Julie & Julia
With the humor of Bridget Jones and the vitality of Augusten Burroughs, Julie Powell recounts how she conquered every recipe in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking and saved her soul.
Julie Powell is 30 years old, living in a rundown apartment in Queens and working at a soul-sucking secretarial job that’s going nowhere. She needs something to break the monotony of her life, and she invents a deranged assignment. She will take her mother’s dog-eared copy of Julia Child’s 1961 classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and she will cook all 524 recipes. In the span of one year.
At first she thinks it will be easy. But as she moves from the simple Potage Parmentier (potato soup) into the more complicated realm of aspics and crepes, she realizes there’s more to Mastering the Art of French Cooking than meets the eye. With Julia’s stern warble always in her ear, Julie haunts the local butcher, buying kidneys and sweetbreads. She sends her husband on late-night runs for yet more butter and rarely serves dinner before midnight. She discovers how to mold the perfect Orange Bavarian, the trick to extracting marrow from bone, and the intense pleasure of eating liver.
And somewhere along the line she realizes she has turned her kitchen into a miracle of creation and cuisine. She has eclipsed her life’s ordinariness through spectacular humor, hysteria, and perseverance.
[ Source : Powell's Books - Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen by Julie Powell ]
October 29, 2009
I went to Borders on Thursday as I had a 30% off discount coupon that was expiring on the very next day. And I picked up this book.
Frankly speaking, I have no idea why I have picked this book up over the thousands of books available in Borders. Perhaps it is because of the movie, which I had just watched last Sunday. To compare the movie to the book, I would definitely say that the book is way better than the movie.
Powell’s writing has surprised me. The book has been (so far) a delicious read.
October 29, 2009
“I was drowning and she pulled me out of the ocean.” – Julie Powell
I am in my new job now, and I have found myself drowning in my work. I am unable to update this blog as often as I used. Now it is usually just once a week.
I am also finding myself forgetting to do things and missing many appointments with my friends. So I figured out I need to get my life more organized. And guess what I did yesterday?
I took out my Moleskine notebook and drew out a weekly planner of my own. (I am aware that Moleskine produces weekly planners as well. But I just thought that it would be easier and more fun to create one on my own for a start.)
So starting this week, I am going to do this every week to get myself more organized.
I hope it will last.
Or maybe not . . . after reading this:
“Many people live and die by the desk calendar these days. Ours is a time-conscious, time-driven culture. Most of us have more things to do on our schedules than we can comfortably manage. These pressures have created an environment where missing appointments and scheduled events is a constant threat.” – Davild C. Lohff
No comments:
Post a Comment