"Julie and Julia": The Foodie's/Blogger's Movie -- a ragoût post

One of my Christmas presents from my dear husband was the DVD of "Julie and Julia." Last night we watched it and I must say, I loved this movie on many levels--performances, food, and blogging to name a few. What follows is a ragoût of a post. Enjoy and bon appétit!

Meryl Streep is my acting god and has been for years. Her Julia Child is larger than life--both physically and in characterization. She embodies Child's passion for life. Amy Adams is adorable, but I think she also has the acting chops. She has definitely cornered the market for cute comic characters and I hope someone gives her a great dramatic role soon. Stanley Tucci would be great reading the telephone book and Jane Lynch is just remarkable in everything she does. Each performance is a delicious little morsel. Nora Ephron proves once again that she can direct one hell of a movie.



My two volumes of Mastering the Art of French Cooking predate my marriage (33 years on February 5). In the early 1970's, my brother, Dan, and I lived in an apartment on Newbury Street in Boston. I was a working girl and he was going to Berklee School of Music and we shared the cooking. My wonderful friend, Schroeder (who is also the person responsible for inspiring me to quilt), lived near Boston and we spent lots of time at her house where one night she made Çoq au Vin for us from Julia Child's wonderful recipe. I was totally sold and these were the first two cookbooks I ever purchased. My brother and I worked on learning several recipes and even made French bread from her recipe--a daylong process and why the French buy their bread!

In "Julie and Julia" the Boeuf Bourguignon recipe is the center of a very important scene and it looked so wonderful that I decided I have to make it for dinner tonight. All the food in the film is glorious and you definitely don't want to watch this one if you are hungry.

Julie Powell's blog, "the Julie/Julia project" is something with which anyone who blogs will strongly identify. It's all in the film, that sense of sending your words out into a black void, then the first comment from someone to whom you are not related, feeling like you live to blog, letting the blog take over your life and neglecting your loved ones for strangers who might be reading what you write and caring about what you are doing, and finally the big time. Very few bloggers get to that level, but it certainly gives us all something to shot for. While the project blog is in archives now, Julie Powell still blogs at "What Could Happen?"



The Boeuf Bourguignon is ready, the fingerling potatoes are roasting, and I'm getting ready to blanche the haricots verts. Chocolate Mousse is chilling for dessert. Oh, yum!