Testing, Breakfast and Clean Sweep

Operation Clean Sweep continues. We’re 10 days in and I must say we’re eating pretty well. Over the weekend, I made ratatouille. Ratatouille makes a lot. Period. It freezes well and it works very well for a covered dish meal because it’s delicious anywhere from room temperature to piping hot. I had a half batch sitting in my fridge, waiting for consumption after I made it for a church covered dish dinner about 2 weeks ago. One batch makes enough for 2 large roasting pans full, so it’s a great make it once, eat it twice thing. I baked and ate a bowl of the the second round of ratatouille Saturday night while the boys were visiting their dad. We reheated it on Monday night and ate it with a loaf of multi grain take and bake bread with melted Gouda or cheddar

Ratatouille
• 1 Medium eggplant – diced to ½ inch
• 2 small zucchini - diced to ½ inch
• 1 red pepper - diced to ½ inch
• 2 handfuls baby carrots – yellow if you can find them
• 1 large onion diced to ¼ inch
• 1 leafy rib of celery sliced
• 2-3 cloves garlic minced
• Leaves from a 10-12 in sprig of rosemary.
• 4 14 Oz cans fire roasted tomatoes
• Freshly ground pepper to taste

Chop all fresh vegetables. Mix in a gallon freezer bag. Pour half the mixture into a large roasting pan stir in 2 cans of tomatoes. Roast, covered at 400 for 45-50 minutes. Seal the other half of the mixture in the freezer bag and save for later. When baking the frozen batch, add the tomatoes just before baking. The acid in the tomatoes will react with the other vegetables and alter their flavor and taste.

The first 9 weeks benchmark testing had the audacity of falling in the middle of Operation Clean Sweep. I’m not egocentric enough to think that this was an intentional derailment. It’s more of a statement of my ability to allow things to sneak up on me. Benchmarks are end of 9 weeks final exams for elementary students and practice for the End of Grade tests. They make a huge deal about these tests because a lot of kids really struggle with them. Last year during testing, I started making elaborate breakfasts for KWEE 1. He was a third grader and in his first year of grade level testing and also taking gifted admission tests. He passed all with flying colors. He’s the original KWEE as the older, but truly is a 10 year old connoisseur who is fun to feed.

KWEE 1 really liked the special breakfast thing for test days, so we’re doing it, for Benchmarks, too. We went on a cruise, last year where he discovered his favorite breakfast -Eggs Benedict. What’s not to like. Okay, don’t answer that if you’re a picky eater, okay? It’s yummy. Try it. I had never made hollandaise sauce or poached an egg before the day he wanted them last year during end of grade tests. I managed quite nicely, thanks to various Julia Child cookbooks, though. Everyone needs one, but a word to the wise about using a JC cookbook, sit down and read the recipe from start to finish, and perhaps even write down step by step notes on the process. She provides an ample wealth of information, but it’s hard to scan her prose for how much vinegar to add to the poaching water to help the eggs coagulate quickly.

KWEE 1 asked for Eggs Benedict, for Wednesday morning. But they weren’t Operation Clean Sweep compliant. We don’t have any lemons or Canadian bacon in the house, so Eggs Benedict will just have to wait for a Saturday when I have lots of time and a clean kitchen to start with. Tuesday morning, breakfast was cranberry orange scones, for KWEE 2 – who as a kindergartener doesn’t have the tests, but is having a rough go of kindergarten, this week. He’s in a Spanish immersion class where the teacher speaks Spanish with them, exclusively. The teachers and administrators warned us at the beginning of the year that the kindergarteners all go through a period of frustration and exhaustion before Christmas. He hit his wall, last week, so I’m working triple time pumping him up with can-do spirit and soothing treats. I'm probably creating unhealthy emotional eaters - or maybe not.

While the very dirty KWEE took baths after an afternoon of playing in the rubber mulch playground, I made dessert which had to be fast and completely out of the food at hand. Dessert was a lovely sweet and salty chocolate concoction.

Sweet and Salty Chocolate Concoction – ready in under 30 minutes.

• 6 oz Good quality Bitter Sweet Chocolate chips – melted in the microwave.
• 10 saltine cracker roughly broken
• 3 T Dry dregs of natural chunky peanut butter from the bottom of the jar, where it didn’t get mixed with the oil well. Well mixed peanut butter would be too smooth and messy. roughly broken into balls
• Handful of dried sweetened cranberries

Spread an even layer of cracker pieces, peanut butter chunks and cranberries on a piece of wax paper (if you have time to wait for the chocolate to harden. If you don’t have time for the chocolate to cool, put it in small baking dish 8x8 or so works fine. Spread the chocolate over the top of the crumb mixture. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but you want chocolate to touch every chunk to bind it all together. Cool at room temperature or in the freezer or fridge until set. Break into chunks and enjoy.