Ratatouille!

Several things were accomplished today.
1. I did not cut myself. Yay! Success! ...though, I can't say the same for a few other classmates.
2. Learned braising.
3. Identified a dozen different kinds of fresh herbs.
4. Made glazed baby carrots.
5. Made ratatouille. Seriously.

I've got a picture up of us gathered around a table examining the herbs. There were about 3 out of the 12 that I couldn't identify. Still learning...

We braised endive. It. Was. Gross. Endive is very bitter, and the way we cooked it didn't help any. Apparently, I cooked it the way they were looking for, but good Lord - what a waste. It was mainly to show us the technique, not the flavor. I didn't even take a picture of it. It wasn't too pretty anyway.

The glazed baby carrots... ehh. They were alright. I'm not a fan of sweet foods, especially foods that are normally savory, like carrots. And, peeling those little suckers was tough! I need to cook mine a little longer, but I felt like I couldn't because the sugar in the pan was going to turn into caramel! I'll have to figure out how to balance all that.

Ratatouille. Pretty cool. Total vegetarian dish, but I liked it. It's full of eggplant, yellow squash, zucchini, red and yellow bell pepper, onion, garlic, basil, and tomatoes concasse' - which means, peeled, seeded, and chopped. All the veggies are about the same size, and sauteed.

I was pretty impressed at how much I enjoyed it. :) Who woulda thought... this 'meat & potatoes' girl, liking this vegan dish??