Katie/Julie Project

I have been reading the actual blog "the Julie/Julia Project." It's wonderful! I like the blog as much as or more than the movie. And it's much more appealing than the first few pages of the book, "Julie and Julia," which used such cutting, vulgar language that it turned me off and I returned it before I had left the bookstore.

All Julie's cooking is pretty impressive. I appreciate hearing about her trials and tribulations. Cooking, for me, is often stressful. I worry about doing a good job, being efficient, doing justice to my professed interest in cooking. Julie's cooking sounds fun, in the end, but it also sounds like a lot of work.

It feels like work to me, too. For example, I spent most of my free time yesterday dealing with breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Homemade pesto, browned kielbasa, taboule from a mix with garden parsley and a garden tomato. It's nice to read about someone else who also frets about food.

I like thinking about all the different groceries Julie visits to get her ingredients. She doesn't just go to Whole Foods and buy everything at once no matter the cost. She gets things here and there, and tries to get them cheaply. Like a Frenchwoman going to market.

By the way, the few recipes I've made from "Mastering the Art," include "Crème Plombières Pralinée," a génoise, and Boeuf Bourguignon. Julie writes about how wonderfully easy and delicious custards are. It's true. I learned that making floating islands my senior year of college. Custards ARE easy, and so good. Whip in the egg whites you have left from making the custard, fold them in, chill, and you have a mousse. Or make lady fingers with your egg whites. I have made Julia's custards a few times, and they are everything Julie says they are.

Now I am raving about Julie the way Julie raved about Julia. It really is "Julie and Katie." And I have started a blog about learning all the Bach Sonatas and Partitas, one movement per week. So Julie has inspired me.