Chris: Hello, Phil.
Phil: Hello, Chris, how are you? My friend.
Chris: I'm doing well. I'm doing well. I am  actually pretty excited about today's episode.
Phil: Yeah, me too. It's definitely one of the more, daunting and exciting things that, that we're going to be doing on, on this podcast. Obviously we can't just talk about cooking. We have to actually cook. And so, We had this idea to pretend like we know what we're doing in the kitchen and just have a ton of fun with it and kind of expose all the ineptitude aptitudes that we have as cooks and also fathers, and just kinda see where it takes us.
And so this is, this is our first in the kitchen episode.
Chris: Yeah. And it will be a bit of an experiment. We're just going to wing it a little bit and see how this goes and kind of learn from it and refine. But I, I think there is something to just, uh, you know, diving in and, go into the kitchen and making something, I don't know how we can really become better cooks by just talking about it 
Phil: Yeah, because we're not the authority.
Chris: know, 
we're not the authority. And I think you're going to see that. And, just as it's an experiment, in format for us, I think it's also going to be an experiment. In the kitchen, I guess it's going to be a journey. I think we're going to see that I don't think that we want to present something.
That's, like a polished how to, I think it's a little bit more about, I guess about like getting comfortable in the kitchen and, just getting out there and doing it. so
Phil: Yeah. And in accordance with the journey, I'm excited to see where it takes us and where we end up on the other side.
Chris: Yeah, absolutely.
Phil: yeah. And so, kind of quick format on how this is going to go. for this particular episode, you have chosen a recipe and we are going to cut from the studio. Recording, which is what we're doing now into the kitchen.
And the, so it's going to sound a little bit different. Might not sound quite as polished. and it's who we are and I'm excited about it. So, Chris, what are we making today?
Chris: it seemed like a good place to start would be Ratatouille. it's the middle of summer as we're recording this and Ratatouille is, is a favorite summer dish of ours. that, 
Phil: and
kids love the
Chris: yeah, it's a, it's a great movie, but it's also like, you're, a really good way to get your kids excited about something that, you know, isn't Mac and cheese.
It's a little, a little bit out of their, their norm out of their comfort zone. And it's also good for them. Like it's. Just vegetables and we could all use some more vegetables in our lives. So for everybody following along, where can they find the recipe?
Phil: Yeah, so everybody that's listening in can follow along at dad's kitchen code.com. And we'd love to see how it goes for you as well.
Chris: Awesome. Well, let's get into it.
Phil: Let's do it.
Chris: we'll figure this out.  let's go for it. 
Phil: So what do we make it, Chris?
Chris: Ratatouille,
it's something that we just love in the summer. and actually , this week we got zucchini squash as well as tomatoes and a couple of other things in our CSA share. So it was, it was honestly like, perfect. 
I'm just going to go ahead and pre heat. My oven for 450. I'm assuming you haven't done that yet. Phil. See how mine does come on. So we've got a gas oven. That's been  acting up a little bit lately.
Phil: yeah, they have this new thing called had digital. I don't know if you're familiar with it, but you just push a few buttons and heat your oven right up.
Chris: Ours is the exact opposite of that.
The only thing digital about it is the clock that literally is only at a time or in a clock
okay. So. Uh, I got the oven going up four 50. Um, so to start off with, we're going to, um, basically dice some eggplant into kinda like half inch cubes and, uh, Those are going to go in that preheated oven once it's ready, but I'm going to go ahead and start with that. Um, yeah, the CSA,  that concept in general is really cool.
There's, so many issues that kind of surround all of that, that I've, I've learned about over the past few years, especially with being married to somebody that cares more about that. Um,
Phil: Yeah, for sure.
 are you familiar with. I believe they're called the victory gardens.
Chris: it sounds familiar, 
Phil: that, uh,  our government did. I want to say back in like world war one ish. And then, uh, I think they really gained traction in world war II. So basically during, during the war, um, Farmers were just completely overwhelmed with trying to provide foods for the troops. And so they, um, so the, so the government opened up this, uh, , kind of like garden plan that, that communities could, could do and to share.
