Like so many others, my desire to own this particular cook book was inspired by the movie Julie & Julia. It's the story of a young woman struggling find to find her purpose. Her one joy in life is cooking, so she decides to cook her way through Julia Child's entire cookbook in one year and write a blog about it. The images of food in that movie are mouthwatering, and I figured that if Julie Powell can pull off these complex recipes, I can too!
The first recipe I found that seemed manageable was a Provencal vegetable soup with garlic, basil and herbs called Soupe au Pistou. It was easy enough - I slowly boiled a mixture of fresh, frozen and canned vegetables and pasta, then flavored it with a kind of tomato pesto made of tomato paste, grated parmesan cheese, garlic, dried basil and lots of fresh olive oil that our friends sent us from Italy. I was pretty proud of myself - I only had to google a word or technique three times in order to figure out what Julia was talking about. (I learned that there are four cups to a quart, that a soup tureen is a large ceramic serving dish, and how to mash garlic. I wasn't very successful on that last part but the soup turned out just fine.) The best part was seeing the eyes of James and our dinner guests light up after their first bite. The soup was hot and hearty, with powerful but not overwhelming flavor. It was the perfect first step in my journey to master the art of French cooking.
Bon appetit!
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