A better ratatouille

So I attempted ratatouille last fall and it was okay, but it made a lot and I got sick of I finished it off. Also, I'm not a huge fan of squash/zucchini/eggplant (haha, which is what ratatouille is) unless they are sliced very thinly so you don't notice their texture. Or at least that's what I learned when I made ratatouille last fall.

So I followed this recipe because Smitten Kitchen does everything well.

But I made obvious grad student changes, for instance, I don't have an oval pan. So I put it in an 8x8, which was too small so I layered a layer of tomato puree (with a little olive oil, the chopped onion and thinly sliced garlic mixed in), then the extremely thinly sliced eggplant, zucchini, squash, and red pepper rings. So I put another layer of puree with some salt and pepper, rosemary, and thyme (I used powdered thyme before remembering that my roommate had leftover fresh thyme), another layer of veggies and topped with fresh thyme. Baked for about 45 minutes and yay! I will only eat it if all the veggies are covered with tomato sauce though so I just kind of mushed it up and serve it on quinoa. A nice healthy dinner, which of course, merits dessert :)

I made peach cookies for the class I TA today. They were more like cake than cookies, so that might be looking into making a peach cake in the future. Then again, I always say this, but never repeat a recipe to make it better, I just stick to my classics when I actually need to serve it to people, which is the only time I make most of these bigger things like cake or pans of brownies. Man, I wish I saw my friends often enough (and could afford) to make all this food.