Sugar & Spice by Celeste

Happy Birthday Julia Child (click this link to see my feature on Julia!) by Celeste Ward; Featured in "Birmingham's Best Eats" "Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it."  -Julia Child This quote by Julia Child is so true...We should all be so lucky enough to find something that we are truly passionate about.  Julia Child certainly discovered her passion for all things culinary all those years ago in Paris, France, and she continues to be a huge inspiration to me. I was thrilled when Birmingham blogger, Wade Kwon, contacted me about a month-long feature he was doing on his website.  It was to be called "Birmingham's Best Eats," and he was looking for contributers to write articles, restaurant reviews and feature recipes.  I didn't think twice...Of COURSE I wanted to participate! The first idea that came to mind was Julia's birthday...surprise, surprise.  I thought it would be perfect to write ...

I am so incredibly excited to announce that my little ole' food blog is currently being featured on The Cooking Channel's website.  You may even recognize the cover shot in the article...Yep...That's my Strawberry Tart that's featured!  :-) Strawberry Tart Recipe Take a look at the article here: Kicking Off a Week of Julia Child Julia Child's birthday would have been on August 15th, so The Cooking Channel is celebrating the culinary legend all week long. If you've been a reader of my blog for a while,  you're well aware of the fact that Julia has been, and continues to be, such a huge inspiration to me.  Her cookbooks and TV shows continue to influence the way that I cook.  After reading her memoir, "My Life in France," I really began to relate to her. Help me celebrate Julia this week by visiting The Cooking Channel, and maybe even by getting your dose of Julia at:  Julia Child on Sugar & Spice . Of course, you can also expe...

"Boeuf Bourguignon." Just hearing the name of this dish lets you know that it's something special. Not just special either....It's like sitting on death row and you can only have one more meal special ! Seriously....if I could only have one more meal, this might just be it. Julia herself described this dish as "certainly one of the most delicious beef dishes concocted by man..." Boeuf Bourguignon is basically beef that has been slowly cooked in red wine, with bacon, onions and mushrooms. I've heard so much about this dish lately. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Julie Powell made it in the new movie Julie & Julia . This was also the very first dish that Julia Child prepared on The French Chef ! It's such a classically French meal. The beautifully complex flavors...especially of the sauce!...really makes this dish amazing. One of the best things about this meal is the fact that you can make it ahead of time and re-heat it just befo...

*** WARNING: If you make this dish, you may be tempted to lick the remaining sauce from the pan! The mushroom and cream sauce that smothers the chicken breasts in this recipe is so divine. I found this in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I . She never fails to impress me (as you can probably tell from the numerous Julia recipes I've been blogging about lately!) Just think...cream, mushrooms and butter...Mmm....sauces don't get much better than that, folks! It's creamy, luxurious and satisfying...all at the same time. Furthermore, the way that the chicken breasts are prepared produces incredibly tender and moist chicken. Because I used my Le Creuset dutch oven, I did not follow Julia's suggestion of covering the chicken with a piece of buttered wax paper (gasp!). I simply covered the dutch oven with the heavy lid and popped it into the oven. The results were fantastic! I served this chicken with asparagus...perfection! Brad and I both are ...

I've got some exciting news for all of the Julia Child fans in the USA...I was recently contacted by our local PBS station to let me know that the show "Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home" will be aired on Saturday afternoons. It's on at 1:00PM CST here in Birmingham, AL. Click HERE for more info...and be sure to check your local listings to see when it will air in your city!!! Here's an excerpt from the website: "Two of the world's best known and most loved culinary stars, Julia Child and Jacques Pépin, join each other in Julia's home kitchen for this popular Emmy Award-winning public television series. America's favorite cooking duo takes you to the heart of good home cooking and shows you that while there are traditional ways of preparing a dish, nothing is written in stone. These two legendary cooks play off one another like The Odd Couple, joking, even bickering good-naturedly, over kitchen technique, demonstrating that cooking is deeply pers...

'Julie and Julia' movie trailer Before Giada, Ina, Paula, or Emeril came along, there was the Culinary Queen...the original....Julia Child. Her wit, charm...and that unmistakable voice. She was truly a force to be reckoned with. August is going to be a very exciting month for Julia fans. First, the much-anticipated new movie Julie & Julia will be released on August 7th. And then...one month from today, on August 15th, foodies around the globe will celebrate Julia's birthday. I can honestly say that there's no celebrity out there that I can really relate to...except for Julia. You've probably been asked the question, "If you could meet one famous person, dead or alive, who would it be?" There's no doubt that I would choose Julia. There are so many questions I'd like to ask her...so many things that I'd love to discuss with her. I'm currently reading her memoir, My Life in France . It has quickly become one of my favorite books I've...

***Julia Child mentions the sauce chapter in Mastering the Art of French Cooking several times in her memoir, "My Life in France." In fact, there's a really cool photocopy of a piece of paper that contains her hollandaise sauce recipe...that she typed herself. It's marked "Top Secret" in what I assume is Julia's handwriting. I recently finished reading the memoir, and I was definitely curious about this hollandaise sauce. I looked it up in MtAoFC , and it sounded both classic and delicious! On a side note, if you're thinking about reading "My Life in France," you definitely should! I absolutely loved it! It's always good to have several good, homemade sauces in your cooking arsenal...ready when you need them. This is one such sauce. Who doesn't like a decadently rich and eggy hollandaise sauce? There are so many things that you can serve it with....poached eggs, bacon, and toast...just name a few. I decided to serve it with a simpl...

