13-4: Zucchini and Tomato Casserole

13-4: Zucchini and Tomato Casserole

It’s been a wet and windy winter here in California, and I’m looking forward to the spring so I can start working in my garden again. In Summer 2022, I grew zucchini and tomatoes, partially in hopes of being able to use them to cover some of the recipes in this book that featured those types of veggies. One of those recipes is this one, 13-4: Zucchini and Tomato Casserole.

I was also able to use some of the fresh herbs from my garden for this recipe as well. If you like these types of recipes (and if you have a garden), 4-1: Eggplant, Tomato, and Onion Bake, 13-10: Zucchini Piccata, and 13-3: Vegetable Deep Dish Pie might be worth checking out.


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13-3: Vegetable Deep Dish Pie

13-3: Vegetable Deep Dish Pie

Ahoy there! Like most people who started a blog a while ago, I’m not as consistent with it as I used to be, but I’ll always come back at some point (usually when work is slow and/or we have a holiday weekend coming up…).

Today’s entry is a good one for all you vegetable gardeners out there–13-3: Vegetable Deep Dish Pie. I was growing zucchini and tomatoes last year (that’s when I actually cooked this), so this one was perfect to use some of those up.

Of course, if you’ve got something else in the ground this year (I’ve got a different type of tomato and some assorted pepper plants this time around), you can vary this to accommodate whatever you’ve got or whatever you like. There’s always farmers’ markets as well!


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19-12: A Variety of Vegetables

19-12: A Variety of Vegetables

Trying to work my way through more of the Cooking School entries–here’s 19-12: A Variety of Vegetables for you. This one comes courtesy of the NEW BOOK, and features 4 vegetables you may or may not be familiar with.

As usual, I’ll give you a little blurb after the jump about each one and then links to a few Simply Delicious recipes that I’ve already covered that use those vegetables. Hey, it’s important to eat your veggies!


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10-1: Springtime Lamb Stew

10-1: Springtime Lamb Stew

Stew happens to be one of my favorite dishes. 😍 It contains all the things I really enjoy: tender meat, vegetables, and gravy. That being said, even though it’s the opposite of springtime right now, 10-1: Springtime Lamb Stew was right up my alley.

I’ve never been to the Provence region of France to try this style of cooking in it’s natural habitat, so learn more from someone who has.


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4-18: French Vegetable Casserole

4-18: French Vegetable Casserole

Everything I needed to learn about making 4-18: French Vegetable Casserole was told to me by Remy the animated rat, star of Ratatouille. I know…the editors of Simply Delicious call this dish “French Vegetable Casserole” to make the name more palatable for Middle America. 🇫🇷

The card mentions that the dish is referred to as “ratatouille” in its area of origin.

Editor’s note: I did the underlining you see above when I realized this recipe was “ratatouille”I’ve made this recipe before, a year or two prior to embarking on this project. I even watched Ratatouille on my laptop while I made it. 🐀


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13-14: Wok-Fried Veggies with Pasta

13-14: Wok-Fried Veggies with Pasta

13-14: Wok-Fried Veggies with Pasta is yet another dish where the preparation requires too much chopping. One of my specialties happens to be stir-fry. I can make stir-fry with the best of them.

I’ve made wok fried dishes similar to this on my own, but with chicken or beef. Usually, I think vegetarian food is best left to the rabbits. 🐰


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17-35: Healthy Bread With Vegetables

17-35: Healthy Bread With Vegetables

17-35: Healthy Bread with Vegetables was yet another attempt to make bread that went somewhat awry. This recipe was quite an experiment with quite unusual results. 🍞

This bread was definitely moist and colorful. I’ve had carrot cake, but I’ve never had shredded carrot in my bread. I substituted the beet with zucchini because the only Beets I enjoy are the band from Doug.


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4-7: Mixed Vegetable Bake

4-7: Mixed Vegetable Bake

4-7: Mixed Vegetable Bake is yet another boring vegetable dish. 🍆 🌶 🍠 There wasn’t an emoji for the vegetables used in this dish, but it was such a bland dish that even the text needs a little excitement with some added emojis! 😉

This onion is about the most flavorful part of this combination behind the cheese. The vegetables add a lot of color, but not a lot of flavor.


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11-14: Tempura

11-14: Tempura

This recipe, 11-14: Tempura tastes great, but the amount of prep is so arduous that I would rather pay a chef at a restaurant to make it for me.

Mixed tempura is my favorite starter dish whenever Jamie and I go out to a sushi restaurant. 🍣


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4-34: Italian Roasted Vegetables

4-34: Italian Roasted Vegetables

This one’s short and sweet. I’ve made 4-34: Italian Roasted Vegetables a few times before, once as part of a big dinner party I cooked for when I was about 13 (6-22: Crispy Chicken Drumsticks and 9-20: Meat Roly-Poly were part of that as well) and Thanksgiving 2000 based on my mother’s notations on the back of the card. I know I’ve used the concept multiple times in other instances, even if I wasn’t following this exact recipe.

This is more a method than a particular recipe–you can use pretty much whatever vegetables you want with this one. Now’s a perfect time for this recipe–farmer’s markets are open and there’s lots of good stuff out there to roast. 🔥


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