And you can find that plan that they put out even today, if you just like Google it or whatever, I'm sure. If I can find something I'll, I'll put it on the show notes, but, uh, uh, um, yeah, it was just like, this is a basic plan. If you want to do your own garden, have, you know, these half a dozen or so vegetables, and here's how you do it.
Um, or if you wanna do a community garden with all your neighbors, Here's what you do. And just go share your food in it. It really boosted morale in the country, uh, because suddenly you could, you could have access to produce where, whereas before you couldn't, because the farmers were too busy.
So
 it just kinda reminds me a little bit that.
Chris: yeah, that's super interesting. Um,  one quick thing as I'm  cutting this.
 Uh, eggplant.  Um, I don't remember where I first heard it, but,   topping and tailing and then cutting it in half. So, I don't know if you're kind of familiar with  the idea of topping and tailing powder, just coming off  both ends really kind of the top of his tail.
And then if you cut it in half,  he ended up with  a really stable side to place the, the vegetable and then , cut it. So that's how I'm going about these, these cubes I took both of those off of the eggplant and then
sliced it. And, um, I'm gonna go ahead and just kinda cut those slices up into cubes.
Phil: Yeah. And for, for this eggplant, are we keeping the seeds part of the meal?
Chris: Uh, I would say so mine did doesn't really have that many seeds to be honest.
 Phil: It might be a regional thing. I've got a ton of season. Mine.
Mine looks like a pomegranate on the inside.

Yeah. So footnote, Chris is out in Colorado and I'm somewhere on the East coast, 
Chris: somewhere. And then undisclosed location
Phil: yeah. Um, you know, I think it's interesting, like with, with Ratatouille,  uh, I don't know about you, but my. Well, probably my first introduction to the, to the recipe was from the movie. Right. Everybody loves the movie. Great,
great film. 
Chris: a, it's a great movie.
Phil: yeah, I love it. Like you really cannot be too old to, to appreciate that film.
Um, I think I probably like it more than my kids. I'm always trying to it, you know, we're trying to figure out where we're going to watch it and I'll mention a CV and they're like, yeah, not again, dad, but I love that film. Um, and anyways, So their version of Ratatouille is just like slicing everything, super thin, all your vegetables, right. Which for the most part is probably going to be like zucchini, a tomato.  Um, obviously your egg plant, maybe some squash and everything is, is thinly sliced, and then layered kind of around your, your baking dish. And, and then baked with, you know, a bunch of seasonings and, you know, olive oil or whatever.
but that is not necessarily all that, that Ratatouille is. It can be really just kind of a smattering of everything chopped this way or that way. yeah, so that's kind of what we're doing. I feel like we're, we're, we're breaking. The molder from what I thought Ratatouille was, but actually this is Ratatouille exactly how we're making it.
It can be anything. So it's a, what's the word? Is it a provincial meal in France? Is that a word?
Chris: it is. Okay. So how are you coming on your eggplant there fell?
Phil: I'm good, man.
Chris: Um, yeah, I think the ingredients we've talked about those are on the recipe, which is in our show notes and on our blog. So how's your oven coming?
So
Phil: It's warming up my kitchen. That's for sure. Uh, we're there man. Four 50.
 Chris: Okay. Awesome. So, I just want to be able to dump my whole cutting board into, I dunno, like oftentimes they'll use like some type of a casserole dish, something, something heavy that it's like fine in the oven. Um, I'm actually using a Dutch oven on this just because it's easy and we love ours.
So those half inch cubes will just transfer into the either Dutch oven or a casserole dish.
Phil: Sure. And you can use a, you can even use a cast iron skillet if you'd like,
I did that one time or
another worked just fine. Didn't really have. A mini steaming capabilities, but it worked for what I had.
Chris: And then you just want to, uh, take take some olive oil and toss those. Cues in that just kind of get them covered.
Phil: yeah, you know, like the East coast egg plants with a lot of seas generally need a little more olive oil.

Chris: and then you'll, uh, uh, you'll just add some salt to taste. If you want
Phil: Okay.
 Chris: What type of salt do you guys typically use?
Phil: Cecil generally,
usually one that is daddy likes to grind. 
Chris: add standard 
fill. 
Phil: Um, it 
usually, if, if, uh, 
if the recipe calls for a really fine salt, I'll just, uh, use my mortar and pestle. 
One of my favorite utensils in the kitchen.
