Oh Julia...

    Everyone is having their Julia moment lately. I guess it's not unusual that I am too, but mine did occur a little more cosmically than commercially. You see, we have a VERY large lazy susan in our pantry. I mean the thing is quadruple towered, filling the whole broom closet, sort of large. It was also hand rigged by the previous tenant, meaning, while cool... not professional, or sturdy. It pooped out on me last week. All four tiers collapsed onto each other landing, not so gently, on whatever pantry items happened to be in it's path. This then became my weekend project. Not only to fix the darn thing, but to clean out and organize the pantry as well. A much needed task might I add.

    So after playing Schnieder, fixing the susan and cleaning out the 4 year old baking powder, I set to cleaning the top, non-susan, half of the pantry. Now up there, lives about 25 of my favorite cookbooks. I have over 200 at this point, most being piled high on the buffet. If I decide to use one of those, there is a good chance of a book-alanche. As I threw away a bag of "when did we buy shrimp skin chips?" I straightened up my favorite books. My go to's. My teacher's pets. I realized then that I don't play fair. I have 175+ other cookbooks that sit there, sad, un-utilized, and collecting kitchen grease, dust and must.

    I started, very methodically, on the right top shelf of the buffet, moved my back noting which books I had and had not cooked out of. Then came Julia. Now I've cooked many, many, many of Julia's recipes don't get me wrong. But this was The French Chef Cookbook, and I had been partial to Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I then realized, that while I had seen all the shows, I had never cooked from it, or the book. I took it down of the top shelf and flipped through to Poulet en Cocotte (Chicken Roasted in a Casserole). It was a rainy, thundery Sunday. Football was on. Long, slow, unattended chicken was perfect.

I took out the wishbone as she suggests

I won't repeat the recipe as it reads in The French Chef Cookbook because the recipe, given Julia's desire to make all her recipes fool proof, starts on page 282 and finishes up at the bottom of 284. Just know that for it's length... it's actually very simple.

One yummy carcass

    Now the pictures are a little sad (finished product wise) because once I took a bite, there was no "honey get me the camera would you?" there was only moaning. With sheer delight. This was the most moist, flavorful, delicious chicken either of us had had in quite some time, if ever, that we could remember. It's beyond good. It was way better than the outcome of the football game, I can tell you that much.

Give it a shot yourself. You won't be sorry.

Enjoy!
EB

Comments

[Lydia (The Perfect Pantry)]

This book lives on my bookshelf, too. There are some wonderful recipes, soups and stews in particular, that I return to time and again.

[EB]

I just love the picture on the cover of her about to "WHACK"!

On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 2:15 PM, wrote:

[Michael Franco]

Nice post, Erin!

I also have this book and adore Julia. May I share her with you?

http://livetoeatmjf.blogspot.com/2009/08/happy-birthday-julia-child-august-15.html

Enjoy!