Have you heard about the movie "Ratatouille" where a rat dreams of becoming a French chef? The Pixar movie is coming out June 29, and I know many food bloggers are looking forward to it.

What the heck is ratatouille anyway? (And no it’s not a dish made from rat – pleeeeease!) My French mom calls any kind of stew made from vegetables a ratatouille – especially when she cooks up those weird veggies from the Asian market. In actuality, it’s a traditional French Provençal stewed vegetable dish that can be served as a meal or as a side dish.

It’s featured in Usborne’s 30 Healthy Things to Cook and Eat pack of recipe cards. (If your child loves to cook – or you want to encourage them to cook something but cupcakes – get this! It has large, thick cardboard recipe cards. It’s simple but nutritious recipes make it terrific for kids six and up.)

Combine going to see the movie with cooking up a batch of ratatouille with your family. Maybe you use some of the vegetables or herbs in your garden. Or plan a shopping trip to a local produce stand or farmer’s market for the ingredients. Have the kids write up or draw their own shopping list.

Try some ratatouille on crusty French bread or with grilled meat or fish. Experiment by putting it with plain pasta or spooning it on to a baked potato.

Ratatouille
Serves 4

Ingredients:

1. 1 lb. of ripe tomatoes (about 4 medium ones)
2. 2 onions
3. 3 zucchini
4. 1 eggplant (weighing about 1 lb.)
5. 1 yellow or red pepper
6. 3 Tbsp. olive oil
7. 1 garlic clove, crushed
8. 1/2 tsp. dried oregano (or Italian seasoning)
9. 1/2 can (3 oz. tomato paste)
10. a pinch of salt and pepper
11. 8 large basil leaves ripped into small pieces

Directions:

1. Cut a cross into the bottom of each tomato. Put them into a heatproof bowl, then fill a second bowl with cold water.
2. Cover the tomatoes with boiling water. After 2 minutes, use a spoon to put them into the cold water for 2 minutes.
3. Life the tomatoes out, peel them and cut them into quarters.
4. Peel the onions, cut them in half and then chop them finely.
5. Cut the ends off the zucchini, then cut them in half lengthways. Cut them into strips, then cut them into chunks.
6. Cut up the eggplant the same way.
7. Cut the ends off the pepper and remove the seeds. Then cut it into thin strips.
8. Put the oil and onions into a large saucepan. Cook them over low heat for about 10 minutes, until the onions are soft.
9. Add the vegetables, garlic, seasoning, tomato paste, salt and pepper to the onions in the pan. Stir everything well.
10. Cook the ratatouille (keep stirring) on medium heat for about 3 minutes. Then turn down the heat, so that it is bubbling gently.
11. PUt a lid onto the pan. (Lift the lid and stir it every now and then.) Cook the ratatouille for 20 minutes, then remove the lid and cook it for 10 minutes. Stir in the bail. Serve.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the color theme at A Readable Feast, and that it gave you some ideas of introducing color into reading and cooking. And now let’s tackle the color black.

Black beans are a terrific source of fiber and are loaded with antioxidants. There is little difference in the nutritional value of canned black beans and those you cook yourself from dried beans, so go for the convenience of canned when making recipes like these:

Mango-Black Bean Salad
Serves: 4
15 minutes prep and cook time

Ingredients:

1. 2 medium cans black beans
2. 4 mangoes, peeled and diced
3. 2 cups cooked corn kernels (from cob or frozen)
4. 1 cup minced parsley or cilantro
5. 1 cup chopped scallions
6. 2 red peppers, diced
7. 1 cup olive oil
8. 1/2 cup balsamic or wine vinegar

Directions:

1. Open cans, drain beans, mix with vegetables.
2. Combine oil and vinegar. Mix all together.
3. Can be served with warmed tortillas.

Options: Add diced tomatoes when they’re in season. Pineapple, if you’re in the mood.

Other Kid Friendly Black Bean Recipes:

• Beef and Black Bean Chili with Cornbread
• Black Bean Soup
• Mexican Tortillas with Black Beans and Salsa Fresca
• Black Bean Pie
• Black Beans with Sweet Potatoes and/or Butternut Squash on Wild Rice

What is it about beets? I don’t know about your family, but my husband, our kids, and my nephews Adam and Oliver – who we are visiting this week in Switzerland – just love them. Pickled, roasted, it doesn’t matter. But somehow getting pickled beets out of a can or jar just doesn’t seem that wholesome.

So why not make your own with this recipe from Elise at Simply Recipes (and while you’re at it, please check out Elise’s site. It’s food blogging at its best.)