Chris:  yeah, we have, we have like a little bit of a coarser sea salt,  so the old insulted eggplant are just going to go into that preheated oven  uncovered in your roasted for 15 to 20 minutes. So I'm going to go ahead and put mine in.

Phil: Get a little toasty in here. I think I just got a free facial.
Chris: Yeah. That's somewhere in the kitchen, our kitchen when we don't have AC. Geez. Okay. So, um, After that we are going to go ahead and cook some other things, Phil, I don't know what I'm doing.
 
Yes. Um, so the onions that are cause for, um, you know, it's something like two medium onions or so three quarters
bound. That's along those lines. Those are going to be, if you're using onions, I feel like thinly sliced is better than diced in this dish. , we got leaks in our CSA, so I'm going to go ahead and use those instead of
Phil: And  when you're not using leaks, Do you, do you typically peel your onion before you cut it down the middle?
Chris: down the middle. Yes with onions. I like, I still like to top and tail it and then I feel it personally. And then I'll 
Phil: Yeah. I just know some people that peel the onion entirely before they even slice it.
Chris: yeah, no, I, I definitely I'll. I'll like cut off both ends of it. 
Um, 
and then I'll appeal it. That gives you like something to grab, but a little trick that I learned from my wife  is that like, with the layers of the leak, they can pick up some dirt. So cutting those and then, uh, soaking those in a little bit of, uh, of water. Really can like take that dirt out the layers. 
Phil: Typically do that with a  berries. It's amazing how much, how much dirt comes off, like a strawberry it's from the grocery store, you know?
It's always so good before you, before you dive in,
Chris: And I'm talking like, I know what I'm doing, but I really don't half of this. I'm just making up as I
Phil: we are the authority, Chris. We have a podcast,
Chris: Yup. Uh,
Phil: we got approved by Apple,
Chris: so, 
Hey, did you, do, did you set a timer for when we put those, uh,  
Phil: No, and I, I never do timers.
Chris: Because I didn't either. 
I actually, 
I really liked dive washes and that's like the only time I use the bezel on them, 
uh, 
is to set timers when I'm usually grilling. But you know, with this as well.  Okay. So how are your onions Coatesville?
Phil: I'm just thinly slicing them, you know? Having some fun.
 So fun fact about me. I spent a good seven years selling hot dogs at home Depot. That's actually where Chris and I got to know each other. He , would you usually come by with some soda, red bull, whatever, 
and 
Chris: 100% of the time red bull. .
Phil: Yeah, it's true. That in Pablo Escobar, Anyways, we, we cut a lot of onions in that job cause we would saute them in top of the brought worst with a grilled onion and it was delicious. And I don't know, maybe we'll do an episode on how to, how to properly saute an onion and the right seasonings for it.
So I feel like that's maybe one thing I know how to do 
Chris: Yes. 
And then, uh,  
Uh, I think one thing on that, eggplant, she's, that's hot. It's just, it can be stirred occasionally you to keep it from sticking with a lot of, you know, just check it while you're in there doing that as well. 
Phil: So we're just gonna throw these onions in a pan and kinda. Kind of render them, if you will.
Chris: So yeah, those onions or leaks we're just going to go ahead and, um, Throw those in  some type of heavy skillet, like he was cast iron or, um, that's what I'm using actually is a Capstar or like heavier pan and, just toss those in a little bit of oil as well.
And, um, but those over like a medium heat or so, was. That I've kind of learned through a couple of different sources, um, in terms of cooking vegetables. And I felt like it gave me like a good frame of reference for why you cook vegetables is,  I don't know, like felt like how would you describe like the reasoning behind cooking vegetables?
Phil: texture.   
Chris: Yes. A hundred percent actually,
Phil: Nice. Ooh. 
Chris: virtual high five, um, because like unlike meat or something like that vegetables. Aren't the type of thing that you can't eat raw. Um, obviously there are exceptions to the meat thing, sushi and whatnot.  Um, but yeah,  you're cooking a vegetable. For a specific level of tenderness. And so like really, that's kind of in a way, like up to you. Uh, so with the onions, you know, you're, you're looking for, it's a soften something, I don't think quite caramelized, but you know, like something that like loses its shape. So it's about five minutes or so. , I don't know what I'm doing. I'm just making this up as I go.
