Do you guys want to know the real reason behind why I started a food blog? The actual, full motivation for this whole endeavor. I could tell you that it was because I love to cook, or because I think my words could help someone, or I could tell you that it has become a sort of therapeutic process for me. I could tell you all these things, and while none of them would be a lie per se, they wouldn't exactly be the full truth either. The real reason I started a blog... drum roll please...
Julie and Julia.
If you are not familiar with this book/movie then I implore you to immediately stop what you are doing and watch the film right this very second. Half of the movie (the half that makes it the masterpiece that it is) involves snippets of the life of Julia Child while she lived in Paris. While the other half, follows a woman in New York who decides to cook all the recipes in Julia Child's cookbook and write a blog about it. It also has Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci in it who are the King and Queen of Hollywood, need I say more?
She obviously gets pretty famous in the blogger world (pretty small world), and (surprise!) gets a book deal and gets a movie made. So yes, this is the reason I decided to start this blog. What Julia Child is to Julie Powell is what Allison Roman is to me (am I obsessed? maybe). And while this blog is hopefully more than a love letter to one admired cook, the inspiration comes from that story.
Anyways, did I have dreams of becoming a very well known food blogger? Yes I did. Do I want to be discovered and offered a job as a travel food blogger tasked with the challenge of finding the world's most perfect dumpling? Yes again! And do I sometimes have dreams about having dinner with Allison Roman (shrimp cocktail and gin martinis of course), yes I do but we don't need to talk about that.
Back to the point. There is a scene in the movie where you see the woman who goes on to publish Julia Child's cookbook, making her recipe for Beouf Bourguignon. It is a triumphant moment where after years and years of trying to get her book published, this woman, and this dish, finally makes that dream happen. Out of the viewing of this scene, a dream was born. Successfully cooking this culinary wonder.
It felt indulgent, and comforting, and oddly important that when I finally did cook this, I cooked it well. It sounds sappy, and that's okay because it is, but this movie echoes a lot of the things I believe about cooking. It speaks to how cooking can be comforting, consistent, and cathartic. While also speaking to how good food, cooked with intentionality, can heal a person (physically and emotionally).
As we all know, it was ridiculously cold this past weekend. So, in preparation of hunkering down and staying in the house, I decided it was finally time to cook this meal.
I won't lie to you all, it was a laborious effort (cut to me individually peeling pearl onions for 45 minutes). There are a lot of steps, a lot of specifics, and a lot of time that are required to make this in the way it was intended. But in the same pursuit of full disclosure; it was absolutely worth it. I like to cook things that make you stop, and wait. Not always, because I can definitely speak to the joy that a quick 30-minute meal can bring. But every so often, when you really have the time, to spend hours cooking something feels very luxurious. It has the same feeling to me as going to the movies on a Sunday afternoon, I like that feeling.
These are the parts of life I think people miss a lot. We get so frazzled, overwhelmed by our list of tasks that setting aside time to do something indulgent feels irresponsible. I challenge you to overcome that voice in your head that says "just put it in the crockpot" (not knocking crockpots), and really, truly, cook.
Indulgence best served with crusty bread and a generous pour of something red.
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