HB, J. Child

It’s Julia Child’s birthday again. Had she lived, she’d be turning 98 today. Ms. Child’s mother, Julia Carolyn McWilliams, who lived with John McWilliam in Pasadena (CA, US), named her daughter after herself. The younger Julia later married Paul Child in 1946 and took his last name. When Mr. Child was assigned to a United States Foreign Service post in Paris (FR), they moved there and Ms. Child learned about French cooking.

It was Ms. Child’s “The French Chef” that made me think cooking could be not only rewarding but fun and intellectually engaging, too. Pat and I would watch it on our old B&W TV and then cook things we’d seen her make. Our menus were not grand (chili beans with souffle and salad!), but I got the general ideas of the recipes and the nerve to try them.

Our friends Alan and Diane shared our interest in fine food and gave us Mastering the Art of French Cooking (both volumes). Another friend, Jim, edited the title, replacing “cooking” with “kissing.” We still use them.

It’s wonderful to see that sales of Ms. Child’s cookbooks have increased recently. Those increased sales are the result of renewed interest because of the movie, Julie & Julia. I’ve not yet read Julie Powell’s book Julie & Julia, based on her blog, Julie/Julia Project. A few days before I drafted this post, we saw a trailer for the movie based on the book. And then we saw the film the day it opened (7 August).

Julie&JuliatheMovie

In a packed theater, we saw Julie & Julia yesterday afternoon. As probably most people in the US with access to popular media have heard, this is Nora Ephron’s movie based on a combination of Julie Powell’s book Julie & Julia (following her blog, The Julie/Julia Project) and Julia Child’s memoir (written with Alex Prud’homme), My Life in France. Oh, and it’s about cooking.

As at least one reader will know (PJM, you can run, but you can’t hide), I have a soft spot for Ms. Child. Pat and I learned a lot about cooking from watching her public TV show. I remember our first souffle, undertaken not long after watching Ms. Child on The French Chef showing that what I thought was a daunting disk was actually pretty easy. Those memories made me anticipate this movie, perhaps creating a predisposition to like it.

Headless chicken stories

There apparently is some truth to what I thought was cartoon hyperbole. At least one chicken apparently survived beheading and lived for a long time, supposedly with a little brain stem and esophagus.

In animated short videos that I saw as a child, I remember watching illustrations of the concept. Replete with classical music and goofy actions (chicken raises its wing to feel for its missing head?), this was a commonplace.

Chickens were raised and (though I don’t do so any more) eaten at my house when I was a child. However, I don’t recall ever seeing un pollo sin cabeza in the chicken yard.

But I hadn’t encountered the story of Mike the Headless Chicken. Mike was a roster who lost his head in the 1940s and then went on to a career as a featured performer in a road show. His story is now the basis for an annual festival in the town of Fruita (CO, US), near where he hatched.

Fund for Peace shout out

The Fund for Peace focuses on alleviating the conditions that cause war. The venerable organization (it celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2007) provides many useful resources, including Country Assessment Reports (reports about countries’ stability and political risks based on economic, social, and political indicators), the Globalization & Human Rights Series (a set of essays about issues in sustainable development and human rights), and many other products. Jump over to Fund for Peace.

Power to PECVA

http://pecva.org/

Probably the closest many of us get to the Piedmont Environmental Council of Virginia is the easily spotted stickers on bumpers that exhort us to purchase locally grown food stuffs. Fortunately, the folks at PECVA are doing lots more than that.

Yes, you can get your local food news from the PECVA-sponsored Buy Fresh, Buy Local site, but you can get additional valuable lowdown about our immediate neighborhood and similar areas in Virginia from the parent Web site. There’s resources about clean air and water, land conservation and local development, current environmental threats, and lots more. Go there!

Gotta love it

In “Another Reason To Spike That Eggnog,” Flora Lichtman of Talk of the Nation seeks an answer to a question about whether the risk of contracting salmonella poisoning can be reduced by putting whiskey (or similar) into one’s eggnog. See it from the Science Friday page (with video link).

Also in “More Evidence That Eggnog Goes Better With Booze,” from the US National Public Radio pages:

It’s a question that many people have on their minds this season: Does spiking the homemade eggnog safeguard it against salmonella? Eggnog expert and microbiologist Vince Fischetti of The Rockefeller University in New York runs some tests to find out.

T’day retrospective

Hanging with Fam: Four of us Nov ‘08

As I reported earlier, P, C, and I drove to Roanoke for dinner with at my sister’s where my cousin was visiting. In this photo, taken by P, the other four of us are sitting around the table tumescently, with parts of a carcass and other remnants of the meal on the table. The famous cranberry kitty is visible near the dark red bowl.

Menu: Cheeses (Irish cheddar, St. Andre, and a local goat camembert) with crackers. Spiced nuts. Artichoke with dressings with fresh bread from ABC. Chilled carrot soup. An Amish turkey. Stuffing. Black beans (for me). Salad. Three pies (cranberry, pecan, and pumpkin).

It was good to visit. There was the usual period of time when lots of cooks were crowded into the kitchen. We got to talk with Ang about ideas for design of the kitchen in our new house (she’s a pro at such designs). Later, several of us had fun playing Scrabble.

Happy tofu day

Actually, I’ll probably have beans along with some of the other fixin’s. Meanwhile, I’ll be visiting with some members of my family live and in-person as well as telephonically. Hosting Hannah is providing turkey (for those who eat it) and veggies. Pat made several yummy looking pies. Corey’s contributing bread and spiced nuts. Mayhaps Angie will sculpt a kitten from cranberry sauce. I made some carrot soup and got some cheeses.

And, for grins, I’ll be remembering a video featuring members of the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir: