Sunday, September 27, 2009

Julia Child on Film, in Books, at the Stove

I was a fan of the old Julia Child TV cooking series, so I couldn't wait to see the film, Julie & Julia, with Meryl Streep reincarnating Julia. I loved the movie, but agreed with the critics that too much time was given to Julie the blogger, and not enough to Julia.

I got my hands on Julia's account of her introduction to France and French cooking, My Life in France. which fills in the holes in the story: how Julia fell in love with French people (contrary to most Americans' view of the French as unfriendly snobs), how she became friends with the young maid who came with her first Parisian apartment - after seeing the maid burst into tears when Julia tried to sit her down to talk to her in mangled French about how to do things "right" (i.e., Julia's way), how she began to amass a huge collection of French cooking tools, etc.

As soon as I finish that book, my next project is to simplify Julie's project. I'm going to find the simplest and easiest recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which has never gone out of print and went back on the NY Times bestseller list! After I find the recipe, I will cook it. I'm betting it will have something to do with eggs. Stay tuned.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

One Alpine Strawberry - At Last!

The tiny dot of ruby red at the bottom of this strawberry plant is the first of what I hope will be lots of Alpine strawberries. Unfortunately, it is September 17 today, so the odds are against it. At any rate, I am so happy to see that the plants, which were a gift from my dear aunt, are doing what they're supposed to. On to next season when I will stop ripping out all the runners they send out almost daily.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Charles Dickens: Love the Writer, not the Man

Just finished a very interesting new novel, Girl in a Blue Dress, based on the marriage of Charles Dickens and Catherine Hogarth. Afterwards, I had to go look up the "facts" about it. Here's an example.

I am one of the legion of fans of Dickens, the author, but after hearing about how he treated his wife, I find it hard to understand how he could be so empathetic to so many unfortunates in his novels and in real life - except in his own family. There seems to be a streak of hardness in his character that has forever changed the way I think of him. Sigh.