Ratatouille (in the crockpot)

I had a bit of an eggplant dilemma over the weekend.  You see, I have a bit of a habit of buying unknown-to-me-produce at the farmer's market.  The cuter the name and the cuter the item, the chances are great that it is coming home with me, even if I have no idea what I am going to make with it. 

That was the situation last weekend, when I purchased these at the farm:

The purple and white globe is apparently a Graffiti Eggplant, the long and narrow ones are Green Goddesses, and the short round ones are the adorably named Kermits. 

(C'mon, would you have been able to leave a Kermit at the farm?  Especially with the meat case just a few dangerous feet away?)

So they came home with me and there they sat, awaiting some decision from me as to what I would make. 

Over the weekend, I had ratatouille on my mind so I turned to Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook  by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann. Sure enough, on pages 133-134, there's a slow cooker recipe for ratatouille, described as a regional vegetable stew from Provence.

Ingredients:
1 large eggplant, 1.5 lbs., peeled and cut into 1" cubes (I used the graffiti eggplant, one Kermit, and one Green Goddess because the graffiti wasn't what I would have considered large)

salt
1 medium sized yellow onion, coarsely chopped
2 medium-size or large bell peppers (green, red, orange, or yellow), seeded and cut into big squares
10 plum tomatoes, peeled and chopped, or one 14.5 oz. can diced plum tomatoes, drained
2-3 cloves garlic, to your taste, minced
1/2 cup olive oil
5 zucchini or summer squash , ends trimmed and cut into thick rounds
1-2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil, to your taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. Put the cubed eggplant in a colander and sprinkle with salt.  Let stand 1 hour to drain.  Press out the excess moisture with the back of a spatula and pat dry with paper towels.

2. Combine the eggplant, onion, bell peppers, tomatoes, and garlic in the slow cooker. Pour over the olive oil and toss to coat.  Cover and cook on HIGH for 1-1.5 hours or on LOW for 2-3 hours.

3. Stir in the zucchini.  Cover and continue to cook for HIGH for another 1.5 hrs. or on LOW for 2-2.5 hours. The last hour, add the basil and season with salt and black pepper.  The vegetables will be cooked but will still hold their shape.

Some serving ideas mentioned in the book include serving hot with crumbled goat cheese sprinkled on top (this is what I did, especially since I can't resist any opportunity for goat cheese), at room temperature with lemon wedges and freshly grated parmesan cheese, or cold drizzled with balsamic vinegar. Serves 4-6.

Stuffed pattypan squash

Down the road from us is a farm with a store that's larger than a farmer's market but smaller than a grocery store. I love shopping there (and usually do so once a week, on average) because they have incredibly fresh fruits and vegetables along with a great selection of gluten-free and organic foods, a homemade baked goods section, and a deli. It's a great place to pick up a gallon of milk or a last-minute something without making the trip to the supermarket.

So the other day they had a basket of patty pan squash, with a sign saying, "OUR OWN!" I couldn't resist them - they're so cute - but especially because you can't get any more local than five minutes away.

Truth be told, I purchased some of these last year, but they went to waste before I could find a recipe to use them in.  That wasn't going to happen this year, so I searched for (and found, on allrecipes.com) this recipe for stuffed pattypan squash.

Since I only had 4 pattypans, I scaled this down a little bit.  You may want and need to do the same, depending on the size of your squash.

Ingredients
6 pattypan squash, stem and blossom removed
6 slices bacon
1/2 cup diced onion
1 1/2 cups soft bread crumbs
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Bring one inch of water to a boil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add squash, cover, and cook for 10 minutes, or until a fork can pierce the stem with little resistance. Drain, and slice off the top stem of the squash. Use a melon baller to carefully scoop out the centers of the squash. (I used a regular teaspoon.  Worked fine.) Reserve all of the bits of squash.

Place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Remove bacon to paper towels, and set aside. Saute onion in bacon drippings. Chop the reserved squash pieces, and saute them with the onion for one minute. (My note: I used vegetarian bacon.)

