There is a difference. One is to put up your hair to protect the Bouef Bourgionion from detritus. Ask Julia when you get up there.
The other is something one takes after a grand performance. A bow from the men, a curtesy from the women. Prima ballet dancers do it differently with panache and flavor and a dozen roses. I like both. Cheers! Dee
p.s. Old dog Zoe told me I missed one…. bow wow!
My husband gets to be home on weekends. Saturday I made him Eggs Benedict. He talked me through the Hollandaise as I haven’t made it since cooking school. I think I used every pot and pan we have.
Making it American, I sauteed American speck (no extra fat was added to the pan) to place on the muffin, just watch it in the pan so it doesn’t burn. It was quite salty. If there is a next time for this decadent dish, it will have true Italian prosciutto.
My husband also got to put down the toast every couple of minutes, of course they were English muffins! After the sauce was done I placed eggs in simmering water with vinegar.
Plating was muffin, speck, egg and Hollandaise. Tasty, rich. We got lazy for the rest of the day and he had me watch a movie I didn’t like so I had him watch the last few moments of a cooking show.
Today I must make burgers for lunch and Beef Carbonnade for dinner. Right now I took the dog out, fed her and lifted her back up to bed. He’s there, I am not. Both she and he need to sleep. Cheers! Dee
When I was nearly eight we moved to a country property with 25 acres and a stream. I learned to ride horses (sort of, a disaster actually) and be a country gal picking wild berries and having snakes thrown at me from the boys down the road. Yes, it was all in “good” fun.
At the library amidst the dusty tomes was a book I wanted, we’d been looking for plays to act in the basement but could find none with two characters.
The Betty Crocker Boys and Girls Cookbook. Mom left us at the Library weekly while she visited the grocery and I checked this book out. The Librarian called Mom when I owed $.31 in late fees. Scandalous. She made me take it back then bought me a new one three weeks later for my 8th birthday.
We had a royal party with castle cake for my little brother’s birthday party, then the following year a cake and pirate treasure hunt. Aargh! Costumes, cake, decorations, I was a party planner!
What I didn’t realize that 150′ below our home, at the bottom of a cliff my grandfather rigged (he had built bridges) to traverse were little critters we called crayfish and folks from Louisiana call crawfish or crawdads.
How was I ever to know that I could catch and cook them? All they did is bite. How delicious! A bit of seasoning and drawn butter. I’ve still haven’t had one.
Now I see these eight year-old precocious children on Chopped waxing poetic about all the things they’ve learned from parents and others. Ironically, in the early seventies we had an open concept very modern kitchen, I just wasn’t allowed in it.
Where were you John Besh, Emeril? Kids or not born yet, I forgive you. At least we got three tv channels and on one was Julia Child. She saved my life. A strong, talented, determined woman who beat the system and taught Americans French cuisine. An inspiration, to be sure. Same to Simca as she was my muse in cooking school.
Cheers and “bon appetit,” Dee
I learned several key things in cooking school besides how to buy a knife and that my hands (I added my brain) are the best tools.
From when I was a little kid I would always place everything out before I started to make something, years before Julia Child and mis en place. Asian food, you’ve ginger, garlic, soy, mirin, hot peppers…… The bowl was in the middle and my mother said I always used every dish in the kitchen! Good thing is that the cook didn’t have to do dishes!
I learned to shop the outer rim of the grocery store from produce to fish to meat, dairy, cheeses and only go inside for things like chicken broth, rice, pasta, canned tomatoes. Herbal tea, of course, and extra-virgin olive oil. The dog still doesn’t like it when I steal from her chicken broth stash, 1/4 cup for a sauce. Luckily she forgives me as I do feed her as her Food Wench.
Sometimes I wish I was more religious about packing/unpacking boxes and preparing for a move. My life has revolved around change and some day I’d like to settle in for a while and actually have a home. I’m more disciplined in the kitchen with mis en place.
There are these small dishes in which I can place soy sauce and horseradish paste in which to dip sushi. Sometimes they’re used for spices and I wash the dishes by hand. Yes, I’m chief cook and bottle washer here, including dog feeder and waterer and walker.
As a kid, I and my younger sister used to try to make breakfast in bed for our parents. It never worked, they always put on their robes and walked into the kitchen. That’s probably because Mom bought the can of pastries so kind of knew what we were up to. Cinnamon or Orange, usually both. We were only eight and six then but were allowed to turn on the oven and perhaps even allowed to scramble eggs. Toaster was a no-brainer.
I don’t remember when I was old enough to use a knife. Probably eight. I do remember when my little brother, age three, stuck a screwdriver into an electrical socket and got the shock of his life. And when my sister showed off by demonstrating that our neighbors’ fence was harmless. It was “hot” at the time. They both learned lessons back then but it didn’t stop my brother from climbing up to a 30′ TV tower. I bet the view was gorgeous! He’s a great cook and so are my sisters, and they bake.
Cooking school was more of a way to get out of corporate America using my life savings. It taught me a lot more about myself and my passion for caring for both people and shelter animals. Today, I do just that. Cheers to you, Dee
Posted in Editorial
Tagged chicken broth, cooking, Julia Child, mis en place, shelter animals
It’s been a difficult few weeks. I’ve been ill, my husband has been away for longer than ever, and the dog, while I am keeping to her schedule, has been sick but is OK even though she sleeps by the door either waiting for him to come home or to keep me from leaving too.
But I’ve a job to do and a two week trial period.
