Julie and Julia

 

 Before I start about this movie let me tell you the story leading up to watching the movie...

Last night my husband made a quick run to Publix for me.When he came home he said,"I brought something home for you." He had brought home the movie Julie and Julia.. We have both wanted to see this movie for a while and he thought last night would be a good night to watch it. Well he forgot that the finale of the "Biggest Loser" was coming on. But he was trying to surprise me and I didn't want to hurt his feelings and so we stayed up until midnight watching Julie and Julia after the biggest loser. It did make for a late night but the movie was really cute.

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So these are some scenes from the movie. If you have not seen it then I don't want to give the story away to you but I do want to talk a little bit about it.

Now, I am not one for talking or writing for that matter about movies. This doesn't have anything to do with the topics I normally discuss but I thought I would make an exception. 

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Julia Child was a lady who could not have children. She desperately wanted to have something to do in her life that could fill that void that I think she had. She tried hat making, bridge, and a numerous of other things before she found her love for cooking. She loved to eat and she loved great tasting food.

That is when she came up with the idea of attending a cooking school.

So she decided to enroll in a class at Le Cordon Bleu. Her goal was to teach and eventually have a French cookbook published in English.

She did later achieve that goal along with other cookbooks and a cooking show.

This is definitely a cute movie to watch and when it is over you will feel inspired and believe it or not you will want to cook a meal.

Or at least that is how I felt. I was getting hungry as the show went on and when it was over I had a million ideas running through my head about food and recipes. (Not a very good thing to have at midnight.)

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Now on the other hand, Julie, was a young women who wanted to set a goal for herself and commit to finishing something that she started. She decided she would for 1 year cook through Julia Child's cookbook and she would blog about it.

She did have some obstacles to face with eating certain items and of coarse cooking lobster (seen below) but

she did finish her 1 year and her last recipe with de-boning and cooking a chicken. (seen in a picture below.)

Blogging about it ended up getting her book published and later this movie was made from her story.

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I thought it would be neat to include a French recipe for you. So I have included two. One recipe is (courtesy of Julia Child) Beef Bourguignon and the other is from Le Cordon Bleu. (See below for recipes)

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Julie talking with her husband about Julia Child.

 

Always excited about food!

 

Cooking Class at Le Cordon Bleu

 

 Julie's attempt at cooking Lobster

 

 Julie's last meal

 

 Bon Appetit

 

PETITS LÉGUMES FARCIS - Stuffed baby vegetables

PREP TIME: 1h 30 mins
COOK TIME: 20 mins
TOTAL TIME: 1h 50 mins

SERVING SIZE: serves 6

Ingredients

Principal ingredients
12 tomatoes, approximately 4cm (1.5") in diameter
12 button mushrooms, approximately 4cm (1.5") in diameter
12 round zucchini, approximately 4cm (1.5") in diameter
Stuffing
½ onion, chopped
30 ml (2 tbsp)olive oil
salt, freshly ground pepper
4 slices stale bread, crust cut off
1 tbsp chopped parsley
2 tbsp pine nuts
To serve
olive oil
arugula leaves

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 360°F.
2. Cut the tops off the tomatoes and set aside. Using a melon baller, remove the flesh and seeds from the center of the tomatoes and reserve for the sauce. Sprinkle the inside of the tomatoes with salt and place them upside down on a plate covered in paper towel. Set aside. Remove the tops and flesh of the zucchini as for the tomatoes. Set the flesh aside for the filling. Rub any earth off the mushrooms with a dry paper towel. Snap off the stems and set aside for the filling.
3. Filling: In a shallow pan over low heat, sweat the onions in olive oil until translucent. Finely chop the mushrooms and zucchini. Add to the onions. Season. Cook until no liquid remains. Once cooked, transfer to a clean bowl and allow to cool. Process the bread into breadcrumbs and add to the vegetables along with the parsley and pine nuts. Taste and season accordingly.
4. Blanch the zucchini for 30 seconds in boiling salted water. Refresh under running cold water and drain well. Salt the mushrooms and fill the mushrooms, tomatoes and zucchini with the stuffing. Place the tops back on filled zucchini and tomatoes. Place the vegetables in an oiled heat proof dish, drizzle with olive oil and bake for approximately 20 minutes.
5. Sauce: blend the reserved tomato flesh and strain through a fine meshed sieve. Transfer to a small pan and reduce by half over medium heat. Season and keep warm. Add a drizzle of olive oil.
6. To serve: arrange the Stuffed baby vegetables onto plates with a drizzle of sauce and a few arugula leaves. 

