Thinking about Julia

Last night a friend and I went to see "Julie and Julia," a thoroughly enjoyable movie.

On the way home, I told her the story of the copy of Mastering The Art of French Cooking that came my way in 1966. My husband's aunt, a savvy devotee of rummage sales, found it for $2 in Decatur, Illinois - in mint condition except for a missing title page.

"I think someone got it for a wedding present and got scared!" she wrote.

Tonight I took the book off the kitchen shelf for the first time in ages. It falls open to recipes I used to cook - quiche, cheese soufflé, Carbonnade Flammande, Boeuf en Daube, Coquilles St. Jacques (I even owned a set of scallop shells for serving.)

It has been a long time since I made any of those dishes, and I have no desire to emulate Julie Powell's year-long slog through the book. Still, after an hour or so paging through it, I started thinking about dinner parties, wondering if I still have the right pots & pans...

Go see the movie - but be sure to eat before you do!