Ratatouille

After watching Rachel Ray, I wanted Ratatouille and asked R.D. to make it... after a little humming and hawing he agreed. Rachel was doing a tribute to the movie and R.D. has a Ratatouille cookbook given to him from Grandma Judie. The summer veggies are so great right now this is a perfect dinner. The local farm had everything we needed and R.D. also picked up tons of herbs just for fun. While watching Tyler's Ultimate on Food Network, we have learned to take the fresh herbs put them in a glass so we did just that and it made the fridge smell great! Well... now onto the creating this delicious meal. We made a few mistakes, but it still turned out awesome. First, R.D. had to chop and heat the onions, garlic and roasted red peppers and add them to the food processor. First mistake, we forgot the red peppers to the skillet and added them directly to the food processor. But most of the hard work for this recipe came from slicing all of the veggies, thank goodness for the Mandolin from Pampered Chef! After all that hard work, R.D. took great care in lining the casserole dish with all the veggies. Now into the oven. This recipe should go into the oven with parchment paper over it, but we forgot it... 2'nd mistake. R.D. remembered about halfway into the cooking process, so w tried putting down the paper. However the dishes were very hot so it didn't really work. Everything tasted fine, but the casserole dishes were very hard to clean! R.D. will definitely make this again it was very good, and should be even better next time!

Culinary Camp

Robbie spent three days at the Culinary Underground kids camp, which he loves. The owner and chef Lori is very nice and seems to like R.D. very much. The theme for this week's class is Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. On the first day, breakfast R.D. made poached eggs in salsa and homemade tortilla chips. Everyone in the class takes on a few things from the menu and receives all of the recipes. R.D. came home with a biscuit, that tasted like the buns from Red Lobster, but they had bits of sausage, absolutely fabulous. Next time we have overnight guests, R.D. is planning on making these for breakfast. For the lunch day, R.D. made fresh ricotta cheese which was used for a sweet bruschetta. The bread was a like a cinnamon toast with the ricotta then either strawberries or mango (both great). For the dinner day, R.D. made pork tenderloin and fresh tortillas. The class ended and R.D. was very happy and put away all his recipes. This week he already made the pork and tortillas again for dinner (great) and offered this recipe to his sister. Overall it was another great week at the Underground, thank you Lori!

Boy Scout Camp

It was a quite week around the house with the boys at sleep away camp. We all missed them, but it was nice to have some time too! R.D. was nervous and got a little choked up when getting dropped off, but he made it the whole week. His older brother Drew was there for support and was the Senior Patrol Leader (we are very proud). Of course R.D. signed up for the cooking merit badge, which he thought would be an easy badge or may even be board. Even Drew said, "only the younger scouts sign up for cooking." However it turned out to be cooking outside and food experiences R.D. has never had and could not get from Food Network. The only meal I really heard about was the mac and cheese, which came from a can of fake cheese and R.D. loved it. He said we had to skip 6 meals (from the mess haul) and cook them ourselves and that was great. I wish we could have skipped more meals." I don't think he really loved the food. Even Drew said home sweet home where i can get a real meal like a hot dog, ha ha.

Crabby Pattys, Meghan's Party Part Deux

Meghan's house warming party part deux... Kelly's back is still out and Meghan has requested her crab cakes. These cakes were recommended to us from a friend and co-worker Susan M, but the recipe is from Bare Foot Contessa. Again little chef R.D. has to step up and make these cakes, he really does not mind. I got up early and took on the duty of sous-chef, by doing all the chopping. The red & yellow bell peppers, onion, celery, and parsley all had to be a fine chop. This took ages, it seemed, but i did use the handy dandy food chopper made famous by Pampered Chef, but ours is a cheap look alike from Ikea. We really need to get a Pampered Chef model, it is much easier to clean. Once done with all of this I woke up the chef and he practically runs to the kitchen, if only i could wake up like that!