They can definitely remember to check that in there where he's going to stop the Mozambique.
Phil: Starting to smell good.
Chris: There's nothing better than the smell of onions
on the favorites.
That's getting cut. Okay. So, well, while those onions are starting to go, you definitely want to like keep steering on for the doubt, um, burn or criminalized too much. do you have peppers? You have peppers, don't you
Phil: yeah, you got a good medley. Get some sweet peppers.
 Chris: yeah.
Every time we make gratitude, we pretty much just do. Is to Kini eggplant tomatoes. So that's another place where we're going to differ a little bit. Um, but yeah, often, oftentimes it has made with pepper. So, um, at this point, you're going to want to go ahead and start to prep those peppers. I'm just going to cut it into slices.
Phil: And really, I mean, somebody like mushrooms, they could, they could throw mushrooms in their attitude. Right. I mean, it's
just kind of whatever is available. I mean, that's kind of the. The background, 
it wasn't until the movie that it got fancy. So.
I don't know about you, but I'm kind of a big fan of the color of my meals. And I like to keep a good balance. So since this recipe calls for a fair amount of tomato, I actually cut down a little bit on the red pepper and went a little heavier on the green and the orange pepper. You could also use a yellow,
so you use the red pepper, but just not as much as the others. Just to kind of bounce it out a little bit.
Chris: Yeah. We're kind of in about 15 minutes in with the eggplant. So,  uh, you know, we're just looking for something that's lightly browned and has like your,  uh, a nice, he can smell it when you open the oven. That's usually 15 to 20 minutes or so still going on that. I'm in another, another couple of minutes on mine. I feel like my leaks are kind of getting there.
So Phil, once, once you have your,  peppers,  um, you can go ahead and. Stir those in, uh, we might, we might want to salt that at this point. Um, . And while we're doing that, we can go ahead and prep the garlic.
Um, and then it's called for a fair, fair bit of garlic. Um, I just feel like, I do think with like. Four to six close or so he usually works well.
Phil: Yeah, for sure. Big fan over here.
Chris:  I feel like when I'm using garlic anyway, it's kind of the same thing as with onions. I tend to really like peel it after I've talked, entailed it. So it's definitely not, definitely not an minced garlic, garlic slice thing.
Phil: Yeah. I think I do garlic a little bit differently. I, I do peel it before I,  uh, before I cut into it, but I. I kind of give it a squeeze my hands a little bit and kind of, kind of fracture the, body of it, if you will.
And then that kind of allows me to just peel it right off. It's pretty good. Usually works best with dry hands. And then with my garlic, I like to, smash it with the. The Palm of my hands were like the wrist. What is that called?
Chris: Like a heel of here, 
Phil: Yeah. Yeah. And I just to smash it, press it down hard and then throw it in there. Kind of get out the essential oils a little bit.
Chris: Okay, so about now I think my plants just about done were like 15 to 20 minutes. And so, um, I'm going to go ahead and take that out of the oven and just let it sit Um, you know, we roasted it uncovered, but we're gonna throw it on or something and, uh, Just let it kind of steam for a little bit.  the thing. When you pull something out of the oven at 450 degrees, it's hot.
 Phil: Jeanette using of that 
Chris:  I did. And then I grabbed it once I set it down and took that out and that's off.
  Yeah, I'm fine. Need a second.
that was hot.
Phil: I'm sorry, laughing.   first episode, man, like first in the
kitchen episode.
Chris: I have a tip for this, this recipe. When you take whatever's in the oven out, don't touch it with your bare hands. 
Phil: no. I think my CO's is down and out.   
Chris: Okay. I'm good. Push through this. wait, do you know where we left off?
 Phil: um, well we need to season our Ratatouille and if we're going to be adding any zucchini, this might be a good time.
Chris: I feel like burns are one of my least favorite thing in the world. 
Phil: I mean, I don't think I've met anyone that likes them.
Chris: So that garlic that was sliced thin, like you're going to just toss that in there, uh, uh, with peppers and onions,  um, really with the garlic super quick, we're just kind of softening that a little bit. We can throw some salt and pepper in there. Get that seasoned and go on. Smells so good.
