Weekend Cooking: Julie & Julia Movie Review

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. To see who else is participating go to Beth Fish Reads, Weekend Cooking, here.

I watched the DVD of Julie & Julia with my husband a few weeks ago. I had read the book the movie is based on with the same title Julie & Julia by Julie Powell last summer before the movie was released. You can read my review here. The movie blends the story of Julie Powell and Julia Child's life as told in the book My Life in France by Julia Child. I haven't read Julia Child's book yet. I have a copy on my bookshelf and look forward to reading it. The best part of the movie for me was Meryl Streep's portrayal of Julia Child. Her acting was superb and she was very believable and I enjoyed the focus on her life. I didn't realize that she was such a passionate woman and had a very strong marriage. Stanley Tucci played the role of her husband which made for great chemistry between the two.

In all honesty, my husband and I enjoyed the parts focusing on Julia more than the focus on Julie. Since I had read the book, I was familiar with the story of Julie's project to make all the recipes in Julia Child's cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She would do this in a year and write about her experiences in a blog. As a blogger, I loved this part and I think most bloggers would as well. The focus she had on wanting to know that there were actually people reading her blog, the excitement when she got her first comments and the realization that she had readers that supported her and were interested in reading her blog posts. Amy Adams portrayed Julie's anxieties and emotional side quite well. Although, I found her a bit too sweet compared to what I perceived of Julie through reading her book.

The food and cooking was another highlight of this movie. I enjoy foodie books and movies so I enjoyed the focus on food and cooking. You can find Julia Child’s Boeuf Bourguignon Recipe that was featured in the movie as it has been made available to download by the book’s publisher, Knopf Doubleday. You can check out this link at delish.com, the authors have come up with versions of the recipes in the movie. I would definitely recommend this fun and enjoyable movie to foodies and bloggers and fans of Julia Child and Meryl Streep.



Disclosure: My copy of this movie on DVD was borrowed from the library. I am an Amazon associate.

The Sunday Salon

This has been a bit of slow week for posts on my blog as I have been fighting a bad cough and just have not had the energy to post much. I am doing a bit better but still have a nagging cough. I have had a slow reading week as well as I just haven't been able to focus much on reading. I am currently reading Crossed Wires by Rosy Thornton a charming story that I am enjoying very much. The quaintness of the villages and characters as well as reading about life in England has drawn me in. It's the perfect book to read with a cup of tea or coffee by my side. My review will be posted this week.

My son doesn't start school until after Labor day this year so we have some last minute school shopping to do this week. He desperately needs a haircut as at 10 years old he likes the long hair look and I have to call it a "trim" not a haircut! He also needs a new pair of tennis shoes and he is so impatient shopping for them so I don't particularly look forward to that. Hopefully, we'll fit in a few fun things this week and if the weather cooperates, a few more visits to the water park.

I just made a pan of brownies to take to a BBQ even though it's raining outside. The house smells delicious and my husband and son are so tempted to dig in to those brownies. I will have to guard them for later!

I've been remiss in sharing some wonderful awards that were passed on to me:

From Mary at Bookfan I received The Bloody Great Blogger award which is to be given to 5 bloggers who have been supportive and extra special to you in the blogging process. That person who always comments or the one who emails you to let you know about that Freudian slip you missed, the blogger who links to your posts or lifts you up when your blog is down. Thank you bloggers:

• Dar at Peeking Between the Pages
• Joy at Thoughts of Joy
• Kathy at Bermudaonion
• Staci at Life in the Thumb
• Ti at Book Chatter and other stuff

I received the Heartfelt Award from Mari at Bookworm with a View. Thank you!!!

Do you reach for a cup of cocoa or tea when your relaxing, seeking comfort, sharing a plate of cookies with family and friends? You know the feeling you get when you drink a yummy cup of cocoa, tea, or a hot toddy? That is what the Heartfelt Award is all about, feeling warm inside.


Giveaway:

The Giveaway for 5 copies of Julie & Julia ends in a few days, on September 2nd so make sure to enter by then. Enter here, or click on the link to the left in the sidebar.

