Local chef offers dish to capitalize on hit movie
Have you had your ratatouille yet?
The stewed vegetable dish made famous by the animated Disney movie of the same name has been on display at past Batavia farmers market weekends, compliments of Jason Stoffels, owner of Enticing Cuisine in Batavia.
Kids apparently liked the movie, which is still showing in some theaters, but how did they like the dish?
"The kids who tried it were about half and half," said Stoffels. "Depending on the kids, I had a couple who said yuck right away, and a couple who thought it was pretty good."
The dish features eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, bell peppers, onions, tomatoes and fresh garlic.
"I have been doing cooking demonstrations at the market and the ratatouille wasn't something that drew a lot of people just for that," Stoffels said. "I really did it as something fun to do, because in general the people really like what we put out."
Bottle that weekend: Festival of the Vine planners, or any event planners last weekend for that matter, would love to bottle that weather and store it for all future events. It can't get much nicer during the day around here, though it was a bit chilly in the evening.
But Geneva's salute to the fall season was excellent again, and the food tent served me well. With a bit of wine to wash it down, I was able to chow down on this trilogy: A tasty Door County melt from Egg Harbor, an excellent fish taco from Bien Trucha Restaurante, and an apple cobbler with maple ice cream from Inglenook Pantry. If you didn't make it to downtown Geneva last weekend, that's only part of what you missed. Put it on your calendar for next September.
Safety first: You can't blame parents of kids in the Kaneland Youth Football League who have said they won't be participating in games in Elgin any longer after the recent incident in which gunshots were fired less than a block away from where games were being played.
The Elgin Youth Football League, which has been around for 40 years, intends to continue its play.
This is good, as you never want the bad guys to win by ruining something fun and important for everyone. But if they are not confident about their kids' safety, the Kaneland contingent should be able to find games in other places.
Those mood swings: The Cubs are surely getting plenty of prayers delivered on their behalf by legions of long-suffering fans. One of those who may have slightly better connections is St. Patrick Church pastor Monsignor Joe Linster.
Associate pastor Rev. Akan Simon let parishioners in on this reality during a recent Sunday service, when mentioning that he hopes the Cubs win the pennant race so that Linster "will be in a good mood."
He hinted the tight race against the Brewers and Cardinals was such that Linster was having some mood swings. Cub fans know what these mood swings are all about. We join the good padre in hoping for the best over the next week and a half.
dheun@sbcglobal.net