Phil: the S is that, is it the burning flesh that you're smelling?
Chris:  Maybe because he, as soon as I put my fingers over the heat hit 
Phil: Oh, it's peppers. Chase. Amazing. 
Chris: I feel like this is going fantastically until I decided to forget what I was doing.
Phil: okay. So did you want me to like maybe try to step in and help you out a little bit?
Chris: Why not? Honestly, I'm struggling.
Phil: So what's the peppers and onions have been seasoned well with salt and pepper, and we've got a garlic in there. Uh, Uh, we're actually gonna transfer that over to our casserole dish or a Dutch oven or whatever it is that you're using. Make sure you grab a hot pad 
Chris: Cause if you didn't hear the last several times, we talked about that, burn myself, trying to grab the thing that just came out of the oven.
Phil: So I'm just going to dump all my peppers and onions directly into the casserole with the eggplant, and then using the same pan that had all the peppers and onions in it.  
Chris: Phil. I give up on life tonight.
Phil: just for =contrast. Cause I'm a big fan of contrasting shapes and colors and all that fun stuff. I'm actually just slicing these and keeping them around, but you can cube them. You can chop them, you can kind of do whatever you want.
  uh, look to how you did your eggplant if you want.  Yeah. I'll toss them in there.
 Chris: So I was using a side towel to grab my skillet and My finger slipped off the towel.
Phil: Oh, no way, And then I actually kind of feel badly for you. Oh, here's a fun fact when using a towel to grab a hot dish, make sure it's dry because water is a conductor of heat  and you'll burn your hands. So I am a
softening, my zucchini.
Yup. 
Chris: might, as you can see is still not soft. 
Phil: Here's why I don't feel sorry for Chris that he burned his hand. Some years ago, we're going to say 12 or 13 years ago, we went skiing
in Breckenridge. And I went over this job. I think I was snowboarding and Christmas skiing and I, I just wanted to catch some air. So was jumping my legs on upon liftoff, went out from underneath me and I.
Flipped over on my back, got to get probably like seven or eight feet of air. The landed directly on my upper back And it really hurt knocked the wind out of me lost like all my equipment, a snowbird went flying. when I finally came to and realized what had just happened, I realized that I wasn't the only one that couldn't breathe.
Chris couldn't breathe because he was laughing at me and he could not stop. And that really hurt me physically and emotionally. So
Okay. So I have since transferred my zucchini over to the casserole dish with the peppers. I mean, it was an eggplant.
and now it's time to season it with some other stuff other than salt and pepper. I'm going to throw in a Bailey for two, do a pincher to have some time I'm just using drive. We do have some time out in the garden, but it rained quite a bit today. So I don't really want to go out and get soggy as they say, in Britain and last but not least, we need some tomato. So Chris, I noticed that this recipe called for peeled and seeded tomatoes  and I have never appealed a tomato. So I'm curious to know what you did or if like me, you just bought, I can't appealed Tomatoes. So I have my Baileys, my Ragen out time. Chopped tomatoes. Got a good bit of juice than the tomato that's going to help this recipe kind of steam a little bit more  So I'm going to maybe deviate from this recipe just a little bit since I'm back in the casserole dish. I'm going to throw that casserole dish back into the oven 50, for 20 or 30 minutes with this really kind of cook. Whereas it seems like you can also do this last step on a skillet over.
Over maybe some medium to low heat. So, but I'm just going back to the other. It's easier.
Let this bad boy heat up in the oven for a bit more. And we've got some Ratatouille.
Chris: So how do we finish this thing?
Phil: Oh boy. I mean, we could,
we could just like, pretend like it's done.
Chris: we should. 
Phil: That's a wrap.
Chris:  Oh, okay. Phil. So that was an interesting first episode.
Phil: It was something
Chris: Yeah. 
Phil: super fun. That was awesome. How's your 
Chris: it was, it was a ton of fun. Um, For the most part and then it hurt a lot. my, my hand is healing. the, the blisters have kind of gone down a bit. but I think it's, it's a great illustration of the fact that we, we really aren't.
Experts at this. And we're just, trend to get better along with everybody else. We're kinda all in this journey together. so I think it's important that we leave all this in.
