Two Things

I've been reading the book, Julie & Julia and I have noticed two things occuring. One, I am inspired to get back into French cooking which I can only say must be a natural occurence when one reads this book. I like to bake, I don't relish cooking unless it's cooking some big mess that takes all day. That is definetly the case with French cooking. Yesterday, feeling so inspired I set out to make Beef Bourgingnon. Seeing as I am just so boring I can only talk about purses these days and alienate my readers until they become cranky pants. Cranky pants maschoists that is as they still read this tripe. I figured I would set out to make this beef mess that takes about half a day. When it's done it tastes just like a stew that has an entire bottle of burgundy and stick of butter in it should. Divine. While the snow fell I chopped, braised, sauteed and cut up bacon pieces which was very satisfying in a bizarre way.

The only part that made me flinch in the whole ordeal was not the mess of sticky carrot peelings stuck to the sink as if they were adhered with super glue, but the words in the recipe that said, "pour in brandy, stand back, throw lit match in pot. Umm.... ok. We are literally playing with fire here. T.D. is in her highchair across the room. Check. Batten down the hatches. This might get a bit scary. I re-read the whole "stand back" part and thought, "here goes! Let's hope H doesn't come home to a charred out pile of rubble that at 7 a.m. was his home." I took out the torch thingy we use to light the grill. In retrospect not the best tool. Should have found a small matchstick. Not a torch. Lessons learned. I do still have all my eyebrows thank you. So I lit the freakin' pot on fire. Whoa! The whole thing flamed up a nice orange flame of about a foot high and then just kept going. And going. I looked at the cookbook in a panic- WHAT DO I DO AFTER I "stand back and throw in said match?!" It says nothing. I stirred the firey mess with a spoon. A wooden spoon. Then I realized wood and fire? Not such a great combo. At least I didn't add melted hot magma plastic to the beef mess too. Funny, I felt just like Julie Powell, the author of Julie & Julia must have felt while she was cooking some of these same dishes. In the end it came out wonderfully and there was not an ounce of charred wood taste to the dish.

The second thing I found while reading this book is that this whole blog thing for Julie back in 2002, practically the dawn of the blog, is that it was a project with a purpose. One that would eventually come to a hopefully conclusive end. It made me wonder what my project is and would there be an end to this blog. In a sense it is changing. The blog is in a transition period. It cannot be the same type of content as I no longer work in an office where assclowns perform daily antics whether I want them to or not. Let's face it it was a no brainer for writing. It will take me a bit to find my way I suppose and maybe I'll figure out some project. For now though I have more vacuums to write about and now some pretty damn stimulating ceiling medallions. I know. Fascinating stuff indeed.

And if you don't like purses then you would never understand that last post so bite it "Anonymous".