The idea came to me as a wimp; I should get a Julia Child's cookbook and start cooking from it like Julie Powell did. Then my roommate said that I should blog it. So here I am. Maybe this is a little cliche, but I think it'll be fun.
Considering the left-over chicken breast in my fridge, I decided to start with poultry. Hence, Chicken Provencale, because I also have an old tomato left. Besides, nothing con go wrong with tomatoes.
After a laborious grocery shopping at the shoppers across the street from my apartment complex, I returned with victory! But really, how can you shop for groceries without a car. It was hard work just to carry all the bags of groceries home. Anyway, it's good exercise.
I had too much confidence in our kitchen and realized that we didn't have Provencial herbs. Oh well, it'll do. I sautéed the chicken, which turned out to taste a bit funny because it's a little too old, I think. I did not feed this to my roommate.
Julia said one should use tomato pulp to make the sauce. My question was, how am I going to do with the tomato pieces without the pulps? I chopped them and threw them in the pan anyway. To replace the required herbs, I used a bit of oregano, and salt and pepper. I planned to make a side dish of mushrooms and ended up adding them to the chicken after they were sautéed. I have to admit, I don't like precision very much, so I played around the recipes.
Maybe I didn't mention, but I am not following the classic French cookbook Julia wrote and Julie used. I am using the more basic one, "The Way to Cook". Got a pretty nice deal on Amazon.
I do not have the determination that Julie had, to cook every recipe in the cookbook. I take this more as a fun getaway from my endless reading and writing for classes. Oh, one more thing I have in common with Julie, if any, is that I am a writer too, or at least trying to be one.
When I'm in the kitchen with Julia, I feel liberated from Aristotle's theories about Rhetoric.
My first cookbook!
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