How to Make Ratatouille from the Movie (Confit Byaldi)

One of my favorite recipes to make is this spin on traditional ratatouille, called Confit Byaldi.  It was created specifically for Pixar's movie "Ratatouille" by French Laundry chef, Thomas Keller.  You can see the original recipe here. Enjoy!


Ingredients: 

• 3 peppers (red, orange, yellow)
• 1 onion
• Minced garlic
• Extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large can of diced tomatoes
• Thym
• Parsley
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 zucchini
• 1 yellow squash
• 1 egg plant
• 4 roma tomatos
• Balsamic vinegar

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

Step 2: Cut each pepper in half, and take out the ribs and the seeds.

Step 3: Place the peppers on a piece of tin foil on a baking pan.  Put in the oven, and let roast for 15 minutes.  When they're done, let them cool.

Step 4: While the peppers are in the oven, finely chop up the onion.

Step 5: Put the chopped onion in a pan along with 2 Tbs. oil and 1 tsp. garlic.  Stir under low heat until the onions are soft, but not brown.  This will take about 8 minutes.

Step 6: Drain the diced canned tomatoes and add that to the pan after the onions have been softened.  Stir in too the bay leaf, parsley, and thyme.  Let the entire mixture simmer until the juices have mostly evaporated.

Step 7: While that is simmering, take your peppers (which should be cool by now) and peel the skin off of them.  Don't worry if all the skin doesn't come off.  After that, cut them up into tiny squares.

Step 8: Add the peppers to the mixture in the pan; stir.  Cover and let simmer, stirring occasionally.

Step 9: While that's simmering, preheat the oven to 275 degrees Fahrenheit.

Step 10: Slice up the zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant, and Roma tomatoes.  Put them all in separate bowls.

Step 11: Take the tomato, onion, and pepper mixture off the stove.  Set aside a spoonful of it in a cup.  Put the rest on the bottom of a pan or two pans, depending on how much you have.  I used two 8 inch pans.

Step 12: Now it's time to start layering the vegetable slices.  Choose an order that you like, I did: zucchini, squash, eggplant, tomato (and repeat).  Begin by layering one on top of the other down the center of the pan.  Then spiral around the other edge.  When you make a full rotation, spiral the vegetables in towards the center.  Continue spiraling until the entire pan is covered.

Step 13: Drizzle the top of the vegetables with a mixture of olive oil, thyme, and garlic.

Step 14: Cover the pans with tin foil and scrunch it on the bottom.  Put them in the oven for 2 hours.  After the two hours are up, take the tin foil off and leave them in the oven uncovered for another 30 minutes.

Step 15: Time to make the vinaigrette! In my opinion, this makes the meal.  It's really simple, just add olive oil and balsamic vinegar to the tomato mixture that was set aside earlier.  Store it in the refrigerator.

Step 16: Take the ratatouille out of the oven and enjoy!  I usually like to eat it with pasta.  Tell me what you think and just comment if you have any questions.

Tea Stained "TOMS" Shoes: A Tutorial

I really wanted a pair of TOMS shoes for the summer, but they are way out of my budget. Luckily, I found a pair of these Toms look-a-likes at Target for only $17.  I didn't like the bright white, though, so I decided to dye the shoes with tea.  The inspiration for this project comes from Sweet Verbena.

Tutorial

You will need: white canvas shoes, tea, and Sharpie markers.

Step 1: Remove the inserts from the shoes. You do not want these getting wet when you dye your shoes.

Step 2: In the sink, run your shoes in water.  If the fabric is wet, it will absorb the dye more readily.  Set shoes aside.

Step 3: In a large pot, boil enough water to cover your shoes.  I used 24 cups.  Make sure that you keep track of how many cups of water you put into the pot.

Step 4: Remove the strings and tags from as many teabags as cups of water you are boiling.  When the water comes to a boil, lower the heat and add the teabags.  Stir gently and let steep for 5 minutes.

Step 5: Fish out the teabags and discard them.  Put your shoes into the pot of tea and squish them down to make sure that they are fully submerged.  Let them soak and check them every 5-10 minutes.

Step 6: When the shoes are darker than you want them to be, take them out of the pot and rinse them in warm water and soap.  The color of the shoes will lighten.

Step 7: Put your shoes through the washer and dryer.

Step 8: Decorate as you wish with a Sharpie marker (optional).  I tested this and didn't like how it turned out, so I wished that I had left the shoes as they were.  This led to a whole debacle, and eventually I ended up painting the part with the Sharpie.

The Mistake

So there you go!  Simple summer shoes that look like Toms, but at the fraction of the price.  Something that I learned during this project: if you like how something looks, just STOP working on it.  Less is more.  I should not have tried to decorate the shoes with Sharpie, and eventually tried to recreate what the shoes looked like before.  If I had just stopped, I would have been saved all that time and effort.


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