talbotlucas.org: a word to the wise is sufficient

For those of you who missed the piece on the Julie/Julia Project in last Wednesday's New York Times, I urge you to read it. The Project is a monumental one--Julie Powell is working/cooking her way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking, the masterpiece (some might say) of Julia Child, Simone Beck, and Louise Bertholle. Terrence and I have cooked from it on occasion, and I've thought of cooking my way through it, but we've never undertaken the task, and I doubt I would be able to do so within the one year timeframe Julie Powell set for herself.

If the Times' article piques your interest, check out the Julie/Julia Project directly. And if the salty language bothers you, follow Amanda Hesser's lead and substitute "cookie" every time you see "&%$#!"

We've had great success with Julia Child's Homard à l'Américaine recipe, which matches--no surprise--the lessons we had learned on our visit to Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. I'm glad I got the chance to experience our instructor's dramatic flair, and after dismembering lobster in my own kitchen, I really respected his arm strength and calloused hands! Julie Powell worked her way through the lobsters many months ago: here's the link to Julie's experience with the above-mentioned recipe. It's a hoot, as is her Lobster Thermidor recipe (scroll down a bit--it's the second post on the page).

And if you're really interested, grab the audio file of Christopher Lydon's interview with Ms. Powell. [You need to click on his "listen in" link, but note that the links don't work in Safari. I suggest you use IE [sigh] to open it. On the other hand, if you're not reading this on an up-to-date Mac, you're probably saying "what?," and in that case, well, never mind... And a word to the wise: it's a 12.2MB audio file, and even with a high speed connection it took me several minutes to download.]