Bon Appetit and Save the Liver!

I admit that I have a small girl crush on Julia Child.  She is fascinating.  I remember watching her on PBS when I was little and watching Dan Akroyd's famous sketch on Youtube.  I've never cooked from her cookbooks or read any books about her.  Shame on me.  Cooking just seemed too time consuming and I never remembered her when at the library.  I watched Julie and Julia and was not that impressed with the movie.  Mostly because Julie Powell irritated the piss out of me.

I was at the library two weeks ago and picked up Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz.  Despite my annoyance with Spitz's writing style, I could not put it down.  I devoured this book.  Here is my opinion (though not very well written).  Before I was finished with this book, I went to the library and checked out Mastering the Art of French Cooking and My Life in France, Julia's autobiography.  I paged through the cookbook, which is incredibly thorough, and thought the recipes looked incredibly complicated.  So I decided to hit Youtube.  I watched her first episode of The French Chef, the Boeuf Bourguignon episode.  And it looked easy.  So I watched her quiche episode (watch it here), and that looked easy, despite the complicated recipe.  That's just it.  Her recipes are not that complicated.  They are written so that every step is fully explained for the beginner.

I felt inspired.  I wanted to cook something.  So I made a quiche.  I wish I would have taken a picture.  It turned out beautifully.  We were starving though and wanted to dig in right away.  It made a very nice light supper (and was excellent for lunch). Ken surpised me by saying it was good.  He doesn't like "fancy" cooking.  The only thing he said was that it would have been good with something more added, like tomato or bacon.  I just added sauteed onions and Muenster cheese.  I enjoyed it too.  A2 just said it was okay.

Find her Quiche Lorraine recipe here.  

Just in case you want to watch it, the Boeuf Bourguignon show.

And because Julia loved to show people this, I have to share it.  Sadly, I couldn't find one to post directly here but here is a link.   It's a classic.

Bon Appetit!