Juliet the Gnome

We met up with Amara and Seth and Naphtali downtown! Every little kid knew who she was!

Curious George and The Man in the Yellow Hat

Asa loves Curious George. Originally, this was the plan for his costume. And to make sure people knew he wasn't just any monkey, I thought we should make Mike the Man in the Yellow Hat. Asa was set on this idea! For days he would go around telling everyone, "I be Curious George and Dada be the Man in the Yellow Hat! What you be be?" Yes, two "bes." Then Naphtali mentioned Johnny Cash but Asa was set on George, so we did one for the Fall Carnival and one for Trick or Treating. And Mike dressed up!

Mike was quite the hit with little kids downtown. Every kid we'd pass would point and say, "Look the Man in the Yellow Hat!" What a great dad.

Happy Halloween

I have oodles (and oodles) of pictures of the kiddos but here's just two. Ida Mae is our sweet little candy corn!

And here he is folks, the man in black, Johnny Cash. (Dad C took this shot)

Italian Drip Beef Sandwiches

This recipe, via Baked Bree originally from Pioneer Woman, has been on my "to try" list for a long time. I had leftover chuck this week so I finally got around to making some for lunches. Wow - I'm just sad we didn't try it sooner!!! This is incredibly easy and, just ask Mike, ridiculously good!

(We've really struck gold on a lot of our new recipe attempts this week so there's more food posts to share.)

There's no exact measurements for any of this.  You just throw it in.

chuck roast (I only had 1lb left)
pepperoncini
beef broth
italian seasoning
salt and pepper
hoagie rolls
pepperjack cheese

The original recipe is here.  She uses the oven but I just did all this in the slow cooker.  We made it the day before we planned to eat it.

So here's what we did:
Spray the pot with cooking spray.
Dump in the meat.
Season with salt, pepper, and italian seasonings.  Almost cover the roast with beef broth and a little water.
Put a bunch of pepperoncinis on top and dump in some of their juice.
Put it on low for 6-8hrs (depending on your crock) until it falls apart.
Cool and refrigerate.
Remove hardened fat on top.
Reheat meat and juice.  Pour juice into ramekins and meat on the hoagie rolls.
Top with pepperjack and some sliced pepperoncinis. (I topped my sandwich with sweet peppers just because I really like them but Mike did the pepperoncinis.)
Place under the broiler for a minute or two.
Dunk and enjoy!!!

Ratatouille like the Movie

I finally pulled out the mandoline Mike bought me for my birthday (in March). And I completely, 100% take back all the bad thoughts I had about it! I had read a bunch of reviews and put this on my wish list but then when it arrived I thought it didn't have enough options and the plastic didn't seem very sturdy. It was sitting down in a basement closet, waiting to get returned to amazon when I finally decided it wasn't worth the hassle of calling them up to get a special gift return and pay shipping. And I'm soo glad I didn't send it back! All the great reviews were true. All that to say we finally tried out Ratatouille's ratatouille! This recipe is from Smitten Kitchen and it is amazing. Easy. Pretty. And oh so delicious!

Ratatouille’s Ratatouille 

from Smitten Kitchen

1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced - I just used a garlic press as I was rushing
1 cup tomato puree - I couldn't find any and substituted tomato sauce -worked great
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 small eggplant
1 smallish zucchini
1 smallish yellow squash
1 longish red bell pepper
Few sprigs fresh thyme
Salt and pepper
Few tablespoons soft goat cheese, for serving

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Pour tomato puree into bottom of an oval baking dish, approximately 10 inches across the long way. I used a round pan and just kept filling up pans as long as I had veggies left!
Drop the sliced garlic cloves and chopped onion into the sauce, stir in one tablespoon of the olive oil and season the sauce generously with salt and pepper.
Trim the ends off the eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash. As carefully as you can, trim the ends off the red pepper and remove the core, leaving the edges intact, like a tube.
On a mandoline, adjustable-blade slicer or with a very sharp knife, cut the eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash and red pepper into very thin slices, approximately 1/16-inch thick.
Atop the tomato sauce, arrange slices of prepared vegetables concentrically from the outer edge to the inside of the baking dish, overlapping so just a smidgen of each flat surface is visible, alternating vegetables. You may have a handful leftover that do not fit.
Drizzle the remaining tablespoon olive oil (I was really generous with the olive oil and yes, it's delicious) over the vegetables and season them generously with salt and pepper. Remove the leaves from the thyme sprigs with your fingertips, running them down the stem. Sprinkle the fresh thyme over the dish.
Cover dish with a piece of parchment paper cut to fit inside. (Tricky, I know, but the hardest thing about this.)
Bake for approximately 45 to 55 minutes (mine took less as I used smaller pans and convection), until vegetables have released their liquid and are clearly cooked, but with some structure left so they are not totally limp. They should not be brown at the edges, and you should see that the tomato sauce is bubbling up around them.
Serve with a dab of soft goat cheese on top, alone, or with some crusty French bread, atop polenta, couscous, or your choice of grain. This was fantastic with lots of goat cheese.  I used it as a side dish and the leftovers made amazing lunches just served in bowls!


And if you're curious, here's Thomas Keller's version (much more involved but I'm sure delicious).