My planner has the date of the opening of the movie Julie and Julia written and circled in red. I can't wait for it to come out. Amy Adams is one of my favorite actresses, and Meryl Streep is the best!
Last year I read "My Life in France" and fell in love with Julia Child. What a delight to discover by coincidence her kitchen on display at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC. In February a young colleague and I had a business meeting in DC. She had never been to our nation's capital and wanted to tour the Smithsonian and Arlington National Cemetary in the short time we had after the meeting and before our flight. Normally I would not have tried to take in so much in so little time, but am I glad we did. Now I can't get enough of America's first and most endearing culinary icon.
This summer my sister-in-law and I started a "supper club" where we take turns trying new recipes. My first attempt is scheduled for next week and I've selected Sole Meuniere. Why? Because it was the first meal Julia Child had when she and husband Paul moved to France, and it's the meal that spawned the "culinary ephiphany" for Julia to take cooking lessons. Also, the recipe has a great story behind it and it looks fairly easy to make.
According to Wikipedia, "Meuniere refers to both a sauce and a method of preparation. The word itself means "miller's wife" and that etymology provides insight into both culinary uses. The miller's wife of course had easy access to flour, and so to cook something à la meuniere was to cook it by first dredging it in flour. But the mill was also located on a stream and thus often had very 
fresh fish available. Many of the elaborate sauces and preparations that were developed in the 18th and 19th centuries had an underlying purpose of masking food that had begun to spoil during the several days needed for transport from fishing ports. By contrast the fish prepared by the miller's wife did not need to be masked under a heavy sauce. A meuniere sauce is very simple—browned butter, chopped parsley, and lemon."
Yum! Yum! De- Lish!
Do you have your red pen ready? August 7. Now you can mark your calendar, too!