***I've become such a big fan of Julia Child. I'm currently reading her memoir, "My Life in France," and I'm in love! Brad recently gave me a beautiful set of her "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" Volumes I & II. This is the very first recipe that I've tried out from Volume I. This recipe stood out to me because #1: I LOVE strawberries! and #2: Fresh fruit tarts just scream "summer!" to me. The recipe itself is pretty simple. Don't let the length scare you away...it's broken down into 3 parts, and if you tackle each one separately you'll be done in a breeze! The tarts that line the bake case shelves in Paris all displayed gorgeously divine fruit tarts. I noticed they all had a beautifully shiny glaze over the top. This recipe definitely yields the same thing. I was so happy with the finished tart! It was almost too pretty to eat...I've never let that stop me in the past, though...hah.*** Tarte Aux Fraises (Fresh Str...

Julia Child has been such a huge inspiration to so many people, myself included.  Tomorrow (8/15) is a big day for Julia fans around the world...It marks what would have been her 100th birthday!  In celebration of such a talented, fantastic and all-around amazing chef and person, I'd like to post a collection of some of my favorite Julia recipes for you to peruse.  Maybe one of them will even inspire you to get into the kitchen in honor of the great Julia.  ;) The Julia quote in my blog header above has become sort of my mantra...It rings so true and can apply to just about anything that you love.  What are you passionate about? "Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it." Happy 100th Birthday, Julia! I'm thinking a big slice of her delicious Reine de Saba cake (linked below) and one of my favorite movies - Julie & Julia - would be the perfect way to celebrate.  :) Chicken Breasts with Mushroo...

***Now, you didn't really think that I would let Julia's birthday go by without sharing a new recipe by Julia with you, right?  I've been curious about what a classic French clafoutis (pronounced Kla-foo-TEE) tasted like for a while now.  They always looked beautiful in the photos that I saw, and I wondered if they tasted as good as they looked.  This dessert has a luxurious custardy filling and tastes perfectly french!  I knew that if I was going to make a clafoutis, it would be a crime not to begin with Julia's recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I .  The recipe sounded incredibly simple, which it ultimately was. Traditionally, a clafoutis is made with cherries, so that is how Julia presents this recipe in her cookbook.  Being the southern girl that I am, I decided to substitute the cherries with the freshest, most gorgeous Clanton peaches.  They were superb!  Feel free to subsitute about 3 cups of any fruit tha...

***Ladies and gentleman, I present to you - Julia Child's wonderfully scrumptious Reine de Saba cake. The texture of this cake is quite incredible and perfectly chocolately. I made this in celebration of Julia's birthday on August 15th...along with the Boeuf Bourguignon and Pain Francaise posted below. The pulverized almonds in this cake give it such a nice flavor. I simply ground some slivered almonds in a food processor, until they were the correct size. *** A great tip is to add about a teaspoon or so of granulated sugar to the bowl of the food processor before pulsing the almonds. This will prevent the almonds from turning into a paste!*** Because this cake is baked in one 8" cake round and is only one layer tall, it's really a simple cake to make. I put it together the night before our big Julia celebration. It kept perfectly in the fridge for several days. The texture of both the cake and the icing is wonderful. It really does sort of melt in your mouth. The ...

***If you saw my kitchen right now, you might just chuckle.  In fact, Brad thinks it's pretty funny.  What am I talking about?  Well, there are several small mountains of fresh produce meticulously arranged and on glorious display around my kitchen.  Sweet potatoes, red potatoes, green bell pepper, not one but THREE varieties of eggplant, gorgeous tomatoes, cucumbers, and even fresh basil and spearmint. In my opinion, one must take advantage of this wonderful summer produce while you can!!  Right?? This past weekend, Brad and I visited our favorite farmer's markets to see what was available.  We came home with bags of goodies, and I was super excited to get into the kitchen!   With so much eggplant and tomato on-hand, a delicious Ratatouille was a no-brainer.  And not just ANY ratatouille - Julia's!  If you are going to commit to such a classic dish, it needs to be done right.  Julia's recipe is the "proper" way to prepare one....

***Okay, so I do realize that there's an infinite amount of other things in this world that are incredibly more exciting than Brussel sprouts. Trust me. Maybe you could take up basket-weaving, learn to play the bagpipes, or maybe even learn to juggle. All kidding aside, the term "Brussel sprouts" has never really inspired a lot of excitement in me. "Dear, you have to eat your vegetables before you can go play." We all heard this growing up. Many of those not-so-yummy veggies have become some of my favorite things...broccoli, spinach and asparagus all come to mind. Brussel sprouts however, have never been a favorite of mine. As it turns out though, this particular recipe just so happens to be Amy Adams' (you know...the actress who plays Julie Powell in the new movie Julie & Julia ) favorite recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume I . Check it out here: http://www.lhj.com/recipes/easy/chicken/meryl-streeps-amy-adams-julia-child-recipes/ Brad...