Cook For Julia: Tarragon and French technique flavor Fish Stew with White Wine and Tarragon

Based on a Julia Child recipe, this delicately-flavored fish stew combines classic cooking methods and ingredients. Recipe below.

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Julia Child’s birth, PBS.org is inviting bloggers to cook one of her recipes, post it and share the link on Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #CookForJulia. Here is my contribution.

Each generation stands on the shoulders of the one before it. Our children use our experience and our knowledge as a foundation to see further than we can. To see things in a way that we can’t.

The same is true in cooking. In looking at some of Julia Child’s cookbooks, it’s easy to see them as a little old-fashioned, right down to the recipes. Chicken Marengo. Ham Steaks with Cream and Mushrooms. But home cooking is only where it is today because we stood on her shoulders. Continue reading “Cook For Julia: Tarragon and French technique flavor Fish Stew with White Wine and Tarragon” →

Happy Birthday, Julia: Celebrating the woman who changed how we cook

To mark the 100th anniversary of Julia Child’s birth, PBS.org recently invited a number of chefs and food bloggers to share tributes to Julia, to tell a little about how the seminal cookbook author, TV personality and larger than life person had influenced them. They were kind enough to include me on their list.

You’ll find Julia sprinkled throughout the pages of Blue Kitchen (and it’s interesting that we all feel comfortable enough with her to call her that, not Ms. Child—but that was the kind of warmth and comfort she always inspired). There are actual recipes, of course, starting with Potage Parmentier, the simple six-ingredient potato leek soup she made for her beloved husband and collaborator Paul almost every day. And there was Skate Meunière with Browned Butter and Capers, based on the life-changing sole meunière Julia ate on her first day in France with Paul. Continue reading “Happy Birthday, Julia: Celebrating the woman who changed how we cook” →

Small Bites: Pressure cookers rehabilitated and a fruitful life in food

Modern, non-exploding (and even programmable) pressure cookers and celebrating Women’s History Month with the woman who launched Julia Child’s career are the subjects of recent USA Character Approved Blog posts.

My mom had a pressure cooker. She loved it. But for the rest of us, it was kind of like having Mt. Vesuvius in your kitchen. You didn’t know when it was going to blow, but you knew it would be bad. More than once, I remember my mom cleaning stew or pot roast or something off the kitchen ceiling. She took it in stride. Mom took lots of stuff in stride, as I recall.

Still, I have to think she’d love the new generation of pressure cookers. They’re just as efficient at cooking foods up to 70 percent faster and don’t involve as much potential drama. Find out more about these classic timesavers made safe in my latest post on the USA Character Approved Blog. Continue reading “Small Bites: Pressure cookers rehabilitated and a fruitful life in food” →

Terry, Marion and Julia: Julia Child’s kitchen and other culinary treasures in Washington, DC

“America’s Attic” displays Julia Child’s entire kitchen and the dimestore lunch counter that served to further the civil rights movement; stellar food in a museum cafeteria [seriously] and our best flea market find—the fojol bros. of Merlindia.

julia-kitchen

Julia Child quite literally bookended our trip to Washington, DC. last weekend. On the flight out, Marion was reading Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously. And when we were preparing to board our flight home, I realized the book I was reading was in our checked bag. Fortunately, we found a copy of Julia’s My Life in France in an airport bookstore.

This double dose of Julia Child was perhaps less than coincidental. For one thing, the soon to be released film “Julie & Julia” has caused a resurgence of interest in the beloved American icon, and publishers and bookstores are only too happy to oblige.

But something else had Julia back on our radar. In planning our weekend trip, we had created a carefully edited list of must sees based on time constraints and sheer stamina. Our primary focuses would be Lincoln and art, as much of both as we could possibly take in. Entire Smithsonian museums were jettisoned from the list. The National Museum of Natural History, for instance [wonderful, but we’ve done that], and the National Air & Space Museum [um, no]. The National Museum of American History, as wonderful as it is [the Star-Spangled Banner, Dorothy’s ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz”], almost joined the reject pile. Then we read that it now houses Julia Child’s kitchen. Suddenly, we had a pilgrimage to make. Continue reading “Terry, Marion and Julia: Julia Child’s kitchen and other culinary treasures in Washington, DC” →