I adore Julia Child. She has been one of my most favourite and inspirational people for just about forever. The movie is nothing so much as a joyous love letter to the woman she was, and I thought it was really well done. Meryl Streep was fantastic. I have read reviews that have indicated it’s not such a great movie if you’re not a big Julia Child fan already, but why you’d want to watch it if you weren’t is not something I’m sure I understand anyway. Unless, of course, youre someone who gets paid to watch movies you dont especially like and then write reviews from that curious standpoint.

I loved it. If you’re a fan of cooking, eating, and especially Julia Child, this is the film for you.

Anyway, by amazing coincidence I’d been wanting to make boeuf bourguignon for a couple weeks now – well before I saw the movie – and of course when I say “boeuf bourguignon” there is only one recipe I mean, and that’s Julia’s. Then I saw the movie yesterday and it lit a fire under me, so to speak, and left me with the insatiable desire to cook like a madwoman. It was nice to feel that way again – I hadn’t felt that in years. It came back to me like an old friend who has stayed away for far too long between visits.

I’ve been so busy with work I never got the chance to get to the grocery store, but today I was determined. When I got to the store, I decided to do the last big grocery shopping of my life as a resident of L.A., so I made it count. It’s going to be a very, very busy five weeks for me between now and 14 May, which is the weekend I begin the move back home to New York, and I’m going to treat myself as well as I can, and that means I’m going to do some cooking.

I came home and started the boeuf bourguignon immediately. Several hours later, tired but happy and not a little anxious because it’s been so long since I’ve made it and so long since I’ve cooked anything in general, I pulled the gorgeous thing out of the oven, strained and thickened the sauce, added it to the perfectly done meat and vegetables, and just stood and looked at it for a while. First time in probably 20 years I’ve made it, and it came out perfect. I had been strongly tempted to just say fuck it and use the Crockpot, but I was stubbornly determined to make the classic recipe instead specifically because I wanted to see if I could still manage all the steps and stages. I am obscenely pleased with myself for pulling it off so well. It’s nice to know Ive still got it.

I sampled the stew this evening to make sure it was right, but soon it will be cool enough to transfer to a Tuppy. It will spend the night getting acquainted with itself in the fridge and I will make a meal of it upon the morrow (and the morrow and the morrow), because it’s never as good on the first day as it is on the second or third or the fourth. Lovely crusty bread, fresh, buttered egg noodles, and crisp asparagus will round out the feast.

It was lots of work, lots of detail, and lots of cooking, but as always it was worth every minute of time and effort spent for one of my favourite dishes of all time. I have pictures. I’ll put ‘em up later, I think.

Thanks, Julia. Youre the best.