Since all of the chopping is done, R.D. just had to gather the other ingredients and combine. When doing this he piled them all into a tall tower, it was so cute. The way he did this was child like, which was nice. From the moment R.D. could walk and talk he was a little man not really showing his childish side very often. But every now and then it peaks out, which I love. He is always making his cooking fun, even when under a bit of stress. Chef R.D. does start to stress and second guess himself, especially since the item is something we are bringing to an occasion. I guess this is the child like quality in him, but he did kept his cool this time by starting out fun. After combining all the ingredients R.D. began the pan frying.

After putting each crab cake into the pan he set the timer for 4 minutes. Once the buzzer rang he just needed me to stand there while he flipped. He knew they were done, but just needed that reassurance. The first few did not flip very well, with just a spatula. R.D. needed to have the spatula in one hand and another spoon in the other. Then once we figured this out and put the spatula in his left hand the flipping went very well. The crumbled cakes were great samples giving him confidence in his seasoning and Dad loved them too.

Meghan's house warming party was great, she got awesome gifts and is becoming a great hostess. Her parties will only get better from here, and I am sure R.D. is ready to help with the food.

After cooking 3 days in a row, this little man is getting tired of me saying I need a picture for the blog. Disclamer...the Patty's look burnt only in the picture, they came out fine.

July 4th BBQ

July 4th is a huge day for us, two of our four children have Birthday's in July so we always decorate and celebrate for the 4th. This 4th Kelly threw out her back and could not make her pork ribs first made famous by Chris Schlesinger of East Coast Grill. Our resident Chef R.D. stepped up to the plate and took on this daunting task.

After reading the recipe several times, R.D. got to work on the rub. We only had one guest this year (Grandma Connie a great chef in her own right) so only 3 slabs of ribs were needed. In the past Kelly has made 9 to 12 slabs, which were never served, the family stood around the BBQ and ate with out plates (savages). Even though I knew R.D. would be fine with the recipe, I think he took comfort in having Grandma with him in the kitchen. Every question he asked, R.D. knew the answer, I think he was just looking for reassurance. Soon Grandma became the sous-chef and R.D. put her to work chopping cilantro. Of course I eavesdropped on them in the kitchen, Grandma said that once RD makes it to television she will be his garden angel and go behind him cleaning up. R.D. said, "he would never have that, I will have "people" for that... like mama (ME!). Listening to them was very entertaining.


R.D. does well in the kitchen, like all the chefs on Food Network, he measures out all the ingredients and puts them into prep bowls. When doing this, more dishes for the dishwasher (Mama), but thank goodness we have a dishwasher. By doing this he really does not mess up many recipes. Which really helps me relax and I often do not think twice when having to purchase expensive ingredients.

R.D. had complete control of the food processor as he added ingredients and hit the pulse button. Once the rub was complete it was time to put it on the ribs. This was fun for R.D. and Grandma, it gave them a chance to laugh at his Aunt Mary Jean and myself, because the two of us do not like to touch raw meat. Once the slabs were ready into the oven they went for 3 hours.

After the hours upon hours of waiting and the house smelling of delicious melt in your mouth ribs, they were done. The next step is outside to the BBQ. They do not take very long on the grill, it is just getting the sauce to caramelize. For this step R.D. has to pass on the ribs and the sauce to his Dad. But, honestly I am not sure if he fully trusted Dad with the ribs. I am sure soon he will be taking command of even the outside kitchen.

All in all they were very good and R.D. was very proud of his work!

Beer Bread

R.D. decided to make a quick beer bread for Meghan and Scott's house warming party (older sister Meghan). The beer bread kit from Tastefully Simple was given to us and is quick and very good, we highly recommend it.

We were first introduced to this bread from Grandma Connie who often has a fresh loaf when ever we visit.

When deciding what beer to use, R.D. says I want a beer with hopps i want the bread to have hopps flavoring. I don't believe he knows what this means, probably a TV commercial. But, when he came upstairs with a Guinness, we said that might be a little to much hopps! R.D. decided to go with a Corona. It was a hit at the party, and everyone who ate the bread drove home responsibly!