It is 5:01pm on my Sunday afternoon. I just came home from the movies (yes, the movies) after seeing Julie & Julia. I had to open what has turned out to a beautiful bottle of Claret the boys got me, poured a big glass and am now finishing this post for today.
After catching a preview for Julie & Julia, I realized I wanted to see it. I wanted to see the movie because I wanted to go back and hopefully find some of what I remembered from watching Julia Child on television when she was the only one doing cooking shows. I knew Meryl Streep would do a good job. I wasn’t sure the movie itself would be all that good but the other half of the story line is that a young woman named Julie decides to write a blog about cooking all of the recipes in one of Julia Child’s cookbooks. Cooking, writing a blog – I thought I might have some way to relate to it all.
So I asked Jay about a week ago if we might go. He remembers Julia Child. He remembers catching a few of her shows and he especially remembers the funny bit Dan Ackroyd did on Saturday Night Live mimicking her. I think we watched that together. He listened as I pitched that it might not be the best movie but he understood my point about Meryl Streep doing a good job and agreed to go.
And now we are back home and the movie was as I expected. I think I took away what I wanted. I could certainly identify with the young blogger. I too have a tendency toward…how do I say this…being obsessive, emotional, overreacting, and being on the brink of insanity at times. Jay admitted I have never actually lain down on the kitchen floor when the food fell off the counter but close. He has seen me react quite strongly toward surprisingly simple things that happen. But then he also admitted that his barometer for my insanity is not set the same way as others since he has had to experience such high Richter scale readings and frequency of occurrences for such a long while. This might be a good thing for me but I am not so sure it’s such a good thing for him. But he seems to be pretty okay with it. I’ll go with that.
The movie confirmed most of the facts I already knew about Julia Child. It was entertaining watching parts of the story unfold about her and as I expected Meryl Streep did an excellent job. I had no doubt she would do any less. Her entire story line was interesting to me as was the very last scene of the movie when her published cookbook finally arrives in the mail. It had taken her years of work and even then she has so many doubts. She opens the manila envelope and takes the bound volume out. She places her hand to her mouth and has a tearful expression on joy that was unmistakable to me at the realization of her accomplishment. I realized I had the same hand to mouth and tearful joy expression as I watched.
I will now find a beef bourguignon recipe that I will prepare and serve even though no one is expected to come over. I will continue to write my blog even though no one will read. And I will stop now to refill an excellent glass of Claret that my sons were generous enough to buy for me. I know, one glass and look at me!
So enough for now. But how else could I end this but…
Bon Appétit!
TT
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