Disney/Pixar Potluck fun

 After a long hiatus, the potluck dinners are back!

Jen's Crab Ragoons

Liz's Cheese Monsters, with a  Mickey pepper shake in the background

M3 and Emily's Cinderella Pumpkin dip, complete with Pumpkin coach

Jeremy's Lady in the Lake drink 

A Winne the Pooh dessert by Brooks (photo credit to Linz)

And sadly this is the best picture I got all of the entire food spread.  If you squint, you can almost see the hummus that Moira made, or Linz's leftover, err, I mean Disney Princess Cake.  I also failed to get pictures of the gumbo or meatballs or soup.   But rather than take responsibility for my lousy photography skills, I am going to blame Shanel.  All I did was follow the instructions on the bottle...

But who am I kidding, that helped make Disney Scene it a hell of a lot more fun.  Congratulations to "Russ" for winning the prize of the night!  

Highlight of the game:  Jen screaming BEDKNOBSANDBROOMSTICKS SUCK IT SUCK IT  so fast that some people completely missed she shouted out the right answer.

Team 3, looking quite intense

And lucky for me, there are no videos of me singing my heart out to Disney songs.  Pretty sure I could have given Big Momma a run for her money.  

And since a couple of you asked, I'm including the Ratatouille recipe.   (Adapted from The New York Times)

Ingredients for the piperade:

1/2 red pepper

1/2 yellow pepper

1/2 orange pepper

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1/2 cup finely diced yellow onion

3 tomatoes (about 12 ounces total weight - so you could be like me and just use one rather large one), peeled, seeded, and finely diced, juices reserved

1 sprig thyme

1 sprig flat-leaf parsley

1/2 a bay leaf

 Step 1:  I put the peppers into my toaster oven at 450 degrees for about 15 minutes -- the peppers skin began to loosen, and after they cooled I peeled them and then finely chopped them into tiny bits.

Step 2:
 Combine oil, garlic, and onion in medium skillet over low heat until very soft but not browned, about 8 minutes. Add tomatoes, their juices, thyme, parsley, and bay leaf. Simmer over low heat until very soft and very little liquid remains, but do not brown  (Note, here the website said this would take 10 minutes, but I must have had an extra juicy tomato, because it took me quite a bit longer.  Either that or my low heat was a tad too low). Add peppers and simmer to soften them (mine though were already pretty soft from the roasting). Season to taste with salt, and discard herbs. Reserve tablespoon of mixture and spread remainder in bottom of an 8-inch skillet. 

Now we skip over to the Veggie step.

Veggie Ingredients:
1 zucchini (4 to 5 ounces) sliced in 1/16-inch rounds
1 Japanese eggplant, (4 to 5 ounces) sliced into 1/16-inch rounds 
1 yellow squash (4 to 5 ounces) sliced into 1/16-inch rounds 
4 Roma tomatoes, sliced into 1/16-inch rounds 
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic 
2 teaspoons olive oil 
1/8teaspoon thyme leaves 
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Slicing all those things sounds like a major pain, but its not if you have a mandolin!

  
And in case you were wondering, we got ours on sale from HSN of all places.  Came recommended by Bon Appetite, and it cut all those slices with no problems at all.  

ANYWAY, the next step is to to arrange the slices in an alternating pattern around the pan.  Leave about 1/4 inch of each piece exposed.  Then mix the garlic, oil and tyme to drizzle on top of all of the veggies.  Cover with foil and then bake for 2 hours at 275 degrees.  Then uncover and bake for another 30 minutes (don't brown, so if it starts browning, put the foil LOOSELY on this time).  Then, if there is liquid left put it on the stove to cut that off.

At this point, you could save the dish for 2 days in the fridge...  or you could put on the oven to broil so you can brown the dish and then add the vinaigrette and actually eat it. 

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oi

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

Assorted fresh herbs (thyme flowers, chervil, thyme)

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.

For vinaigrette, combine reserved piperade, oil, vinegar, herbs (I used more thyme), and salt and pepper to taste in a bowl. Drizzle on top and you are ready to go!!