My Day with Julia

A big Happy Birthday to Julia Child who would have turned 100 today!

oh wait... a grande Bon Anniversaire to Julia Child who would have turned 100 aujourd'hui!
(My french is getting rusty)

Oh Julia, dear Julia, you were the first celebrity chef on television. You took french cooking and made it look easy and fun and not stuffy and complicated. You made us laugh with your goofiness that was never intentional. It was just you being you. If you are a francophile like moi, you are envious of Julia's gastronomical adventures. And sometimes when you are cooking you hear Julia's voice coaching you on. I mean when I drop meat on the floor, I say "What would Julia Do?" in my head. The answer is always "pick that meat up and keep cooking it!" When I wonder if a sauce could be better if I added wine, the answer is always " Of course! Add some and drink the rest!".

Yesterday, I decided that I wanted to celebrate Julia's Anniversaire and eat one of the recipes from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Problem is, that I don't actually own a copy. I have an antique copy of The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer and several antique copies of Prudence Penny's cookbooks but no Julia.

(Sidenote: One when working at Antwons I checked in a guest whose last name was Rombauer. I said, " Oh, like Irma Rombauer." And she was all " You know my grandmother? No one your age knows who my grandmother is. " Well I do. This was a pretty cool moment for me. I met the granddaughter of a cooking deity. She definitly got a window seat.)

A quick internet search showed that all across the county restaurants were having Julia Child themed dinner for their guests and that Whole Paycheck was having promotional prices on ingredients used in her cooking. Knopf publishing had released online the famous Boeuf Bourguignon recipe as well as the supplementary recipes for Champignons Sautes au Beurre ( sauteed mushrooms) and Oignons Glaces a Brun ( brown braised onions). What to do?

Well the answer was plainly obvious... cook the Boeuf Bourguignon! Did Julia write those cook books and host numerous cooking shows to teach us how to go to a restaurant? NO! She wanted us to cook at home. She wanted us to know how simple it can be to prepare quality food. I feel that going to a Julia themed meal at a restaurant is a bit of a slap in the face to her. If you want to honor Julia, you have to do some cooking.

To start, I got dressed properly. And by properly I mean like Julia.

Button up shirt is required. Be a lady and make sure you have your lipstick on. Make sure you wear a fabulous apron. Mine was a gift from my Grandmothers friend. She heard I like ruffles.

Then you assemble your ingredients. Julia was able to go the fresh markets to get her ingredients everyday. I on the other hand go to my local Fresh & Easy Market. I'm sure I did Julia proud with my home grown thyme. I also economized by getting a chuck roast instead of a rump roast. Julia reccomends the rump roast but always gives options and says get the best you can afford. She was clearly a woman of the people.

I started with the mushroom and onion recipes first. The recipe calls for pearl onions and I couldn't find any at the 3 stores that I tried. So I improvised with half of a yellow onion. The onions smelled l'amazing while cooking! I love l'onions. Which is fortunate since this recipe calls for onions three times! The sauteed champignons call for chopped green onions at the end. Then you add those to your pearl onions. Good l'oignion-y grief.

I took a break before starting the actual Boeuf recipe. Had to make sure that my $2 bottle of Cab was adequate. It's spicy and tasty. Big Kahuna is the house brand at F&E. The wines are $2 a bottle and Chris and I have yet to be dissapointed with them.

So here's what happens next. You cook your bacon in a skillet. Make extra because you know you are going to snack on some while you cooking it. Cook it softly and then remove the bacon leaving all the drippings in the pan. Then you sear your stew meat. The recipe specifically says to make sure the beef is dry so it browns properly. It encourages using a paper towel to dry the cubes. I can honestly say that I have never thought to dry my meat before cooking it, but I did it, and it browned marvelously. But a thought occured to me,

" I just seared steak in bacon fat. Fucking genius. I love you Julia Child."

Then you sautee your vegetables in the bacon/beef fat. And you have a giggle fit that a recipe that calls for 3 lbs of rump roast calls for one solitary carrot as a vegetable. And more onions of course. I made a half recipe with only 1.5 lbs of chuck roast, but I used the whole carrot. Then you have a giggle fit because you realize that even if you double the amount of vegetables in a recipe, the point is totally moot if you fry them in bacon/beef fat. Place your bacon, beef, and vegetables in an oven safe cassarole dish with a lid. The recipe says to toss them in 2 Tbsp of flour and put it in the oven for 4 minutes to coat the meat with a browned flour crust. This seemed really hokie to me but I did it. 

