French a la mode

I'm back. It's been a long time and although it's a huge "no no" in the blogging world to quit blogging, I did it anyway.....

I watched Julie and Julia for the first time on DVD the other day and was inspired. OK, Julia is hilarious and all I want to do is have a cooking show just like hers. I went online and watched some of her old shows. What a hoot. Pies flop,food falls on the floor...I LOVED it. My chef friend came over and together "we laughed, we cried, she moved us Bob". Oh how I love Veggie Tales. But Julia can't even start to compare with Martha Stewart. Julia is so, so......normal. In Martha's world I feel like I need some sort of handwritten permission slip to see if I'm qualified to even think about making one of her creations. Some of you know what I mean - those of you who have inferior complexes like I have. When I was a teenager my piano teacher had a huge orange cat in the house that would sit in the corner of her piano room. It would perch itself on a shelf and stare at me while I waited for my piano teacher to arrive from upstairs usually with her hair dripping in conditioner - OK, that's another story - and wearing a velor sport suit with high heels - well, that's also another story. But this cat made me feel so awkward while it looked at me with his "if I had fingers, I could play WAY better than you" attitude.....OK, I'm revealing way too much about my inferiority complexes. Anyway, Martha does the same thing to me as that cat did. Despite my inferiority of orange cats and Martha, I've discovered that I AM Julia! Well maybe not exactly. I can't cook French food, actually I've never even been to France, I am not 6'2", I don't have a cooking show, never been to cooking school, and hardly know what she's talking about most of the time when she uses French food names. OK, I'm not AT ALL like Julia! Regardless, I decided to try some French cooking. I feverishly looked online for any recipes of Julia's that I could lay my hands on. I even tirelessly copied these recipes, watched some of her shows online PBS, looked for her recipe books on Amazon.com, and thought about growing thyme. OK, I was hooked. While online I found a guy who could help me - he had a pleasing voice who shared one of Julia's Baked Chicken recipes. I had a chicken in the freezer so maybe I could become a French cook - actually I had two that I bought from Costco. I'm sure I could be a French cook now. The chicken thawed in the sink while I dreamed of all the wonderful French cuisine I could share with my family. I only used the ingredients I had at home and unfortunately that did not include thyme. But I had a lot of rosemary in the garden so I determined with all my French culinary expertise that that would be just fine. I felt like a little French maiden in the fields of..... well, France.... and at that moment all I needed was a peasant dress with smock although I'm afraid I would have looked more like the Pillsbury dough boy. I've never really had a waist. None the less, in my flip flops and capris I went outside to retrieve my homegrown treasures. What fun to feel so earthy. I WAS JULIA. Back inside I went to work ready to delight my little family. I made the recipe just as he told me to - minus the thyme - and place my little unfeathered friend into the oven. The recipe called for watercress as a bedding for the cooked chicken. I've actually never knowingly eaten watercress and our little supermarket in town isn't as upscale as watercress so figured I'd simply substitute with spinach, another one of my French culinary expertise executive decisions - alas one bag of wilted baby spinach was all the our little French market in town could offer me so I opted for no greens. The bird is smelling delicious by now, I must say. I cut it up just like the little man told me to - except with a dull knife. At the table I served my French delicacy complete with potatoes (very French), and "jus". This is a new word I learned from the little man. My husband ignorantly called it dressing so I happily corrected him of which I'm sure he was pleased to know the truth. Sarcasm aside, I don't want you to miss the fact that he and my daughter actually loved this recipe and my husband really hates baked chicken. Even though I'll never have a career in French cuisine, I'm exploring new recipes and if I find another one will share that with you as well. Bon Appetit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Wk2cYarjOI