Debbie and I cooked together Friday night, she just back from10 days on the road.

We had a boatload of veggies of different kinds, including the “stretch” eggplant, old cauliflower, a big zucchini (supposed to be less tender, per Debbie and others), a package of pre-sliced mushrooms.

So Debbie suggests we make ratatouille, which I look up in Mark Bittman.  He says it’s a pretty loosey-goosey dish, very tolerant of variations.  Debbie agrees.  This only redoubles my Monk-ish wish to exactly follow orders, so I follow Mark as closely as I can.  Unfortunately, I forget to put in tomatoes which, Debbie tells me afterward during criticism-and-self-criticism, is one of the anchor tenants of the dish’s flavor.  Oh well.  It was kind of bland, although the textures were pretty good.

She put in some crushed tomatoes from a open box, and we’ll try them this morning with scrambled eggs.