Friday Five

While I work up the Julia Child Tribute Menu (so far I have 12 courses), I will offer a Julia Child-inspired Friday Five.

1. Tell us about the first time you tried a recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

2. What was the most recent thing you cooked from one of Julia Child's cookbooks?

3. Can you do a fair Julia Child impersonation?

4. What is your all-time favorite Julia Child recipe?

5. What page does your copy of Mastering the Art of French cooking fall open to on its own? Describe the bits of stuff that have become part of that page.

My own answers are in the extended entry section

1. I was 13 and started to get intrigued by French cooking, particularly the difficult stuff. One weekend I was left on my own and decided to make croissants from scratch for brunch when my parents returned on Sunday. I used a different book for that, but they were beautiful, so I decided that I needed to do something else. I thumbed through MTAOFC and kept going back to cheese souffle. It came out exactly as it was supposed to.

2. I used her recipe for roasted chicken (with a cognac pan reduction sauce) on Monday night.

3. Yes, but cleaning the kitchen afterwards is a bit of a chore.

4. Pate de canard en croute (boned stuffed duck baked in a pastry crust). MTAOFC, Vol 1, page 571.

5. Volume 1: Page 402/403 (Cassoulet). There is considerable moisture damage, and brownish stains that are probably meat-related. On the reverse side are what look like blood stains. There is a bit of crusty stuff that is probably bean residue. I use this recipe once a year for my Nouveau Beaujolais party.
Volume 2: Page 62/63 or 64/65 (French bread), due to thick crust of flour in the binding. We use this recipe once a year, for Christmas, when the bakeries are closed and we absolutely must have proper French bread to go with our Christmas dinner.