Hey All –

I’m back. Sort of. Physically I have returned from vacation, mentally I’m still trying to get back to my normal routine. Being on vacation for almost six days (who’s counting?? 🙂 ) was simply amazing. I loved every moment of it, and I wish I was still on vacation!!

But I am not. Sigh.

Last night I cooked. Ratatouille. Jacques Pépin’s recipe. Which is one of my favorite things to cook – ever.

Here is my Le Creuset on the stove:

Here is what was going on inside:

Here is what I had for dinner last night:

I do apologize for the low image quality. I had fully intended to document my evening in the kitchen from start to finish… but since I’m still on vacation mode, and sort of out of the habit of photographing everything in my life culinary, I totally forgot until everything was already in the Le Creuset. Oops.

Here is what I added into the french stew:

two Japanese eggplants

Zucchini

a pepper (cubanelle)

garlic, minced

onion, diced

28 ounces of crushed tomatoes (more than Jacques calls for in the book)

olive oil

I sautéd the onions, eggplant and zucchini in a little bit of olive oil before adding the rest of the ingredients. Just because I felt like it. Then I literally added everything else, and let it cook together for about a half hour on low heat. The end result was heavenly. It was the first thing I really cooked since coming back from vacation. (Mark and I “prepared” lobster for my family on Sunday, but that’s not really cooking, at least in my book…)

Anyhow. I’m back. I’m going to start preparing and eating real food again. I promise.

Hope you are all having a great week!