The other night I went to see the movie Julie & Julia with a few friends. We turned it into an "event" by asking people to bring hors d'oeuvres first. Hey, can't be hungry before you see a foodie movie like this, right? It felt good to cook again after three weeks. Okay, so I didn't really cook per se, if you define cooking as "turning on a heat source and putting food onto it." My friend Sharleen made the little individual peach pies at the left. I made the tomatoes caprese at the right. Maybe "made" isn't the right term either. I grew the tomatoes and the basil, so that counts. And I drove to the store to buy the mozzarella cheese to slice up.
You know what else felt good? Making food pretty AND tasty. Very, very satisfying. (Note to Jenn: you can probably eat this recipe-- well, maybe not the cheese.) When I watched the movie and the Julie character said something about how satisfying it was to make good food, I was right there with her. Cooking is just plain satisfying.
I'm not about to cook my way through Julia Child's cookbook, but I want to buy it. Not going to steam any lobsters or make aspic or truss a duck. I love the idea of people loving beautifully prepared, healthy food, though. I wish there were a culinary school for people who don't want to be chefs but like to cook and want to do it better. Actually, that's what got Julia Child started: she wanted to cook better because she loved food.
Here's what else I thought while watching the movie: blogs can get out of control. There was a scene where Julie was about to publish to the blogosphere that she and her husband had just had a huge fight and he'd left. The camera focuses in on the computer screen from behind Julie's shoulder. She hesitates, then deletes the sentences. I almost cheered out loud. I love blogs and the idea of lots of readers to interact with. I worry sometimes, though, that blogs become public dumping grounds for personal information. Trust can be broken. People can be painted differently than they really are. Okay, the postmodernist in me understands that we always paint people differently-- including ourselves-- than they are. We can't help it. But while a blog pretends to be a personal journal, it's not. It's very public, even if only one or two other people read it. Blogs don't substitute for real life relationships.
Don't get me wrong-- I still like blogging. Watching this movie, though, reminded me that it's important to be careful what you blog about.
Now what can I cook?
5 comments:
Impressive tomatoes caprese, Sheila! (I'm such a non-foodie that I've never even heard of that...?!) I really enjoyed that movie, and I felt the same way you did in that deleting-sentences scene. Good to hear you're up and cooking! Er, up and turning on a heat source and putting food into it!
Okay, cooking lesson for the day: tomatoes caprese. Super easy: slice tomatoes and slice mozzarella cheese. Alternate them in layers. Put fresh basil leaves in between each "set" of tomatoes and cheese: so tomatoes, cheese, basil, then repeat. I also drizzled some olive oil and balsamic vinegar over the top. Good stuff!
Oh, I love that recipe! Love, love, love it! You can't burn it either, which is always my problem in the kitchen.
I can't wait to see that movie!
Make sure you're not hungry when you go see the movie, Jenn. By the way, I made zucchini, tomato, basil, and onion pizza for dinner tonight and LOVED it. I don't think it had anything you can't eat, either. Well, the pizza crust might be a bit of a challenge. You cook sliced onions and garlic in olive oil until they're soft, add salt to taste and a teaspoon of ground fennel, add some sliced zucchini, and let the zucchini get soft. Then you stir in chopped tomatoes and chopped basil and put it on a pizza, topping it all with mozzarella cheese (or any other cheese you want). You could leave the cheese off, too. Yum!
Mmmmm -- I am trying these out RIGHT AWAY! (Hmm, maybe even tonight?...) Thanks Sheila!
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