What’s for Dinner: July 22

A less successful week this week. It’s been a wildly stressful month, with work being hectic and my mother and father bracketing the month with surgeries and I believe the menu this week showed that. I gave away a fair amount of food and what I did make was less than successful. That said, I’ll post what I attempted, with the thought that it might inspire someone to improve it, or tell me what I could do better.

Pumpernickel from the Clemson Farmer’s Market

Ratatouille

It almost had to be made, didn’t it? I looked around and found several recipes, with the cooking times varying wildly. I noticed on the one that cooked longer that people complained about soggy veggies, so I ultimately went with the Emeril recipe. If you like your pepper extra crunchy, then use this recipe. Very disappointing. Maybe I didn’t dice it enough.

Chard Bean Stew

I just couldn’t keep making Spanikopita out of the chard, so I thought I’d try something else. This one looked like it would be acceptable to everyone, so I gave it a shot, making it exactly as prescribed. For me, it was a little flavorless. Maybe it needed hot sauce or something, but it needed more. And, to add insult to injury, the white beans torn me up. Now I love beans, but black beans or kidney beans apparently treat me nicer than the white beans. If I make this one again, I will be eating a lot of Beano first or I will feed it to my family only.

Moroccan Couscous

Now this was awesome and it always is awesome and as soon as I saw we were getting a butternut squash, I KNEW I’d be making this. MMMM. I’ve missed you Moroccan Couscous.

So what do we think folks? How do I make ratatouille that everyone will eat?