Mastering the Art of French Cooking…Week Two

On Saturday, in between the time I dropped off my Competition Cake (more on that in another post) and the time they announced the winners (of which I WAS, yippee!), I took myself to see Julie & Julia.

If you are a Foodie (and you probably are, if you are reading this post) you will find this movie right up your alley. Personally, I can admit that until I saw this film, I knew absolutely nothing about Julia Child. Hell, with that whacky accent, she could have been French for all I knew. I had never watched her on television, but know who she was…that bigger than life, loud, cheeky lady who cooked. The one mimicked on SNL by Dan Akroyd. I never knew what kind of person she was at all.

Now, I think I may love her. I started making recipes out of her Mastering the Art of French Cooking last week and became hooked. Seeing the movie just made me want to keep on cooking. I wish I could tell you what it is that draws me to her. Perhaps it is the fact that she was so stubborn, yet full of heart. Perhaps it was the fact that she started her dream so late in her life. Truly, though, I think it was the way she dealt with being childless. It is such an incredibly difficult thing to cope with.

There is a scene in the movie where Julia reads a letter announcing another’s pregnancy and she cries…and then says how happy she is. I have been that person. We tried for so long to have Seven, and it seemed everywhere I turned, another friend or family member was getting pregnant. It was so hard to be happy for them without aching for myself and Jon. I have yet to apologize to my sister-in-law for the way I handled her announcing her own pregnancy…I feel terrible still about leaving the restaurant where we were and taking time to pull myself together so that I wouldn’t have a meltdown in front of the whole family. It wasn’t that I wasn’t happy for her – I really was – it was that I was twice as unhappy for myself. To see how that is played out in another’s life in front of you really makes it hit home, or at least it did for me. It made me feel like maybe I wasn’t crazy for feeling the way I had…Julia felt that way, too. I wept right there in the theater, as I imagine anyone who has been through that would. That being said, I think Meryl Streep could play a Latvian snake charmer living as a Brooklyn street dancer/rapper and pull it off, she’s that good. She made this movie what it is.

So, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I really pushed myself today. Not in the cooking sense, but in the comfort zone sense. I was actually talking aloud, psyching myself up…to make mayonnaise. Julia’s Mayonnaise.

I followed her recipe for making it in the Food Processor, and even though I was ready to fail, it turned out perfectly. I love that she advises you in each step what to do, how things will look and act, and then tells you how to fix any boo boos that may have occurred – not that any did because I followed her recipe to the letter. You can also make mayo by hand following her method and recipe that can be found at The Nibble. If I were you though, I would just buy her book. Seriously, you know you should.

I just got the thumbs up from the Hub, who ate it on a tomato sandwich. While I wanted to love it for myself, I really made it for him. Him, and well, Julia.