I often refer to my new friend "Julia Child" who provides guidance and recipes in her book "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." As I get deeper into my quest, however, I realize that I'd be remiss if I didn't give at least a little tribute to Julie Powell, the blogger who's the other half of the story told in the film "Julie and Julia." Instead of a photo of food I thought I'd include a photo of her book and the real Julie Powell (at the end). Well, technically it is a photo of food since there's a blop of whipped chream laying on the counter and at the ende the photo of Julie has parsley laying on her cutting board, but that's not the focus of the photo.
The other day I took a minute to actually find the original blog that Julie did and was the basis of the story told in the film "Julie and Julia." I've, so far, only read through the first couple of weeks and found it amusing to read about her having many of the same reactions that I had. Butter! Everything has butter!! She also discovered that many of the recipes in Julia's cookbook are not a dish to be served by themselves, but instead they are the core recipe used in the preparation of other complete dishes. All in all it helped me see that even an established "foodie" with cooking skills that she had could also be surprised and a bit overwhelmed at times.
The question I have for Julie, though, is "How did you do it?" I have no idea how Julie could work during the day, cook several of these sometimes complicated recipes, eat them, and then write about them that day! Julie, did you ever sleep? Did you learn to type on your keyboard while your boeuf was braising or did you use one hand to type and the other to beat the eggs for your hollandaise sauce? What about shopping for all those ingredients? It isn't like Julia calls for pulling frozen tater tots out of the freezer and simmering them in butter, now is it? No, Julia is all about fresh ingredients. Not only fresh, but different degrees of freshness. For example, Julia has a whole discussion regarding the age of chickens and the different preparations that are used! Shopping can be a major undertaking for me. For one recipe I ended up stopping at Costco, then Giant (a local grocery store) and then Oregon Dairy (a realllllly local grocery store) before I had everything. I also learned in the "real" Julie blog that she and her husband moved and remodeled a new apartment during the first couple weeks of her cooking project. My hat's off to you, Julie! Well, I'm not actually wearing a hat because I'm indoors but if I was wearing a hat I would take it off in your honor.
I realize that Julie's accomplishment really was a very significant undertaking and I'm happy to admit that I'm not going to be that ambitious with this project. Different person, different purpose (am I even serving or trying to accomplish a purpose?), and definitely a different person. Oh, one suggestion I'd offer to Julie if she ever happened to ask -- you don't need to use profanity or off color language in your writing. Julie is a very talented writer and has other blogs currently in progress. I peeked at them but decided I didn't need to be putting some of that language into my head. There are a lot of other descriptive adjectives out there that make pleasant reading for everyone! As for me, I think I'll stick with words like "charred" and "over seasoned."
In any case, Julie is an amazing writer and cook who accomplished an amazing feat by completing all of Julia's recipes (in volume 1 of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking") in just one year. Thanks for the inspiration you've provided to me!
Bon Appetit!
I'm enjoying reading your journey!