Thursday, August 13, 2009

It's a Party: A Julia Party


Who doesn't love a party? I just went to a Julie and Julia party last night. The party consisted of eight wonderful women, one great movie and lots of fantastic food. Which was better, the movie or the party? I can't really say. It was the whole experience, with a group of great women, that made it a memorable event. This was truly an example of life imitating art. Here's how the evening went.

We met at Kim's house at 4:30. The movie started at 5:00, but we had all made recipes from Julia Child's cookbooks, and we wanted to drop off our creations before the movie. We carpooled to the theatre, where we all thoroughly enjoyed the performances of Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. I swear you would think it was Julia herself up on the big screen. The voice, the manerisms, the size, it was all Julia. Amy Adams plays Julie Powell, an aspiring writer, who has a government day job that she hates. She, with a very supportive husband, decides to write a one year blog about the recipes of Julia Child, and make all 524 recipes in her cookbook. This is a huge undertaking, as Julie never seems to finish anything.

Writing a blog is a committment. There are days when you just don't feel like writing, or in Julie's case cooking and writing, but it's great discipline. I totally related to the movie, not just because of the blog she wrote, but because I love to cook, and I too, loved Julia Child.

After the movie we drove back to Kim's, and put out our table of food fit for a king. Our dishes included stuffed mushrooms, chicken salad, eggplant and pita, antipasto salad with olives, tomatoes, tuna and mushrooms, herb biscuits filled with ham and cheese, potato salad, yogurt blueberry tart, chocolate truffles and lots of wine. We talked, laughed, reminisced about the days when we used to watch Julia on TV, and how lucky we were to be together, watching the movie and enjoying life. To me, food is about love. We cook for those we love, we want to please those we cook for. Food is also about memories. Many of our most memorable occasions are centered around food, and our thoughts of those food make memories come rushing back.

Julie Powell's Julia Project changed her life forever. I can't say the movie changed my life, but having a wonderful group of friends to enjoy movies, food and conversation with, has changed me too. It has created memories that I will forever associate with certain foods. I will never again eat an herb biscuit with ham and cheese without remembering our evening watching Julie and Julia and the dinner that followed. Thank you Vivian. And thanks to all of you who make life so much fun and help create such memories!!!

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