Remove the skillet from heat, and stir in the breadcrumbs. Crumble the bacon, and stir into the stuffing along with the Parmesan cheese. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Stuff each squash to overflowing with the mixture, and place them in a baking dish. Cover the dish loosely with aluminum foil.

Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until squash are heated through.

I served this with vegetarian chicken and macaroni and cheese.  Since this was a new dish to try (and I'm happy to report that everyone at the table tried it), I needed something else for us as a backup.  These were pretty tasty!

Guest post: Lentil and butternut squash soup

I love soup. In many ways I think it is the perfect food. Except for the small fact that my kids usually won't eat it. To get around this I normally make a big pot of jasmine rice and mix some of the soup with a bowl of rice and then we are all happy. But this soup! This soup is the only one that my youngest son Sami—who had declared hating ALL soups—requests for me to make. When I served it earlier this week he stunned us all by eating three bowls. Then he asked to have leftovers for lunch the next day.

Can it get better than that? Why yes! Because, you see, this soup is phenomenally easy to make and is very versatile as a leftover. I created this vegetarian soup based on the flavors from a favorite chicken and rice dish and I never wrote down or measured the ingredients. The recipe that follows is pretty close—but more or less of any of the ingredients to suit your taste is probably fine.

What you will need:

2 yellow onions
garlic, minced—about 3 med. cloves
ginger, minced—about 4 quarter-sized slices
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp cayenne pepper (or less if you don't like it so hot)
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp salt
8 cups vegetable broth
1 bag lentils
1 medium butternut squash

1. Coarsely chop the onions and saute over medium-high heat until translucent.
2. Toss in the minced garlic and ginger and saute for a few more minutes.
3. Add spices and stir thoroughly for about a minute
4. Add the vegetable broth and lentils, increasing the heat to bring to a boil.
5. Start preparing your squash now. When you have finished peeling, seeding and chopping, your soup should be at a rolling boil.
6. Add the squash and reduce the heat to medium.
7. Continue to cook until the squash is soft. You may also continue cooking for a few more minutes to reduce the soupiness further.

To serve, you could pair this with some freshly cooked rice or eat it by itself as a soup. If you like cilantro, toss a few leaves on each serving or mince a medium-sized bunch, mix with plain yogurt, and add a dollop to each bowl.

For lunch today I put a few tablespoons of it in a fresh flour tortilla and served it burrito-style. The cilantro-yogurt would be a tasty condiment for this. My husband liked this so much that I'm going to prepare a whole bunch of them and stick them in the freezer for those days when I don't want to cook.

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Christine's blog home is at daysixtyseven.  She writes about life in the less-virtual home she shares with four boys, all of whom have hearty appetites.

Acorn squash with apple stuffing

I really love squash. So when I was looking for something to replace sweet potatoes at our Thanksgiving table this year, I decided to go with acorn squash. It's not that I don't like sweet potatoes, I do. But the thing about Thanksgiving is this: the turkey is a given. The stuffing, a must-have. So when it comes to the other sides, I like to change things around from year to year.

This recipe was really easy to execute and it's certainly one that can be improvised depending on what you have on hand. It was delicious with the turkey, but I also think it would pair nicely with pork. Here's what you need to get started:

2 acorn squash
2-3 apples, chopped
approximately 3-4 tablespoons of brown sugar (depends how sweet you want it)
dash of cinammon
dash of nutmeg
small handful of sliced almonds (or nuts of your choice)
butter

Wash the squash and then cut each in half, lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and fibers.

Place the squash face down in a baking dish that has about an inch of water in the bottom. Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes.

While the squash is baking, wash and chop the apples. Stir in the brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and nuts. Set aside.

When the squash come out of the oven, turn them over and fill with the apple mixture. Top each with a pat (or two!) of butter and return to the oven for another 30 minutes.

Enjoy!