Phil: please don't take this the wrong way, but I'm so glad you burned yourself. I mean easy for me 
Chris: thanks. Thanks for calling.
Phil: I would have burned myself if you hadn't, maybe you'll just burn myself for fun. I don't know, but no, seriously, like, burns heal, you know, and we get better and we're gonna figure this out. But I think that the really cool thing about,  what happened with that recipe is that. Ratatouille is actually really difficult to screw up because at the end of the day, it's really just taking a bunch of vegetables and applying heat. And that's kind of what the, what the background of Ratatouille was. And, you know, like this rural, provincial, France, it was just taking what you had and making a meal out of it. And that's kind of what we're doing here. Dad's kitchen. this is what we have to offer. And. Hope you like it.
Chris: I think there's something to, to that. And, I know it's something that I've mentioned a few times, but I did have this, preconceived idea that. Cooking was a very, very exact science and it had to be done perfectly, otherwise everything had to be thrown out and, this recipe and this, this experience, reminding myself of the things that come out of and are really hot, 
Phil: Naturally 
Chris: Who'd have thought, Oh, highlights the fact that, yeah. Might not be the case. I don't know. There there's a lot more grace and forgiveness and room for room for error and in all of this, then maybe 
my slightly, yeah, slightly perfectionistic self might've thought before, because you know, I burned myself halfway through this and fell apart.
 Phil. I think you finished your whole, dish before I got through like the next step or two after I burned myself. And, I was convinced it was. Not worthy of finishing. I should just throw it away. I did end up like really quickly wrapping it up and rushing through the last few steps and throwing it all together and letting it simmer for half hour 45 minutes or so.
And I was talking with my wife and she's just like, I, I think we should just order a pizza or something. Cause like this is going to be terrible. I just. Totally messed it up and she's like, no, it smells really good. Let's go take a look. and when I went down and looked at it, it actually looked great.
It didn't look bad at all. And we, we had dished some out into some, bowls, fried a couple of eggs, threw those on top. And it was honestly pretty decent. 
Phil: does awesome. We can. We could do an entire episode on all the different things you could, throw a Friday on top of.
Yeah. But no, like if cooking has to be this exact science, then we have, we have just broken science. Right. I mean, the dish ended up amazing and. Maybe one kind of cool thing with this recipe specifically Ratatouille is that you, you can't do it a lot of different ways. for example, I actually didn't end up eating throughout a two, then I made it, I wanted to make it for my kids and they were already in bed by the time we recorded that episode.
And so, we, we just put it in the refrigerator and, heated it up for lunch the next day. And it was amazing, which by the way, I feel like a lot of tomato based recipes are always better the next day. Like you never eat chili the day you make it.   unless you're a psychopath,
yeah. Okay. Another episode idea right there. Sorry. I got us off topic there, but you, you get what I'm saying? Like there's just so many different ways you can make a recipe like this. There, there is no rubric for it. And we want to know how you've been making yours.
Chris: Yeah, Phil. I, I think you're totally right. There really are so many different ways to go about making this. And, and honestly it feels like that's one of the reasons that makes this, a great recipe to maybe dive in and start with, if you are just getting into, cooking for your family or yourself it's a dish that, has a lot of variety super forgiving as I.
demonstrated. And, you know, it, punches above its weight. It feels fancier than it actually really is. 
Phil: Yeah,
it's like this French word. The. Maybe didn't know how to pronounce until the movie came out.
Chris: yeah. So don't be afraid to dive in on this one and give it a go. 
Phil: And we want to, we want to see the different ways that you've been making yours. So please follow along on the conversation. Check us out on Instagram. Dad's kitchen co check us out on Facebook at dad's kitchen and then check it, check out the blog. I think we've got some. Pretty fun and exciting things that are unfolding there on the blog.
And we want you to be a part of it. Go to dad's kitchen, co.com.
Chris: Thanks for, uh, putting up with my little mishaps here and there.
Phil: don't worry. Sure. The next time I'll probably hack off a limb or something.
Chris: I'll be sure to laugh at you when you do.
Phil: Okay. 
Chris: Alright. Well, we'll talk to you as well,
Phil: All right, man. Have a good
Chris: and that's it.
Phil: Alright, have a good one.
Chris:  Good too. 
Phil: Oh boy.