Dinner With Julia

OK, Julia wasn't there, unless you count "in spirit".

Heidi and Jill picked out four recipes from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and we prepared them last night.

The simplest dish was essentially a cake of sliced potatoes boiled in clarified butter. I probably don't have to explain how deliciously smooth and rich these were.

We also had a lovely chicken in creamy port and mushroom sauce. This one involved drizzling the chicken with brandy and igniting it, before drenching the whole thing in the very rich sauce.

A delicious Swiss chard dish in creamy sauce and a zucchini dish where the zucchini halves are stuffed with a creamy, cheesy, breadcrumb and shallot paste.

In honor of the occasion, Heidi's brother David prepared French 75 cocktails which involve lemon juice and champagne amongst other ingredients which I'm not aware. It was very bright and a fitting accompaniment to the smooth, warm flavors in the main dishes.

Gourmet Bread

This picture shows a cross-section of the loaf of no-knead bread I made yesterday under the tutelage of Dwayne Kryger.
Dwayne demonstrated a pull-and-fold technique that increases the elasticity of the dough as a way to trap the bubbles more effectively. It really worked. Whereas my first couple batches began by popping holes in their top, this batch never let the gases escape without handling.

My oven runs hot, so I burned a portion of the crust. Nonetheless, the bread was very respectable even though from beginning to end the process took less than 12 hours.

Today I'm working on a version with 1/3rd whole wheat flour. I'm going to let it rise overnight for the utmost in bubble size and flavor.

Even Better Than The Ramen Girl

Julie and Julia - a fantastic movie about Julia Child and her enduring legacy. If you are at all a foodie, you must see this movie.

On to other things that are even better than The Ramen Girl:

New York Times No-Knead Bread - Crispy on the outside, chewy in the middle. Cheap as flour, tasty as a $4.50 loaf.

Bagpipes at a funeral, eat less sugar, singing with your family, reading your niece's a bedtime story, bringing zucchini bread when you visit, sleeping on a firm bed.