Ratatouille

BEFORE

AFTER

I had that basket of vegetables from our garden, our CSA share and a Saturday morning trip to one of the farmer's markets. I felt like I was running out of ideas for things to fix. So, I consulted my copy of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Since Barbara Kingsolver so kindly organized the book by seasons, it was easy to find the end of summer chapter and then check the end of the chapter where she includes their menus from a typical week in that season. As soon as I saw ratatouille listed, I knew I had a winner. Uses most of the things in the picture plus basil from our backyard. Hooray!

We had it last night as a side dish with some grilled chicken. We'll have the leftovers on another night over rice or pasta. I used the recipe in Alice Waters' cookbook with a few looks at an Epicurious version as well. It was a real treat. Those very fresh vegetables had cooked long enough together to make a delicious broth. We're looking forward to the leftovers.

Then, feeling ambitious, I used some of our local peaches to make an upside down cake. This was one of the things on the menu when Jeff and I took our recent cooking class. Our chef used nectarines, but my peaches were more ripe than my nectarines. Very simple, but very nice. An old idea (remember the pineapple upside down cakes of the past?) brought back and improved. I thought it was so pretty, I had to include a look at its upside down top.