Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Indeed...

More on the quotidian front.  I just finally cleaned out my pantry. 
For the first time since before the project ended.  Holy shit, what a
mess.  Plus, I had four boxes of confectioner's sugar, and 9 boxes,
count 'em 9, boxes of cocoa.
  

    
Was it all Julia related?

So, Julie, are you sick of talking about Julia Child? I imagine you must 
get inundated with people's JC reminiscences and memories and stories 
about nailing the eels to the wall and smashing the bread dough down and 
JC celebrity sightings.
  

    
And: you wrote that JC was "nonplussed" about the JJ project. Can you
say some more about it?
  

    
 . . . queueing up questions like boxes of cocoa . . .

What recipe (or section) was the greatest revelation to you? Which was the
biggest disappointment?
  

    
Well, I don't know much about Julia's nonplussed reaction, except that
she was asked by a couple of people about what I was doing, and she
seemed distinctly unimpressed.  Which, why should she be?  I mean, what
was it that I did that was so special really?  Certainly nothing when
compared with all that she accomplished.

Of course it devastated me at the time, her reaction to the thing that
had totally consumed my life for a year, and that I felt so strongly
was a tribute to all that she had done for me.  But you know, JC has
earned the right to her opinion, and after all, just because she is
such an icon, doesn't mean she wasn't a woman as well, with rightful
pride in and protectiveness of her life's work.  I can see how, if she
didn't really have a full understanding of how much the Project meant
to me, she could have seen it as glib or "unserious."  I just hope -
have to believe - that if she understood what was in my heart she'd
have been happy for me.
  

    
Revelatory recipe: baked cucumbers.  Shouldn't work.  Do.

I can't say that aspics were a disappointment, exactly, because I
never expected anything from them.  Perhaps the orange mousse - it was
the only recipe I couldn't get to work at all.  It wouldn't set in the
refrigerator, just stayed soup.  I felt a little vindicated when I
learned that in later editions JC changed it to a "frozen dessert,"
because no one else could make it work either.
  

    
Oh, and as far as Julia stories go - it's funny.  I think that when
people get together and exchange JC stories, there is often this
tendency to get impatient with everyone else's reminiscences.  To me,
it's proof of my theory that people has sort of insanely proprietary
feelings about Julia - everyone else's impressions are meaningless
compared to my own, that sort of thing.

Still, it's pretty amazing how many lives she touched.  When I was
doing an interview on the public TV station in Boston, I walked into
the studio, and all the camera and sound guys were grinning like
idiots.  They all started doing their Julia impressions, all at the
same time, and they said that after the interview they had something to
show me.  So after it was done, they took my mike off, and then they
led me to a corner of the studio and pointed proudly at some pipes
coming up out of the ground.  

"This," they said, unable to contain their glee, "was the water supply
for Julia's sink on the set of her very first television show."

How adorable is that?!!!
  

    

Great story, Julie!

Now that you've conquered French cooking, is there another cuisine you plan 
to put your focus on? 
  

    
Oh, I don't know...  I don't feel the need to  conquer all the world's
cuisines one by one.  I'm just not a completist that way.  It would be
fun to be able to cook Asian food, but I get so daunted by all the
goddamned oils and vinegars and shit....  Perhaps I need to try
something altogether different.  Knitting, or underwater welding or
something.
  

    
Having read your book and hung out with you here I have to say that maybe 
you are a LITTLE BIT of a completist! and it's a good thing for your 
livelihood and our entertainment.

Julie, would you talk about the experience of reading  your book for the 
audio version? What was that like? Are you a happy read-out-loud person? 
Was it strange? How long does it take to do?

I have heard great things about the audio version and Audible.com is 
promoting it wildly on their home page.
  

    
Recording the book was lots of fun, though it was disturbing how
little time it took.  Two and a half days of recording - I barely got
any direction at all.  Since I do have a bit of theatrical training,
maybe it was a little easier than it might have been otherwise.

The worst part was that my stomach kept growling!  The microphone
could pick it up, and we kept having to stop.  It got so bad at one
point we actually had to quit for the day.  I'd had too many diet
pepsis, I guess....
  

    
Yikes! (Of course, now I long to hear the stomach-gurgling audio version...)

You should check out <gower>'s book for an undaunting-once-you-get-used-to-
it approach to some Asian (-ish) cooking.

And <jilld> doesn't do underwater welding (so far as I know), but there are
probably some passions you could take on and be inspired by at the Coalition
for Essential Schools.

Thanks, all of you, for a delightful, not-in-itself-fattening fortnight.
We've turned the featured billing to another author, but everyone settled in
here should sit a spell and continue the conversation as it pleases 'em.
  

    
Thanks so much for having me guys.  I'll be sticking around for a bit,
if anyone's interested.....
  

    
You got me to look up the baked cucumbers recipe. It doesn't look like much,
but given your recommendation, we may put it on the menu some time this
week.

Any other recommendations here for a couple special meals between now and
the new year?
  

    
Well, tonight, I'm making a Roy DeGroot menu - guinea hens with
lentils and some kind of apple bread pudding thing.  That and some
roasted marrow bones.  Ought to be good.  I do love DeGroot....
  

    
also love deGroot. must check out guinea recipe if I can find a fresh
hen.
thanks for your time, julie--and bigger thanks for writing one helluva
fine book.
  

    
Roy deGroot always reminds me of Waverly Root, one of my all-time
favorite writers. 

Yes Julie, THANK YOU. We'll all be following everything you do, and
cheering you on.