Smitten with a French Chef

I confess: I'm in love with Julia Child (1912-2004). I had read Julie and Julia by Julie Powell last year, but I wasn't really in love with her then. I did put the DVD series The French Chef on my Netflix cue, but I didn't start watching them until this year.

A week or so ago, I pulled My Life in France by Julia Child from the bookshelf and started reading, and it is this book that made me fall in love with this larger than life woman. Her memoir focuses mainly on her time in France, chronicling the discovery of her passion for food, her lessons at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and her collaboration with two Frenchwomen on Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1 and 2. She also writes about the beginning and rise of her television show The French Chef and concludes with her writing From Julia Child's Kitchen (which I'm currently following in eBay), which has recipes and stories.

At first, I was disappointed that the book didn't include a variety of recipes. That disappointment didn't last long because it's a truly fun read. Yes, there is a lot of writing about cooking and food, but it is also a love story. There are pictures of Julia and her husband Paul; the book is about life with Paul nearly as much as it is about her life as a chef and writer. In reading the book, you get a sense of her passion for life and how she completely threw herself into every aspect of food and cooking. She writes of how she meticulously researched ingredients and techniques and how she tried recipes out sometimes 15 times before she was satisfied they were good enough to include in Masting the Art of French Cooking, which is why I had to order it. I have purchased volume 1, and I'm watching volume 2 on eBay, hoping to find a copy at a good price. Because of her meticulous nature, the books are not only about recipes but also about the how and why of a recipe: how ingredients work together, why some techniques are used in some recipes and other techniques are used in other recipes. I get the sense she might have been an early Alton Brown.

Once I acquire both volumes, I'm throwing away The Joy of Cooking. I've never really liked it, and I have found the text rather boring. If Julia's cookbooks are written in the style and voice of her memoir, I expect them to be engaging, entertaining, and informative.

If you're curious about her television show, visit the Julia Child section of the PBS videos where several of her shows can be viewed (all are under 30 minutes in length). The video "Spinach Twins" has footage of Simone Beck, a co-author of the Mastering the Art of French Cooking books, and there is footage of Julia and Paul's home in Provence. If you love cooking, food, France, or a good love story featuring a strong heroine, I encourage you to read My Life in France.

I feel a rant coming on in a future post (I can't be completely rant-free). I invite all readers to comment on this and all posts, as well as also suggest topics you would like to read about.

As always, bon appetit!

J'ai besoin de la France

Today's blog is a little self-indulgent--that's what happens when one has too much time on one's hands.

I am patiently waiting for the phase of the moon to change so that I can plant more beets and transplant flowers, more broccoli seedlings, and sage cuttings. In my idle hours, I went to the grocery store and found these beautiful sunflowers marked down. Rambling around the yard, I picked a few things that were blooming, which included Spanish bluebells and vinca major, dogwood, azaleas, a Gerber daisy, and a rosebud.

After arranging them, I noticed I had paired the sunflowers with bluebells and vinca, and this reminded me of traveling to Provence in the south of France where sunflowers adorned linens and lavender bloomed profusely along the roads, especially going into the Luberon out of Apt. I smiled.

And I remembered what I tell my traveling friend Glenna: bring a little of France into your everyday life. So I did. I reveled in my flowers, and tonight I will enjoy a leisurely meal with my husband and a glass (or two) of good wine as I wait for the moon to cooperate with my itchy green thumb!

For the other arrangement, I used the flowers I had enjoyed last week to fill my teapot. I use this teapot only in the spring for the azaleas and dogwoods, daffodils and Spanish bluebells. I waited too late for the daffodils. As I was arranging last week's sunflowers, the petals began to fall off. I ripped them off two of the flower heads and noticed something: They reminded me of Van Gogh's sunflowers. My memory may be poor, but I believe some of the flowers may have been painted without the yellow petals. Either way, they are beautiful.

Well, this is a food blog, so I suppose I should end on a food note! In the garden, I have five potato plants sprouting leaves and two rows of beet seedlings have pushed their way through the soil. I've never grown either before, and I'm so excited to see them growing.

Leave me a comment. Tell me what you're doing to bring a special memory into your home. Or, maybe you're planting something new in the garden. I'd like to hear about it.

C'est tout!