"The Picky Eater" Becomes "The Picky Foodie," Part 1

The Picky Eater has been home for just a fortnight prior to resuming residence and a summer internship blowing things up in a chem lab at her college. (At least that's what I like to imagine that people do in chem labs; in reality they probably sit hunched over computers just like everyone else.)
During her visit she has unquestionably earned her foodie credentials, whipping up a dizzying array of tofu veggie meals for herself, baking cookies, cakes, etc. and even making a few meals to share with her famished parents.

Ratatouille Tart- easy with frozen puff paste

But, her pieces de resistance were the dishes that she whipped up for Mother's Day in Modesto with aunts, cousins, uncle and grandma. I was REALLY impressed! Especially because for the first time in years I did not have to cook a single thing! I was happily relegated to shopping for lox, bagels, olives, and strawberries while the Picky Foodie made a colorful ratatouille tart from a favorite blog, Smitten Kitchen, with her own oven roasted tomato sauce; and a fabulous, tasty, and EASY apple cake, an Apple Sharlotka, also from the Smitten Kitchen.
The ratatouille tart was made with some excellent store bought puff paste and thin slices of green & yellow summer squash, red bell pepper and Japanese eggplant. The oven roasted tomato sauce, a recipe from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, our home vegetarian bible, was far superior to the commercial stuff. This is the recipe:
Oven-Roasted Tomato Sauce
2 1/2 lbs. tomatoes, halved
1 onion,thinly sliced
4 thyme or marjoram sprigs
2-3 Tb olive oil
Salt & freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Put the tomatoes in a single layer in a baking pan with the onion & thyme. Drizzle the vegetables with the olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake until they are soft, shriveled, and falling apart, about 45-60 minutes. Remove the herb branches and puree in the food processor. taste for salt and pepper.

Smitten Kitchen's Apple Sharlotka

Unfortunately, we didn't get a photo of the baked Apple Sharlotka before it was devoured, so here's one that I filched from Smitten Kitchen.
From what I can glean, the Picky Eater is spending quite a bit of time reading food blogs when she should probably be reading how to blow things up in her chemistry book. At this rate, I may forget how to cook!!