My Little Ratatouille

To prevent having Sammy think I'm referring to him as a rat, I've been calling him my little Ratatouille. But the real reason for the name was that it took me almost all of the meal preparation time to remember Remy's name! Nevertheless, my little Ratatouille was a star last night. He had a front row seat with Chefs Brewer, and he enjoyed nearly every moment of it. Rotating between the baby carrier and the bumbo seat, he was happy to watch the workings in the kitchen. Ratatouille and I manned ingredient retrieval duty, as well as food processor and snow pea trimming duty, to keep the little boy away from anything dangerous, while John took charge of all work involving exposed knives or fire.

Last night we all (since Sammy's help was essential) cooked Barbequed Pork Fried Rice and even prepped ingredients for a couple other meals this week! It was our first time cooking brown rice in the rice cooker. We've rarely had brown rice in the past, but I read that if you double the amount of water that you'd normally use for white rice, the rice cooker can also cook brown rice. We gave it a try, and it worked well. It just takes quite a bit more time for it to finish compared to how long white rice normally cooks.

We enjoyed the flavors in this meal. We were hesitant about adding ketchup to the mixture for the pork but did it anyway, and it helped with the BBQyness of the pork.