Ratatouille

This is a great recipe for this time of year when gardens are starting to be ready to be picked!

Ingredients

1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced
1 cup tomato puree
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 small eggplant
1 smallish zucchini
1 smallish yellow squash
1 longish red bell pepper
Few sprigs fresh thyme
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Pour tomato puree into bottom of an oval baking dish, approximately 10 inches across the long way. Drop the sliced garlic cloves and chopped onion into the sauce, stir in one tablespoon of the olive oil and season the sauce generously with salt and pepper.

Trim the ends off the eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash. As carefully as you can, trim the ends off the red pepper and remove the core, leaving the edges intact, like a tube.

On a mandoline, adjustable-blade slicer or with a very sharp knife, cut the eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash and red pepper into very thin slices, approximately 1/16-inch thick.

Atop the tomato sauce, arrange slices of prepared vegetables concentrically from the outer edge to the inside of the baking dish, overlapping so just a smidgen of each flat surface is visible, alternating vegetables. You may have a handful leftover that do not fit.

Drizzle the remaining tablespoon olive oil over the vegetables and season them generously with salt and pepper. Remove the leaves from the thyme sprigs with your fingertips, running them down the stem. Sprinkle the fresh thyme over the dish.

Cover dish with a piece of parchment paper cut to fit inside. (Tricky, I know, but the hardest thing about this.)

Bake for approximately 45 to 55 minutes, until vegetables have released their liquid and are clearly cooked, but with some structure left so they are not totally limp. They should not be brown at the edges, and you should see that the tomato sauce is bubbling up around them.

Tips: The recipe calls for an Italian eggplant, I can never find one or when I do it's more expensive, so I just look for a long skinny eggplant and make it work.

From the kitchen of Megan.

Original recipe: http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/07/rat-a-too-ee-for-you-ee/

Peppered Stuff

My mom used to make stuffed peppers--rice, hamburger, various seasonings mixed in and into the bell peppers. Used to. Of the seven kids in my family, maybe one would taste a pepper, but none of us would actually eat one. After a few attempts at this, my mom started stuffing only three or four peppers and filling the rest of the pan with only the rice and hamburger. And, over time, she gave up on stuffing the peppers all together and instead peppered the stuff.

Ingredients:

1-2 bell peppers
1 lb. hamburger
3 cups uncooked rice
onion, salt, pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Cook the rice as directed.

2. Brown the hamburger. Season as desired. Add chopped peppers and onions.

3. Combine rice and hamburger mixture in 9 x 13 pan.


4. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes, until rice on top is crispy.


Variations:

Add tomato soup or taco seasoning before putting it into the oven.

Top the final dish with barbeque or hot sauce. I myself prefer ketchup. :)


From the Kitchen of Laura W.

Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole

enough chicken breasts to feed family

same amount sliced ham as chicken

same amount sliced Swiss cheese as chicken

1 can cream of chicken soup

^2/₃ cup Milk

½ cup Butter

1 pkg. Stuffing

Directions:

Layer in casserole dish: chicken, then ham, then cheese. Mix soup with milk and pour soup mixture over all. Melt butter and mix with stuffing; Sprinkle mixture over top. Bake at 300 degrees for 1 1/2 hrs. (Cover with tin foil last 45 minutes so stuffing doesn't burn.)

Tips:

The recipe seems odd because it doesn’t call for specific amounts of the meats and cheese, but I’ve found it to be really useful that way. Just choose your size of casserole dish, and then fill it with enough chicken to coat the bottom, then layer on the sliced ham (I usually use turkey ham), and then the cheese. I usually have pretty thick layers of ham and cheese. If you make a larger casserole you can always double the stuffing and use two packages (the opposite is also true – you can just use half a package of stuffing and half the butter).

Mexican Rice Casserole

I found this delicious recipe from a cooking blog called For the Love of Cooking. This is easy and yummy!

1 1/2 cups of white rice, prepared per instructions
1 tsp of olive oil
1 lb lean ground beef (I used 96/4)
1/2 sweet yellow onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp dried cumin
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2-1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Sea salt and fresh cracked pepper, to taste
1 15 oz can of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 15 oz can of tomato sauce
3-4 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped (divided)
1-2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese
3-4 tomatoes, sliced thickly

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare rice per instructions. While the rice is cooking heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Once the skillet is hot, add the ground beef, making sure to break it up into crumbles. Cook the beef for 3-4 minutes then add the diced onion and all of the seasonings. Stir until well combined and cook for an additional 10 minutes or until the beef is cooked through and the onion is tender. Add the minced garlic and cook, stirring constantly for an additional 60 seconds. Add the cooked rice, drained and rinsed black beans, tomato sauce and a bit of cilantro (reserving some for garnishing) to the beef and onion mixture. Mix the ingredients thoroughly, taste and re-season if needed.

Coat a large baking dish with cooking spray and pour the rice mixture into the dish, spreading it evenly. Place the tomato slices on top of the rice mixture then top with cheddar cheese.

Spray a piece of tin foil with cooking spray (so the cheese won't stick) and cover the baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes then remove the tin foil. Bake for an additional 5-7 minutes or until the cheese is melted and golden brown. Remove from the oven and let sit for 5 minutes before slicing. Top with a dollop of sour cream and the remaining chopped cilantro. Enjoy.