I went to see "Julie & Julia" this week with my husband and came out of the theatre feeling inspired to get back into the kitchen. Although I usually do most of the cooking around here, mainly because I'm a pretty picky eater, in summer, I generally develop an aversion to slaving over a hot stove and we end up eating endless amounts of salads and anything - and I do mean anything - that can be grilled on the bbq...
And so, with Julie Powell (she of the "Julie" in the title of the movie, book and original blog) in mind, I started hunting around for my own copy of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking"...and in the process picked up the Martha Stewart book that Brian had given me for Christmas last year...
As I perused the pages of Martha's tome (The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook - The Original Classics), I came to a conclusion...
Julie Powell was a wimp.
Her story is pretty well known now, what with Nora Ephron and Amy Adams bringing it to life. She decided, back in 2002, to attempt every single recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year. That would be 536 recipes in 365 days.
Martha's book?
Over 1100 recipes.
More than double what Julie Powell did.
I thought about trying every recipe in The Original Classics, but I don't think I'm really that crazy.
Yet...
Hi barbara! I love your blog!
ReplyDeleteI have cooked many of the recipes in "Mastering the Art of French Cooking vol.1"... I can highly recommend the Beef Bourgignon recipe: I am not sure if I ever cooked this for you during our years in Uni. It was a hit amongst other friends, just never bothered telling them where I got the recipe from har har! Her Cassoulet recipe is also very wonderful, but very time consuming and very expensive, only managed to make this twice in the last 7 years.
hazel