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.

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.

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.

Squirrels Love to Waste Tomatoes

Here is the lineup of tomatoes I'm saving from the squirrels. As you can see, a few have been molested, but I'm trying to save them. The one under the plastic bowl is in intensive care, due to fruit flies attacking the bite marks. The one just beyond that also has bite marks, but they've closed over. These will be ok for cooking, if they can get ripe before they get rotten!

It so maddening to find a good tomato on the ground in my garden with just one bite taken! The squirrels have been terrible about that this year. For every two good tomatoes, the squirrels have had their way with one. I'm feeling murderous.

The Gift of Reading

The other day at the library, I had just checked out two books that were begging me to take them home when it struck me (again) how happy I was to enjoy reading so much. It has been a continuing joy to be able to hear people's stories - from their experience and from their imagination.

The two books (which haven't made it on to my sidebar yet) are both novels about California, and they couldn't be more different! One is Donald Duk by Frank Chin - about a 12-yr.-old in a California Chinatown somewhere who hates his name and being Chinese. The other is The Nowhere City by Alison Lurie - about a young couple who move to LA because of the husband's job transfer. He loves the unpretentiousness and freshness of California, while she hates the lax standards for behavior there. It will be interesting to see if the ideas about California from a book written in 1966 still hold true now.

I hope I never stop feeling excited about getting a new book. Set me on an ice floe if I do.

Miscellaneous Interesting New Websites

Spreety.com lists all the sites for watching FREE online TV! This includes PBS and lots of other commercial stuff. Haven't tried it yet, but it *sounds* good. Librarians love good organizers like this. Somebody let me know what you think!

Wordle.net is pretty useful - and fun! Take the characteristics of someone you know and love, then create a poster/birthday card/?? using all the words arranged in a word cloud with artsy colors, etc. You have to go to the Website to see what I mean. Again, I didn't try it myself yet, but I saw one that my cubicle partner did - really nice!

Another Great Read

Just finished All Other Nights by Dara Horn (her 3rd book so far). What a wonderful story! I've told at least 4 people about it already because I want them to read it asap. As I said in my sidebar, this is about a young Jewish man living in New York at the time of the Civil War. He escapes an arranged marriage with a simpleton girl by joining the Union army. When it becomes known that he is related to a New Orleans man who is plotting against Pres. Lincoln, he is smuggled behind the lines to kill his uncle on Passover night.

That part was thrilling enough, but it was only the beginning. His next assignment is to marry one of four sisters in a Jewish family from Virginia to find out which of them is a Rebel spy ringleader.

It turns out that the author did research on the history of American Jews during the Civil War and came up with material for some utterly fantastic plot twists. A tragic thriller that's a very satisfying read.