Embracing the (Julia) Child Within

I remember watching Julia Child on PBS with my parents when I was little. I don't remember any of the dishes, just her amazing voice and the amount of fun that she seemed to always be having. Decades later, I have started to wonder: What was she cooking (and eating, of course) that made her so happy?

I have determined that the short answer is butter. The long answer: the process.

Justin recently got me a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Yes, a little motion picture has certainly brought a lot of people back to Julia in recent months, but, gosh, what a fascinating lady.

The process: in my limited experience with French food--pastry nights with Rose, Alex, and fake mustaches in Olympia and playing around with my giant new cookbook--I have found that the ingredients are simple. However, the role that each ingredient plays in a dish and the time spent preparing that ingredient for its palatable debut are significant.

With the help of Julia, I finally had the nerve to cook up those pork chops that Nash gave all of us farm folks for Christmas. Yup, I have had them stuffed in the freezer for a few months with no idea what to do with them. A lb. of butter later, Justin and I had:

Casserole-roasted Pork Chops
Butter-braised Brussel Sprouts
Mashed sunchokes and parsnips
and
Chocolate-Almond Cake

delicious! Neither Justin nor I knew how good a pork chop tasted. Thanks, Julia!