! MMM!

Buy it here: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking

This week, we’ve been really busy with homeschooling! – (Among other things)

I thought I would try using a REAL lesson planner with Lala’s lessons.  I know it’s only “preschool,” but I feel like I’ll be more accountable if I have my plans and ideas written out.  PLUS, I love the idea of writing down FUTURE references or ideas as she gets older…things that may not apply now.  And then, there’s also the idea of keeping track of things that appeals to me, being able to know when I did what and what I did when.  So, I ordered The Homeschooler’s Journal.  For only $8.95, it’s a great planner and record keeper and can be used for more than one child but was made specifically for homeschoolers with lots of room to write!  It’s been great!

This week, we focused on the letter A and “apple.”

The printer was broken, so I couldn’t make a copy of the worksheet I had planned to.  Instead, I just drew the letter “Aa” with a permanent marker and an apple.  Lala practiced identifying the letter A and coloring and tracing it.

Then, we washed apples, practiced using a mandoline to slice the apples, laid them on a baking sheet and sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon.  We baked them at 250 degrees F, turning them over ever 30 minutes for about 2 hours.  Lala was able to do pretty much everything but put them in the oven.  She helped eat them too!  So yummy!

We borrowed a few books from the library as well…actually we borrowed several, but these 3 were our favorites.  The common theme (if you haven’t already guessed ) was APPLES!  The Apple Pip Princess, The Apple Doll, and Pepo and Lolo.  We borrowed these from the library (and will be returning them this weekend), but the links work if you’d like to buy them.

In the apple doll, we read about a little girl who made a doll out of an apple, so we thought we’d have a go at it.

We peeled an apple and then carved a little nose out and made eyes and a mouth.  We covered the head in lemon juice that had been mixed with 1 T salt and let set for 30 minutes.

This last picture is what the little apple looks like today after a couple of days of drying.  In about a week, she should completely be dried!  It’s fun to watch the process and Lala will have an apple she can keep!

We’ve been talking about apples and their colors (brown, green, yellow, red), shape (circle), and different things you can do with them.  But, we’ve also been learning the difference between BIG and SMALL, and Lala has gotten pretty good at identifying big toys versus small toys.

Life skills that we’ve been working on:  Picking up after herself.  Baking.  Using the Mandoline.  Washing fruits.  Rinsing dishes.

Next week will be extremely busy as I prepare for a large event, SO I’m hoping we can accomplish a decent amount.  I’m really excited about starting the letter “B” and exploring new things with Lala.

Ingredients:

1/4 c butter
2 T olive oil
1 tsp coarse salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb fresh asparagus spears, trimmed

Directions:

Melt butter in a skillet over medium-high heat.  Stir in th eolive oil, salt, and pepper.  Cook garlic in butter for a minute, but do not brown.  Add asparagus, and cook for 10 minutes, turning asparagus to ensure even cooking.

Saturday was my “baking morning” – I was hit by a surge of energy and used it to bake and do a few chores. The surge only lasted for a few hours before I was completely exhausted again, but at least I have two loaves of fruit-bread and some granola bars to show for it! (And, it’s all healthy and YUMMY!)

I’ve posted the banana nut bread recipe, already – but here it is again.

Whole Wheat Dairy Free Banana Apple Bread

Ingredients:

* 2 cups whole wheat flour
* 1/4 cup wheat germ or ground flaxseed (optional)
* 1/4 teaspoon salt

* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 1/4 c mashed banana
* 1/4 c. applesauce
* 1/4 cup extra light olive oil
* 1/2 cup honey
* 2 eggs
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* 1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

Grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan & preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Add all of the dry ingredients to a bowl, then make a well and add the wet ingredients. Mix well.

Bake for 50-60 minutes. Bread is done once a toothpick or knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Whole Wheat Dairy Free Cinnamon Apple Nut Bread
Ingredients:

* 2 cups whole wheat flour
* 1/4 cup wheat germ or ground flaxseed (optional)
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 2 T cinnamon

* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 1/2 c chopped apples and applesauce (I chopped 2 granny smith apples AND made a small tumbler of fresh applesauce with the magic bullet food processor)
* 1/4 cup extra light olive oil
* 1/2 cup honey (plus a tad extra)
* 2 eggs
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract + a few extra drops
* 1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

Grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan & preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Add all of the dry ingredients to a bowl, then make a well and add the wet ingredients. Mix well.

Bake for 50-60 minutes. Bread is done once a toothpick or knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Chewy Granola Bars

3 cups rolled oats (the old fashioned kind)
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup and 3 TBSP applesauce
1/3 cup honey
3 TBSP and 1 and 3/4 tsp packed brown sugar
3 TBSP flaxseed meal (optional)
1 C creamy peanut butter
1 ghiradelli dark chocolate baking bar cut up into pieces

Preheat oven to 325 F. Lightly grease a 9″x13″ pan.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the oats, flour, baking soda, vanilla, , honey, and brown sugar (and flaxseed meal if using). Stir in applesauce. Stir in the chocolate chips and 2 handfuls of pecans and 1 of walnuts.

Firmly press mixture into the prepared pan. Bake at 325 F for 20 min or until golden brown. Let cool for 10 min and then cut into bars. Let bars cool completely in pan before removing or serving. On hot summer days, might want to store in the fridge so that they’re not as crumbly and the chocolate doesn’t melt.