LaForce Be With You

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Ratatouille

The dish, not the movie. Although the movie is fabulous as well, seriously. Go watch it. Well after you read this post. Then you can make Ratatouille while watching Ratatouille... crazy!

My mom gave me this recipe out of her Joy of Cooking book. It does require a lot of chopping and attention throughout the process but it's completely worth it and fairly easy. And hubby who is not the biggest veggie lover (but getting much better), really likes it... added plus!

Ratatouille
From Joy of Cooking, serves 4-6

Ingredients:
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium eggplant, peeled and cut into 1 in. cubes
1 lb zucchini, cut into 1 in. cubes
1 1/2 cups sliced white onions
2 large red bell peppers, cut into 1 in. squares
3 cloves garlic, chopped
28oz can chopped tomatoes, drained
2-3 springs of fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

Saute eggplant and zucchini in 1/4 cup olive oil in large non-stick skillet over high heat until they are tender and golden (10-12 min). Remove vegetables from skillet and reduce heat to medium-high. In same skillet, cook onions in 2 Tbsp olive oil until slightly softened. Then add red bell peppers, garlic, and salt & pepper to taste and cook until vegetables are tender (8-12 min). Add tomatoes, thyme, and bay leaf. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook for 5 min. Add eggplant and zucchini back in and cook until everything is tender (20 min more). Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. Then stir in basil.

peelin' the eggplant

eggplant and zucchini cooking.. see the smoke

just after adding in bell peppers and garlic

simmering all together now

I served it as the main dish over brown rice with some cheesy naan bread. It's very hearty so you don't even miss the meat but you could serve as a side dish along with chicken as well.

It is such pretty colors and uses so many summer veggies and herbs. The basil came right from my herb garden! I had never had ratatouille or even heard of it before the movie came out and then after my mom made it for hubby and I once when we were visiting, we were hooked!

Try it out and let me know what ya think!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Jessica and Paul's wedding

A few weeks ago we travelled to Clinton SC to see my sorority little sister get married! Jessica is one of my 2 amazing littles. The 3 of us had some fun times in our Alpha Chi Omega family. I picked those 2 girls as my littles when they didn't even really know each other and then they quickly became best friends. I feel super lucky they picked me as their big sis and we have stayed in touch.

Christa, Jessica, Me

I actually was friends with the groom in college before the 2 of them even met or became friends... small world! The wedding was beautiful and there were a ton of people there. I was the book attendant at the wedding so I showed up early to help out and take some behind the scenes photos.

With the beautiful bride at the reception in Greenwood SC (about 30 min from Clinton). It was at this gorgeous clubhouse/plantation house on a golf course.

Bride with her college roomies

Cake cutting

Doing the AXO traditional sweetheart song. We had a few difficulties with keeping the candle lit due to the ceiling fans but I think our amazing vocal abilities made up for that :)

The lovely Alpha Chi girls. Hubby was sweet to take the pictures that I wanted with the girls that night!

Don't ya just love weddings!?!

So happy for yall!

Sunday, June 5, 2011

No Bake PB Chocolate Crispies

These are honestly the easiest cookies I have ever made. If you are someone that says oh I can't bake or I can't cook blah blah blah then you HAVE to make these. Not only are they easy but they are unbelievably fast (well minus the cooling/hardening part).

I found this recipe at Envy My Cooking. You should check 'em out for lots of great ideas.

Picture is from Envy My Cooking, I forgot to take one before they were all eaten... whoops! Well mine did look just the same at least :)

No Bake PB Chocolate Crispies
by Envy My Cooking, makes ~20 cookies

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
2 cups quick cooking oats
1 tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup peanut butter

Melt butter in saucepan and when it is almost melted mix in sugar, cocoa, and milk. Bring to boil and boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in oats, peanut butter, and vanilla. Mix well and spoon them out onto wax paper to cool.

These were delicious!! The nice thing is they used ingredients I had on hand. And these are great when you want to make cookies but don't want to heat up the kitchen by using the oven :)

Let me know what you think! Anyone else have super easy cookie recipes?

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Kelley's Baby Shower and a ruffled onesie

Our friends Kelley and Sean are having a baby girl this summer! So as part of the gift, I made a couple of onesies and my mom made some hand-stitched shoes. I did heat transfer vinyl using her name and some dots.

I felt it needed something extra, some pizazz if you will and I had been wanting to try ruffles so I picked up some 1 3/4 inch Lace Hem Facing and added ruffles to the back...

Honestly ruffles make most things even CUTER! I think my first time ruffling turned out pretty well. It took longer than I thought since my mom suggested I hand baste the ruffles on first instead of trying to sew with pins in since the lace was fairly delicate and could easily slip around. I am super slow at hand sewing things so I'm sure it wouldn't take as long for an experienced sewer.

And the little felt shoes match the ruffles :) I WISH I could hand sew these like my mom did... perhaps one day I will get better at it. The nice part about using the lace for ruffles was that the long edges were already finished and I only had to turn under the ends.

I also did a heat transfer VT onesie since Sean went to Virginia Tech. It is similar to the Clemson ones I have done.

I went to Kelley's shower a couple weeks ago at her in-laws neighborhood clubhouse. There was a ton of really great food and a cake done in Olivia's nursery colors.

And a million gifts! She had even more than what is in this picture. Olivia is going to be all set for anything she might need.

Here is the mom to be, Kelley. She looks so cute pregnant! And she did a pretty good job handling that huge basket of gifts.

Of course I had to snap some photos of her opening my gift. I also got her this mobile off her registry that matches the nursery. I can't wait to see the room!