Beef Bourguignon

Ingredients

One 6-ounce piece of chunk bacon

3 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

3 pounds lean stewing beef, cut into 2-inch cubes

1 carrot, sliced

1 onion, sliced

Salt and pepper

2 tablespoons flour

3 cups red wine, young and full-bodied (like Beaujolais, Cotes du Rhone or Burgundy)

2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups brown beef stock

1 tablespoon tomato paste

2 cloves mashed garlic

1/2 teaspoon thyme

A crumbled bay leaf

18 to 24 white onions, small

3 1/2 tablespoons butter

Herb bouquet (4 parsley sprigs, one-half bay leaf, one-quarter teaspoon thyme, tied in cheesecloth)

1 pound mushrooms, fresh and quartered

Cooking Directions

Remove bacon rind and cut into lardons (sticks 1/4-inch thick and 1 1/2 inches long). Simmer rind and lardons for 10 minutes in 1 1/2 quarts water. Drain and dry.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Sauté lardons in 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a flameproof casserole over moderate heat for 2 to 3 minutes to brown lightly. Remove to a side dish with a slotted spoon.
Dry beef in paper towels; it will not brown if it is damp. Heat fat in casserole until almost smoking. Add beef, a few pieces at a time, and sauté until nicely browned on all sides. Add it to the lardons.
In the same fat, brown the sliced vegetables. Pour out the excess fat.
Return the beef and bacon to the casserole and toss with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.
Then sprinkle on the flour and toss again to coat the beef lightly. Set casserole uncovered in middle position of preheated oven for 4 minutes.
Toss the meat again and return to oven for 4 minutes (this browns the flour and coves the meat with a light crust).
Remove casserole and turn oven down to 325 degrees.
Stir in wine and 2 to 3 cups stock, just enough so that the meat is barely covered.
Add the tomato paste, garlic, herbs and bacon rind. Bring to a simmer on top of the stove.
Cover casserole and set in lower third of oven. Regulate heat so that liquid simmers very slowly for 3 to 4 hours. The meat is done when a fork pierces it easily.
While the beef is cooking, prepare the onions and mushrooms.
Heat 1 1/2 tablespoons butter with one and one-half tablespoons of the oil until bubbling in a skillet.
Add onions and sauté over moderate heat for about 10 minutes, rolling them so they will brown as evenly as possible. Be careful not to break their skins. You cannot expect them to brown uniformly.
Add 1/2 cup of the stock, salt and pepper to taste and the herb bouquet.
Cover and simmer slowly for 40 to 50 minutes until the onions are perfectly tender but hold their shape, and the liquid has evaporated. Remove herb bouquet and set onions aside.
Wipe out skillet and heat remaining oil and butter over high heat. As soon as you see butter has begun to subside, indicating it is hot enough, add mushrooms.
Toss and shake pan for 4 to 5 minutes. As soon as they have begun to brown lightly, remove from heat.
When the meat is tender, pour the contents of the casserole into a sieve set over a saucepan.
Wash out the casserole and return the beef and lardons to it. Distribute the cooked onions and mushrooms on top.
Skim fat off sauce in saucepan. Simmer sauce for a minute or 2, skimming off additional fat as it rises. You should have about 2 1/2 cups of sauce thick enough to coat a spoon lightly.
If too thin, boil it down rapidly. If too thick, mix in a few tablespoons stock. Taste carefully for seasoning.
Pour sauce over meat and vegetables. Cover and simmer 2 to 3 minutes, basting the meat and vegetables with the sauce several times.
Serve in casserole, or arrange stew on a platter surrounded with potatoes, noodles or rice, and decorated with parsley.