Julia does not lie. As you can see, it is indeed covered with a brown floury crust.

 It will look similar to this when you put it back in the oven for the next three hours. That's right, it has to simmer in the oven for 3 hours. The smell will taunt you for 3 hours. It will waft right out the door so amazingly that your neighbor says, " Hey girl, whatchu got cookin' in there?" when really you know he just wants to know why you are prancing around in a ruffled apron with the doors and windows open when he knows you are unemployed and have worn nothing but stretch pants for the last three weeks.

Then, enjoy a popsicle or delicious cold beverage of your choice because you are going to have your oven on for at least three more hours and it's 100 degrees outside. 

After three hours, take your cassarole dish out of the oven. Get a big whiff... ahhhh. Beefy heaven.

Strain the contents of your cassarole dish into a sauce pan.  Place your Boeuf back in the dish or place on a serving platter with your boiled potatoes. I didn't include the potatoes in the pictures because, well, you should know how to boil potatoes by now.

 Simmer your drippings until all the fat rises to the top then skim the fat off. This sauce was so rich and velvety. Put it in your gravy boat and pour it over your stew and get ready for the belle of all boeuf dishes.

Voila! Stir in those onions and mushrooms and dish it up. Bon Appetit!

 "I think careful cooking is love, don't you? The loveliest thing you can cook for someone who's close to you is about as nice a Valentine as you can give." - Julia Child

Chris was ridiculously giddy about this meal. He came home after a 10+ hour shift, caught a whiff, and just about melted into the chair.

Like my gravy boat? Oui, I know it's supposed to be a creamer but putting gravy in it is so much more fun. You will see why in a bit.

"Cooking is like love; it should be entered into with abandon or not at all."- Julia Child

I'm including this picture just to show you how beautiful the plate is. 1931. I think Julia would approve of my details.

Like my adorable Eiffel Tower spreaders.

 "Learn how to cook -- try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless and above all have fun."- Julia Child

Like the puking cow? She's been our favorite for years. We really are that mature.

So what did I learn today? I already knew that cooking was fun. I like cooking, I love baking. I like shopping for food at the store. I love shopping for it at the farmers market. What I learned was exactly the point; cooking doesn't have to be intimidating. This recipe seemed complicated but was actually very simple. And delicious. I know I will be making it again. In the winter. Because it was 100 degrees today and we ate beef stew for dinner. I wish I had a full copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking because tomorrow I am going to roast a whole chicken. It's on my list of things to learn while I am a temporary housewife.

"The best way to execute French cooking is to get good and loaded and whack the hell out of a chicken. Bon appetit."- Julia Child

Tomorrow, I'm going to whack the hell out of this chicken.

Also, while I have you here, what else should I learn during my temporary housewifing? Should I make soap? Make butter?I'm taking suggestions. I've been doing a lot of jamming lately. My jam cup runneth over. Post your ideas in the comments below.

Jamboree

Last Sunday was our first official day in Sacramento and what was the first thing we did?.....

Find a farmers market!

One of the things we missed about our life in Kitsap was going to the market every week and getting fresh produce and bread from Borrowed Kitchen Bakery. Farmer's Markets in Las Vegas were a joke. We did most of our shopping at Cardenas, a mexican market that had the best produce prices ever and I miss dearly. Here in Sac grocery prices are out of control! I have hit several stores over the last 10 days to see the prices of things we regularly eat and I am not impressed. Supermarkets populate the place as opposed to Vegas which was full of smaller regional markets like Sunflower Market and Fresh & Easy Market.

But the farmer's market, oh the farmers market.... It was heavenly. It's about 3 blocks of farm stands. And by farm stands I mean there aren't any crafts. Just stand after stand of produce, local honey, local artisan cheese, local ranchers, and flowers. It was as crowded as Pike Place on a weekend and the produce stands actually barter prices with you. We had a successful adventure there and we went back again this weekend.  A 1/2 flat of strawberries, 14 lbs of peaches ( $1/lb Lady Elberta Freestone Peaches) and more came back home with us. And then I got to canning.

