Ratatouille

Oh its out! The one movie that embodies all of our food bloggers passion, but if only we were a rat!
And what better to way to celebrate than with French food. A genre of dishes that I rarely ever decide to make. I have adopted an Italian heritage and try to avoid cream and butter. I respect Julia Child for her great knowledge and life, but besides her desserts, I've never made anything from Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
So with the release of Ratatouille, I decided what better to celebrate than with the famous dish and croque madam from Gourmet with all my girlfriends just like I had in theaters.
I looked in to my Joy of Cooking and found Ratatouille, a vegetable dish. I started with the eggplant and zucchini, which almost over filled the saute pan. The suggestion of a dutch oven seemed accurate, but I don't have one. Then I go through the list, onions, red bell peppers, garlic, tomatoes, I cook them all. I add the thyme and let the vegetables cook down.
At the same time I'm making the gravy like sauce for the croque madame. The milk didn't boil and explode, which was my only worry. Oh and it tasted good, the nutmeg really added to it. Plus the gruyere cheese, so wonderful, especially paired with the dijon mustard.
It was all devoured and we gladly watch the movie, laughing and smiling.
Croque Madame can be found on epicurious.com. My only suggestion is to serve them individually to people, like it says. You can't make a batch and then serve them.