Julia's influence

I have been a cook all my life... or at least as far back as my earliest memory.  I remember always being under foot when my Grandmother was in the kitchen and I vividly remember the morning when she taught me how to make biscuits from scratch by starting with a pile of flour, making a 'well' or hole in the center, then adding the lard and milk and swirling it together into the most delicate dough... always remembering not to over stir or mix.  From there she taught me how to make milk gravy to go with those delectable biscuits.  That's all it took... I've been hooked ever since!

I was just a 5 year old child when Julia first hit the TV airwaves and I watched every single show, side by side next to my Mother as she did her ironing.  I remember hearing my Mom laugh often as she watched Julia muss about the kitchen teaching the typical housewife not only how to cook, but how to cook DELICIOUS meals with equipment that could be found in the hardware store or the local 5 & 10 store and with ingredients found in the typical grocery store.  I didn't understand or 'get' Julia's charming wit back in those early days, but I did think she was funny to watch as she frumped her way about the kitchen, chattering and laughing at herself when she slopped or dropped, when she was proud of the end result, or making the best of however the dish turned out.  The most important thing to Julia was TASTE...."what does it taste like?"  Taste, Taste, Taste!!! You could make the most unsightly dish look attractive with garnishes and sauces, but you can not make a gorgeous dish taste good if there is no flavor.   

I would continue to be under foot in the kitchen whenever my Mom, Aunt or Grandmother were cooking and being the wonderful kind women they are, they always took time to show me what they were doing, telling me why they were doing it and answering all of my questions.  All 3 women are well known in their church, community and family as being really good cooks.  I come from the south and from the country and cooking doesn't get any 'heartier' than that. Heck... don't you know you CAN fry anything!  The first rule of southern cooking is... "can be and most likely should be" fried in bacon grease, lard, and/or butter... when company is coming you use all 3!  Any southern cook knows that having flour, sugar, eggs, and LOTS of butter on hand is only the beginning.  One must also ALWAYS have on had lard, and bacon grease.  

I married young (typical for southern women in the 70's) and moved away from home with my new husband.  We did not have the luxury of cell phones or computers.  We had snail mail and VERY expensive long distance phone calls... for emergencies only!  But... as a newlywed wanting to impress her husband, I made many a long distance phone call to my Mother, Aunt and Grandmother on how to cook this or that... and they always patiently explained, giving me step by step instructions as I prepared the dish.  I too quickly earned the reputation of being 'a really good cook'.  I never cooked from a box or frozen dinners, I have cooked from scratch from day one.  And I am fortunate to have a husband who truly will try anything once.  He will eat anything that doesn't eat him first.  He has a very developed palate from experiencing foods from all over the world as he has traveled with business.  He also enjoys wine and has the reputation of having great knowledge of wines.  We are both foodies... our 3 daughters (now all grown) are spoiled foodies as well, but since they are all budding in their careers, they do not have the budget for cooking the foods they are used to eating at home when Mom (me) cooks. 

Two years ago when my husband (Joe) and I became empty nesters, he encouraged me to go to culinary school.  I had never been to college, but went straight into work after high school graduation.  We moved about often with Joe's job and after we had our 2nd daughter I became a stay at home Mom... which is/was truly my wish and calling in life.  I was very lucky... we did without all the latest gadgets and toys, we had what we needed and some of what we wanted, but we have always had a very solid family foundation.  Going to culinary school has truly been a life changing experience.  I absolutely LOVE it!!!  I am one class away (Baking 1) from earning my "Culinary Certificate" with a 4.0 GPA... which I am quite proud of and have worked very hard for.  

Last year before my 50th birthday I had a conversation with my family stating that if I really wanted to 'challenge' myself, the true measuring point is to be able to cook any and everything in Julia Child's original cookbook.  My eldest daughter (Amber) searched ebay until she found both the first and secound volume of Julia Child's "Mastering The Art Of French Cooking" and gave them to me for my 50th birthday.  My 2nd daughter (Jessica) was getting married about that time and we were busy with the wedding plans and entertaining guests, so I was not able to start immediately on my "Julia Project".  Immediately after Jessica's wedding I began with a serious health issue that eventually required invasive abdominal surgery with a 4 month recovery period, thus... once again my "Julia Project" continued to be on hold.  It has just been in the past 6 weeks that I have gotten back into all my normal activities.  This surgery sucked the life out of me and kicked my sweet little ass.  And yes, I can say 'sweet little ass' because after surgery I only weighed 94 lbs and am working my way back up to my normal 115 lbs... I am a small woman, only 4' 11" tall.  Sooooo........  here I am just starting my "Julia Project" right before my 51st birthday and in the calendar year of my New Year's resolution/goal year.  I have plenty of witnesses who heard my original conversation last year to challenge myself to Julia's cookbooks as well as hearing my New Year's resolution/goal for 2009.  Life just got in the way and now I'm ready.  

My "Julia Project" is to cook my way through Julia Child's original cookbook, but I have never had a time line to get it accomplished.  I just figured I would start and continue to cook with her until it was completed.  It would definitely be nice and a bigger challenge to try to accomplish this task in one years time... but I enjoy cooking too much, I travel too much and have learned that life has it's own pace, so why add more stress?  Why put stress on myself on such a joyous challenge?  This blog will be my 'journal' so to speak of my progress.  

I honestly never heard of the Julie Powell/Julia Project blog of 2004 before I spoke about the idea with my family.  The conversation I had with my family that started the idea was about what I was going to do with my Culinary Certificate when I graduated.  My options are to do a 10 week internship with a local high end restaurant, continuing taking random cooking classes and possibly baking classes as well, opening a restaurant or business... which has been suggested to me by well meaning family members and friends, but I'm just not ready to take that step yet.  I want to enjoy cooking for the pure pleasure of my passion and not to be again... 'stressed'... for no reason.  

I had just finished reading Julia's first volume and had started on the 2nd volume, as well as, having watched all of Julia's cooking shows on any DVD I could find when my husband and I were at the movies and I saw the trailer of Julie & Julia.  My first reaction was of complete excitement... I LOVE Meryl Streep and Amy Adams... but then I found myself frowning because 'my idea had not only been stolen' but had been turned into a movie and now I would look like any other follower after being inspired from the movie.  Then I thought... well... my idea wasn't stolen obviously if a movie has already been made about it... someone else just thought of it first.  I can't wait for the movie, and my inspiration and excitement with my project has bounded to a new level.  Culinary school flamed my passion for cooking to a level I never knew existed.  After watching all of the cooking shows available on DVD of Julia Child, the things I didn't understand when I watched her as a child, now make reliving them more of a treasure.  I have laughed my way through every single episode and DVD... waiting for PBS to publish more!  I seem to have a thirst for anything about Julia... in fact, I told my family I might just have a 'girl crush' on an old dead amazon woman with a high shrill voice!  LOL  To me... Julia is the essence of cooking.  A good dose of Julia every day can't help but make you smile!  Julia... here we go!  Bon Appetit!