The Rat Made it Better

This year as part of my school I am taking French as a foreign language. For some reason my French book told me to make Ratatouille, although it didn't help me learn French, I suppose it was so that I could be more educated in their culture. Ratatouille is  French Provençal recipe, Provençal literally means Provence, which is the south-eastern part of France, right next to Italy. Just like in the movie, Ratatouille, most French grow up eating this classic dish. Since I love to cook I was pretty happy that my foreign language homework involved cooking! Here is the recipe that came from my French book:

Ratatouille 


You can serve it warm or cold with lamb, chicken or pork. The secret to this dish is to cook all the vegetables separately before combining them.

3 green squash/zucchini
2 eggplants
3/4 cup olive oil
4 large tomatoes
2-3 large Spanish onions
3 medium cloves garlic
3 TBLS thyme or herbes de provence
1 bay leaf

Wash and dice the squash/zucchini and the eggplant. Do not peel them.
Drop the tomatoes in a pan of boiling water for 20 seconds. Rinse with cold water. Peel and seed them.
Sauté onions in 3 TBLS of olive oil until transparent. put them on a plate. Sauté the vegetables separately, using about 2 TBLS of olive oil for each.
Pour 2-3 TBLS of olive oil into a clean frying pan. Mix the vegetables together and add along with 3 crushed garlic cloves, thyme, and bay leaf to frying pan. If you are adding cooked meat, add it now.
Cover and cook slowly for approximately 40 minutes. Just before serving, crush the last garlic clove to add a fresh taste of garlic to the dish. (the last garlic might be a little much for children, unless they have French blood.)

So I followed the directions and made this delicious sounding recipe. The only thing I changed was instead of dicing the veggies a sliced them... Like in the movie  you know... (I'm a big Ratatouille fan :).  It was my first time cooking or eating eggplant, so I didn't really know what I was doing, and when it was all done... I really did not like it... At all.
Maybe it was the amount of Thyme, or the tough eggplant, or my lack of French blood.
If you have ever made it, or decide to try it out, let me know! And please tell me if you know what would make it taste better, because we have a large container of the stuff in our fridge now.