Last week I used all my fresh basil and made a batch of fresh pesto. It turned out fantastic! It also made a ton, about 24 oz, so I canned it. Well you can't actually can pesto. So it's in the freezer in little 4 oz. containers.

I used Ina Garten's recipe for pesto. It's delicious. And while you can't can pesto it will freeze indefinitely. I saw a fantastic tip on another blog though where she freezes the pesto in muffin tins and then pops them out and stores them a container, where they are perfectly portioned. Genius. I also had a container of fresh mint in the fridge. Chris and I are addicted to drinking minted green tea but my $0.50 mint purchase was more then I could drink in a week. So I decided to make Mint Jelly.

I used the recipe included in the pectin box. I've never made Mint jelly before. I've never even ate Mint Jelly before. I guess I need to roast a lamb because I have 8 jars of Mint Jelly now. And my apartment smelled fantastic!

It was super simple to make. If you aren't canning or jamming you should try it. I started doing it as a little girl with my grandparents and my mother. Chris and I bought our own canning equipment this weekend and now I'm going to be on a canning spree! The initial cost is steep but not awful. It's mostly the cost of the jars and they are reusable. The cost of the fruit is a factor too but down here in California you can grow just about anything and there are lots of u-pick farms. We picked up another half flat of strawberries for $10 at the market and I made a batch of Strawberry Vanilla Bean Jam.

I washed and trimmed my berries. They are so sweet and delicioius and strait from the farm to my jar.

I used my food processor to pulse the berries. So much easier than hand mashing but you don't want to go too crazy. You want the berries to be chunky and give your jam texture. Also according to pickyourown.org if you totally puree them, it breaks down the acid required for the jam to set properly.

Strawberry Vanilla Bean Jam. My batch yielded 11 jars and they set perfectly. I saved a little to taste test and the vanilla bean mellows out the sugar sweetness. Also, my flavor profile was a little different since I used an unrefined cane sugar instead of refined white sugar. I'm really happy with how they turned out.

I had enough stawberries for a half batch so I added the white peaches (and a little almond extract) we picked up at the market to them. But peaches and strawberries require different amounts of sugar in order to jell properly. So I decided to split the difference and that didn't work. So I now have 13 jars of delicious dessert topping :)

And then I started on all those big beautiful Lady Elberta Peaches....





I poached and peeled them. They felt all cool and slimy in my hands so I just mashed and separated them with my hands. This left them very chunky...

... I had enough for four batches. I found a great recipe I wanted to try for Vanilla Bean Bourbon Peach Jam. I adapted from her recipe and wow! It's fantastic. I made two batches at first and poured some in a bowl for my fridge so I could sample it later. I had 20 jars already so I decide to make a different flavor, a Spiced Peach Jam with cinnnamon and cloves. Yummm... Well while they were processing I poured that warm Bourbon Peach Jam over some vanilla ice cream and blew my own mind. The jam uses lime juice so it's very tart at the front but then you get peachy bourbony goodness. I decided then and there that 20 jars wasn't enough and I made the fourth batch Vanilla Bean Bourbon Peach too.

72 jars of jam total! Chris came home and was stunned. And unfortunately, he doesn't like the peach jam as much as I do. More for me I guess. Or more for you as our Christmas shopping is basically done now. I think I will do some more canning next week though. I have ideas about Ginger Peach Jam, Strawberry Basil Jam, and Pear Butter or bruschetta topping, or salsa or chutney....

Well I found this great quote earlier that I want to share with you....

"When you cut that eggplant up and you roast it in the oven and you make the tomato sauce
and you put it on top, your soul is in that food, and there's something about that that can never
be made by a company that has three million employees." - Mario Batali

I find this to be very true and I am glad to be in a geographical location where I can try to grow some food. Today we picked up a basil plant as well as some rosemary, oregano, and thyme. I'm starting my herb garden while I research other gardening advice for this climate. I've never grown food before but I have a fairly large patio and I can grow a little urban garden. I'll keep you posted on how that goes as well as all the housewife-ing I plan on doing during my temporary (and hopfully short) period of unemployment.