Wendy Willard

Last weekend I finally watched Julie and Julia. I don’t know why I let the DVD sit around my house for three weeks before watching it, because I love it! I think I am a lot like Julie was before she started spending a year preparing Julia Child recipes. I love to cook, but don’t always step outside my comfort zone in terms of what I prepare. Cooking is definitely an escape for me. As Julie mentioned early on in the film…

“Chocolate cream pie! You know what I love about cooking? I love that after a day when nothing is sure and when I say nothing, I mean nothing. You can come home and absolutely know that if you add egg yolks to chocolate and sugar and milk, it will get thick. That’s such a comfort.” – Julie Powell, Julie & Julia

Anyway, yesterday I made Beef Bourguingon. (Note the photo above was taken by my husband, because he said it just looked “French.”) That statement in itself is huge. First, it’s a French meal. I’ve never made anything French (unless you count french fries, which I don’t think you do). Second, it takes five hours to prepare. Yes,  you read that correctly: five hours.

Why did I embark on this ridiculous venture? I had always thought Julia Child to be a frumpy old women who cooked in a way that was beyond my reach. Learning about her life has taught me that I couldn’t have been farther from the truth. Julia Child was a housewife searching for “something to do” with herself while her husband was at work. She tried various other “tasks” that were common among women of her age and social stature, but just couldn’t bring herself to really enjoy hat-making and the like. But she loved food. She joined a class of stooty men at Le Cordon Bleu (i.e., fancy French culinary school) and worked her tail off.

Then, she spent several years writing a cook book to help housewives in American learn the art of French cooking.

This is evident in the very first recipe I selected to try from her cookbook: Beef Bourguinon. It’s not a recipe that uses an expensive cut of meat. On the contrary, it uses 3lbs of “stewing beef” which I picked up for about $6 (on sale). The rest of the ingredients are likely to be found in most well-stocked pantries (save for the red wine maybe). The three cups of wine, coupled with the lengthy cooking time, turned the cheap meat into a fork-tender, rich and flavorful meal.

I learned a couple of other things along the way…

1) Mushrooms aren’t that bad. You may not believe this, but before yesterday I had never eaten (knowingly) a mushroom before. Never (on purpose). I always told people I didn’t care for them. But really that just meant this: I think they look gross and really don’t want to let one anywhere near my mouth. But I did it – I bought the mushrooms called for in the recipe and actually included them (there’s a first time for everything I guess). And… they weren’t that bad! I’m not dying to put mushrooms in my ice cream or anything, but I certainly won’t pass them up the next time they are offered.

2) American cooking is sweet. I have always heard that before, but never really understood it until now. This meal had absolutely no sweetness to it whatsoever. It was earthy, filling, and rich, in a way totally different than the meals we usually eat. Even when we dine out, our meals usually have some sort of “sweetness” to them. Being so accustomed to that sweetness, this was a bit of a surprise to our systems.

3) You shouldn’t touch a pan that just came out of the oven without some sort of hand protection (i.e., an oven mitt). Enough said.

Finally, I have a new appreciation for this women who dedicated most of her adult life to bringing French cuisine into the lives of typical American women. I look forward to continuing my journey outside of my culinary comfort zone. In fact, this week I plan to try something else I’ve never attempted: poaching an egg. Crazy, I know .