Farm Ratatuoille
(This Column)
The name of this dish comes from the Disney cartoon Ratatouille because the kids wanted to try the food in the movie and this is as close as I could get with what we had on hand at the farm.
(See another version of this recipe here from a blogger with many great ideas on how to cook vegetables)
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So, first we gathered odds and ends from the garden. Probably any diverse group of vegetables would work, but we used zucchini, crookneck, tomatoes, and onions. (we used the corn for the Steak Casserole.)
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slice all your vegetables into thin slices.
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Prepare a 9x13 casserole dish by spraying it with no stick spray and sprinkling a few thin slices of butter across the bottom. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Take half your onions and dice them (about 1 cup). Spread the onions evenly across the bottom of the dish.
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Start layering your vegitables vertically in the dish, starting at one end and filling all the way across. As the nice big slices get used, don't be afraid to use smaller bits. You don't have to follow a pattern, (red potato, crookneck, tomato, zucchini, onion) but I did because my OCD was showing.
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After the entire dish is filled, generously sprinkle garlic salt, pepper, and thyme across the top.
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| Apply liberally! |
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Cover with tinfoil and bake for 30 minutes.
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In a small saucepan, add 1 tsp minced garlic, 2/3 cup milk, 1/3 cube butter, 1 - 1.5 cups shredded cheese (we used medium cheddar, but you can use whichever kind you enjoy), and melt together stirring frequently.
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Chop up one whole onion top into tiny rings.
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Add onion top to sauce and stir.
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When baking time is over, pour cheese sauce over top of the vegetables and return it to the oven uncovered for 15 minutes.
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Remove from oven. (My kids think it's very pretty)
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We served large spoonfuls of the dish with fresh cucumber slices and freshly steamed green beans.
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This recipe was super cheap to make (crooknecks, onions, and zucchinni sell at the farm for 50 cents each or less) and it filled up the whole family. We will be eating this one again. we had a few vegetable slices left over after the Ratatouille pan was filled, so I made a second dish, Steak Casserole, out of the remaining vegi's. Read about that in the next column.
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Steak Casserole
(This Column)
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So after making Farm Ratatouille, we had sliced crookneck squash, sliced potatoes, sweet corn, and onions left, so I decided to make dinner for the next day too. First, thaw 2 steaks and slice them thin. Then slice once more lengthwise to make little square-ish pieces. Add 1 tsp minced garlic and 3 tbs teriyaki sauce. Mix.
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Prepare a 9x13 pan by spraying with a light coat of non-stick spray. sprinkle thin slices of butter across the bottom of the pan. Layer a mix of sliced red potatoes and crookneck squash in pan (Fill between 1/2 -1 inch deep). Place steak slices across the top of the squash/spuds.
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Cut off about 2 cups of uncooked sweet corn and spread over steak. Spinkle lightly with salt.
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Dice 1 large onion, or two small onions and layer over top of the corn.
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Dice 3/4 cup mushrooms (I kieep a few bags of frozen mushrooms in the freezer)
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Add 3 tbs teriyaki sauce and mix it up.
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Sprinkle mushrooms over top of the onions & bake for 45 minutes at 325 degrees.
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I wanted to take a picture of it after it baked, but it smelled so good that the kids attacked it right after it came out of the oven. So, imagine it looking like the last picture, but with translucent onions with slightly brown corners. It was delish! I hope you enjoy it.
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You may have noticed that the only thing I picked that I Did not use in these two recipies was the largest Zucchini. We ground that up into Zucchini bread for breakfast the next day. Yum, yum. I'll post that recipe next time.
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