This is what I’d like to do if I had all the time and money in the world:
Make a perfect Simca Beck cassoulet for my father;
make a sublime beef bourgionon for my husband a la Julia Child;
give my aunts a smoker and make some killer ribs and brisket together;
help my in-laws finish their new place and finally get the recipe for M’s potato rolls.
find my mother’s Viennese Chocolate Pecan Torte recipe and share it with my siblings;
have every copy of James Beard’s Theory and Practice of Good Cooking, because I love his method and think most cooking instructors are frauds, of course you know I give TPGC as wedding gifts and they’re out of print; and
know that I stopped this blog at 1,000 posts and now have over 2,000 and I need to keep cooking. Tonight as J is away I get to make a vegetarian pizza.
Dough is 1.5 c Italian 00 flour with 1/2 cup warm water, you know the drill. It’s on the blog. I’m going to roast some garlic and saute some spinach and add a bit of goat cheese and artichoke hearts. There’s no guy here so no need for pepperoni on the pizza! I’m eating fish and veg. Cheers, Dee
Posted in Cook Books, Editorial, Recipe Ideas
Tagged James Beard, Julia Child, simone beck
Cooking, of course. I remember placing cookies on sheet pans but when I was eight I got the Betty Crocker Boys and Girls Cookbook I had to do something.
I was eight and my grandfather was here for the summer. Carrot curls were the order of the day and I took off the outer peel and made peels, placed them in ice water in the frig for an hour and voila!
He called them suicide carrot curls, as he did anything I made. They were curly but I bet I didn’t season them. I didn’t even remember that ’til now.
One dish I made for my father, only once in my life, was a lamb cassoulet a la Simca Beck, co-author of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Dad told me it was the best dish he’d ever had. Dee
I never knew what that meant. I’ve had a “bucket list” in my head since the day I was born. Don’t know when I’ll do things but at my age it’s about time to start.
Julia Child will take me to Paris and perhaps along the Rhone on a barge with picnic baskets with baguettes and sausages and cheeses,
Peggy Markel will take me through Florence and Tuscany and Sandro the baker will sing for me again. Luca will be charming at Maremma.
James Beard will show me the Pacific Northwest in all its glory.
Calvin Trillin and his Tummy Trilogy will tell me in detail about Kansas City BBQ and the economic laws of Alice.
I will finally get to the Salt Lick in Driftwood TX. I may live there.
Alice Waters will show me her latest kick, as will Rick Bayless. He’ll spend 25 years teaching me mole.
I will not open a restaurant and Gordon Ramsay will not be there.
Eric Ripert will come here and cook us dinner for our 10th anniversary.
If wishes were horses……. Dee
Posted in Editorial
Tagged bucket list, Calvin Trillin, Eric Ripert, James Beard, Julia Child, Peggy Markel, Salt Lick
Julia Child would be 100 years old today. I think I might make her French Onion Soup and raise a glass this evening in her memory.
Bon appetit! Dee
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged bon appetit, cooking, food, french onion soup, Julia Child
As the field is narrowed for the 2012 Presidental election, Eric Holder is shocked, SHOCKED, that Republicans are trying, as always, to keep the disenfranchised from registering to vote. Readers who remember Casablanca recall the closing of Rick’s due to illegal gambling as the chief of police was collecting his winnings.
I’m going to give you some sage advice from some higher-ups who were very good or bad but left me with something over the years:
– You got in 1 1/2 hours early to work and bought two newspapers, local and NYC, read them. It’s your job.
– It’s a really bad idea for your boss to make staff break copyright law to make money on a conference and for me to be called out on it when I’d made my position clear.
– To that boss, when I get up at 4:30 a.m. to get to an early meeting and have to stop to get a bagel, because you won’t let me have the key to my office, pay for the damn bagel.
– Never trust a guy who tells you that you have to pull individual weeds on a clay tennis court and only a man can run an automatic, sit-upon roller. And respect Pythagoros, because he’s who got us out of there.
– When a guy says he has to sit on the right in church so God knows he’s a conservative, first tell him God may be in front looking at him and see him on the left, then leave, quickly, and forever.
– Whenever anyone hires you and wants to still do your job or change everything you do moment to moment, find another job immediately.
– If your brother says “you don’t need ski lessons,” get them, you won’t be left crying on Big Emma.
– Enjoy the fried catfish your clients bring in on birthdays, because you’re not about to be paid this month.
– Know that sisters bring traditions. Mine wouldn’t get up in high school until I picked out her clothes for the day. Now I get my husband’s out of the closet because I dread “Honey, what should I wear??” when I’m making breakfast.
– An old friend of my dad’s once said that to leave a clean desk was to die, that you had to leave something to get back to on Monday morning. He’s Irish and a great writer and would say it, today, much better than I ever could.
– Never eat maroon food.
– for another view of the universe, my brother, who asked “who turned on the dark?” Yes, he’s sane and lives by a tv set where they do murders every week.
I don’t know that I have a quote, have always been quite practical, and emotional.
I would say happy holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and Kwanzaa. Oh, and SNL’s Dan Ackroyd as Julia Child would have told us to “Save the giblets.”
Dee
My husband’s niece got married last week, across the country from us and we couldn’t attend. She didn’t have much of a wish list in terms of registry, as her husband’s culture doesn’t know that tangible and tacky fact of American society, so we went off the menu.
We would never give cash, though others did. Both of their families love to cook and I know that they were already given knives. So I gave them two of my favorite cookbooks. I always give an out-of-print edition of James Beard’s Theory and Practice of Good Cooking to any bride/groom I know and love.
I added Julia Child’s The Way To Cook, to round it out and provide photos for some classic French recipes and others.
They got a new place to live, and are looking for furniture this weekend to make their new house a home. I hope they have a shelf for two cookbooks they’ll have for a lifetime. Here’s to promoting young love, Dee
Cooking with Dee 