Sweet Yet Sour

Baking and Julia

Sunday, July 26th, 2009 | Books, Cooking | 2 Comments

In the ongoing search for more ways to have fun in the kitchen, a friend of mine has come up with “Have the Cake” – a blogging and baking group.  Starting August 1st, those of us participating will be baking a selected item, one recipe per month, making our own adjustments, and blogging about the process.  It sounds like so much fun and I can’t wait to get started in a few days…

If you would like to participate, go to the Have the Cake website, and sign up! The more the merrier!

On another note, I am all about Julia Child these past few months. First, for our June bookclub we read “My Life in France”, Julia Child’s autobiography. I was struck by several things reading this book, but most notably how scientifically Julia approached cooking.  The woman made mayonnaise every day for two weeks to get the perfect recipe!  Julia carefully took notes on each recipe, including things like how the weather would affect something and what not to do to avoid pitfalls.  This is kitchen science that I can really appreciate – although I don’t practice it myself.  I’m much more of a “throw stuff together without measuring” kind of cook – but I think Julia’s method is great.

I was also struck by how much Julia loved France and the French people.  The Paris and Parisians of her time in France are so different from my experiences in France.  She speaks of kind, open people, when I was generally met with snootiness – but I think Parisians in general get sick of tourists.  I do remember fondly a woman who saw my sister and I dragging our bags along a road in the outskirts of Paris, stopped her car, got out and said, “Etes-vous perdu?” (”Are you lost?”) and carefully directed us to where we were going.

Reading the book did not, however, make me fall in love with French food.  There is far too much veal, duck (both of which I don’t eat or don’t like), and things like squib (baby pidgeon) for my taste.  There is a horrid description of a “pressed duck” that involves actually pressing the duck (it’s dead – don’t worry) in a canister… Bleech!

But, the book did make me want to add “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” to add to my cookbook collection.  Julia’s careful research and recipe writing would be nice to have in my inventory.

Now, in between continuing to try to get through, “Eat, Pray, Love”, I’m reading “Julie and Julia”.  A movie starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams is coming out soon based on this book and “My Life in France”.  “Julie and Julia” is a non-fiction account of a woman in New York city who decided to cook all of the recipes in “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” and blog about it.  I’m not finished yet, but so far I’m impressed that someone would attempt this in a New York city sized kitchen and a deep seated hatred of eggs.  There’s a lot of eggs in Julia Child’s world.  Thankfully Julie didn’t hate butter or she’d really have been in trouble.

All this reading about cooking (and watching “Top Chef Masters” every week) has really made me hungry and in a baking mood.  I’m glad “Have the Cake” is coming up so I can have some kitchen science of my own to dig into!