Pickled Beats
Serves four (or two very hungry nephews)

Ingredients:

1. 1 bunch (4 or 5) beets (make sure they are big – nothing worse than trying to get the skin off a bunch of little beets)
2. 1/4 cup cider vinegar
3. 1 Tbsp sugar
4. 1 Tbsp olive oil
5. 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
6. Salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Remove greens from beets, save for future use (See Elise’s beet greens recipe. However, I like to steam them and add cider vinegar. Or if I’m making borscht, I just add them to the pot.)
2. Cut beets to uniform sizes so they will cook evenly. (You remove the peels after you cook them – much easier!)
3. Steam or boil around 30 minutes or until done. (Alternatively, you can roast them by wrapping them whole in foil and cooking them in a 350°F oven for about an hour.) A fork easily inserted into the beet will tell you if the beets are done or not.
4. Drain the beets, rinsing them in cold water. Use your fingers to slip the peels off of the beets. The peels should come off easily. Discard the peels and slice the beets.
5. Make the vinaigrette by combining the cider vinegar, sugar, olive oil, and dry mustard. Whisk ingredients together with a fork. The dry mustard will help to emulsify the vinaigrette. Adjust spices and add salt and pepper to taste.
6. Combine beets and vinaigrette in a bowl and allow to marinate for a half hour at room temperature.

And while we’re enjoying Elise’s purple pickled beets, let’s hang out with Harold and the Purple Crayon or Scholastic’s Harold and the Purple Crayon… and More Harold Stories on DVD.

It’s hard to believe that Harold and that purple crayon of his has been around for 50 years. The stories still inspire children to use their imagination and art to inspire them. Now where’s that purple crayon of mine?

Like many preschoolers, my daughter Lucie is beginning to recognize letters. One way we’re helping her learn is by using Usborne’s ABC Flashcards from the Farmyard Tales series of stories.

But thinking outside the box – that is a recipe box – for a moment, take a look at My A to Z Recipe Box: An Alphabet of Recipes for Kids by Hilary Shevlin Karmilowicz. Each letter has a recipe card, plus the set also comes with 26 fill-in cards to add your favorite recipes, and 50 stickers to rate the them.

Each recipe has clear, simple steps that children can easily follow. They come with fun facts plus serving suggestions. While cooking up these tasty healthy dishes, children can practice skills like following directions and measuring while learning their letters. Kid tested, this recipe box is for ages four to eight.

Since today is Lucie’s fourth birthday, we’ll do the “L” recipe card:

Lovely Lemon Hummus

Ingredients:

1. 2 large garlic cloves
2. 15-ounce can of chickpeas
3. 1/2 cup nonfat yogurt
4. 4 Tbsp. lemon juice
5. 1 tsp. ground cumin
6. 1/2 tsp. salt
7. 6 pieces of whole wheat pita bread

Directions:

1. Please put on your apron and wash your hands. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Grind the garlic cloves in the food processor.*
3. Add the chickpeas and yogurt to the food processor bowl and blend until a smooth puree forms. Occasionally stop the food processor and scrape the sides of the bowl with the spatula.*
4. Use the spatula to scrape the hummus into the small bowl.
5. Stir in the lemon juice, cumin, and salt.
6. Cut each piece of pita bread into fourths.*
7. Service the bowl of hummus with the plate of pita wedges for dipping.

*An adult helper should handle this step.

I finished reading all the Laura Ingalls Wilder books last month, including A Little House Traveler: Writings from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Journeys Across America, which was about her travels as an adult.

I highly recommend the Little House books, especially when your children are taking video games, fast food, and computers for granted. I loved reading about pioneer times, and the daily lives of the Ingalls and Wilders. I was especially interested in how they ate, since the gathering of food and cooking took of most of their time.

One dish that sounded especially appealing is Almanzo Wilder’s favorite fried apples and onions that is mentioned in Farmer Boy.  This should be easy to make on a modern stove, and would go well with a roast or a baked chicken. The recipe comes from The Little House Cookbook: Frontier Foods from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Classic Stories. As Barbara M. Walker writes:

This is a “country” dish, seldom mentioned in cookbooks but recalled by many old timers. Some feel sugar is essential; others call it a “sin.” If you share Almanzo’s enthusiasm you might also like to try fried apples’n'onions with fried potatoes for breakfast sometime.

Fried Apples’N'Onions
Servings: 6

Ingredients:

1. 1/2 lb bacon or salt pork
2. 2 lb yellow onions (about 6)
3. 2 lb tart apples, chopped (about 6)
4. 2 tbsp brown sugar

Directions:

1. Fry bacon slices in 12-inch skillet until brown and crisp. Set aside on a warm serving platter. While meat is frying, peel onions, leaving stems to hold for slicing. To prevent your eyes from watering, hold a slice of bread in your teeth while you slice the onions asthin as possible. Discard stems.
2. Core apples and cut crosswise in circles about 1/4-inch thick. Apple skins help the slices hold their shape and add color to the dish, so don’t peel unless skins are tough or scarred.
3. Drain all but 1 Tbsp fat from skillet, then add onion slices. Cook over medium-high heat about 3minutes. Cover with apple slices in an even layer. Sprinkle brown sugar over all, cover skillet, and cook until tender, a few minutes more. Stir only to prevent scorching. Remove to warm plate with bacon slices.

Now off to the library website to reserve fellow ClubMom blogger Melissa Whiley’s books about Laura’s maternal grandmother, Charlotte Tucker Quiner Holbrook and her Scottish great-grandmother, Martha Morse Tucker. So many books, so little time…