Julie & Julia

Julie & Julia

A Year of Cooking Dangerously

A few years back a book with a catchy title and cute cover caught my eye. That book was Julie & Julia :My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell. The cover's clever quote hooked me: "Irresistible....A kind of Bridget Jones meets The French Chef." - Philadelphia Inquirer. So I bought it.

I haven't read Julie & Julia (yet). Sadly it just sits on my book shelf due to my current obsession of blogging and knitting.

I know I would love this book. In 2002. author Julie Powell decides to change her life by cooking every one of Julia Child's 524 recipes in Julia's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in the course of one year. She documents this online and cleverly turns it into a blog the Julie/Julia Project which later becomes the book Julie and Julia.

Julie & Julia is now a major motion picture. It is based on the two best selling memoirs Julie & Julia by Julie Powell and My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud'Homme. The memoir stories are intertwined together in the movie.

Bon Appetit...I'm Julia Child!

Remembering Julia

My earliest memories of Julia Child are of watching her on TV in the early 1970's at my grandparent's house . My grandmother, a fabulous home cook, always watched Julia Child's The French Chef and Graham Kerr's The Galloping Gourmet .

My grandparents also introduced me to French cuisine. I think I was around 12 years old when I had escargot at a fancy restaurant in South Lake Tahoe. I seemed to like the chewy snails okay but it was the hot, buttery garlic sauce I liked best when I dipped my French bread in it. And so began my love for French food influenced by my grandparents and those Julia Child television shows.

Meryle Streep as Julia

Julie and Julia the movie is by director/screenwriter Nora Ephron. It is the first major motion picture made from a blog! I love that!

The one and only Meryl Streep stars as Julia Child and Amy Adams portrays Julie Powell. Being a foodie, I just know I will love this movie! I read that Meryl Streep nailed Julia's mannerisms! (Hmm...I'm thinking maybe Oscar caliber performance here.)

Julia's famed Kitchen

Julia Child's famed Cambridge, Massachusetts kitchen was replicated for the movie by set decorator Susan Bode Tyson. I loved reading that Julia used her Spode Blue Willow dishes nearly everyday. We just happen to have a blue and white Spode decorated kitchen, too!

I love collecting vintage French cookbooks. I have a vintage set (1971 & 1974 printing) of Julia's Mastering the Art of French Cooking on display in our kitchen. Sitting on top of them is a Spode Blue Italian mixing bowl. I think that would make Julia smile!

In 2001, before moving to California, Julia Child donated her real Cambridge kitchen to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History for all the world to see.

Julie & Julia

In Theaters on August 7, 2009

A toast to Julie & Julia!

I hope to see the movie on opening day.

When I come home,

I am going to have a glass of wine and toast both Julie and Julia!

Bon Appetit!