The Sunday Salon: Catching up!

It's cooling down here in the Midwest and feels like fall is around the corner. My son usually goes back to school around this time but his schools are under construction and they've delayed the start of school until after Labor Day. We hope to take advantage of some fun day trips and finish up back to school shopping. My son has to get some baby teeth pulled this week for the first time. He isn't too happy but hopefully it will be a quick recovery.

I haven't been posting as much or commenting on other blogs as I had a death in the family. My 95 year old great uncle passed away last weekend. He was one of 7 children with my grandmother being the only sister in the family. They were very close and she is 91 and lives in the same nursing home and would visit him daily. It was very hard for her to let him go and I spent several days by her side with my aunt reminiscing and supporting her. My great uncle Saul was a wonderful man, always happy and had a great sense of humor.

Some highlights from the past week have been:

Bookcase Review: Receiving my Antigua Four Tier Bookcase for review from CSN Office Furniture . You can read my review here.

Book Reviews:

My husband's Guest Review of The Richest Man in Town by W. Randall Jones (audio book).

My review of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler , my first book completed for the Everything Austen Challenge .

Giveaway:

Make sure to enter my Giveaway: 5 Copies of Julie & Julia by Julie Powell which ends September 2nd.

Currently Reading:

The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf for a blog tour with Mothertalk. I will be posting my review this week. I started reading the book last night and couldn't put it down and read over 100 pages! I look forward to reading it again today.

Amazon Reviews:

I post my reviews on LibraryThing and Goodreads and decided to start posting them on Amazon as well under redlady. Several authors have asked me to consider this and I hadn't had the time to do so in the past. I've decided it was finally time to take the plunge and post my reviews there. What do you think of posting your blog reviews on other sites? Where do you post yours and are you happy with the sites or do you just want your reviews on your own blog? I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Giveaway: 5 Copies of Julie & Julia by Julie Powell

Thanks to Anna at Hachette Book Group I have 5 copies of JULIE AND JULIA: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell to giveaway! Most everyone has probably heard about this book as there is a movie based on the book in theaters now. I read the book recently and loved it, you can read my review here. I can't wait to see the movie!!

Here's some information from Hachette:

Julie & Julia, the bestselling memoir that's "irresistible....A kind of Bridget Jones meets The French Chef" (Philadelphia Inquirer), is now a major motion picture. Julie Powell, nearing thirty and trapped in a dead-end secretarial job, resolves to reclaim her life by cooking in the span of a single year, every one of the 524 recipes in Julia Child's legendary Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Her unexpected reward: not just a newfound respect for calves' livers and aspic, but a new life-lived with gusto. The film version is written and directed by Nora Ephron and stars Amy Adams as Julie and Meryl Streep as Julia.

Read an excerpt here.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

For each entry, please leave a seperate comment, this will make it easier to draw a winner as I won't be able to go back and count each entry. Also, make sure that you include your email or that your email is in your blog profile. If I have no way of contacting you by email, your entry will automatically be withdrawn.

• For One Entry: Leave a comment and share what recipe that you have made that was unusual or a funny cooking mishap in the kitchen as Julie had many of these in the book. Also, make sure to post a way to contact you.
• For a Second Entry: In a SEPARATE comment, Blog about this giveaway and share a link(posting in your sidebar is fine).
• For a Third Entry: In a SEPARATE comment, Twitter about this giveaway and share a link, if you can.
• For a Fourth Entry: In a SEPARATE comment: Follow my blog or subscribe to my blog(let me know if you are already a follower or subscriber).

This giveaway is ONLY open to US and Canada, (No PO Boxes Please)

I'll use random.org to draw a winner and the contest will end on September 2nd , 2009 at Midnight EST. Good Luck!!

GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED

Review: Julie & Julia by Julie Powell

I've had a copy of Julie & Julia: 365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen by Julie Powell on my shelf for quite awhile. I love to read foodie type books and my copy is the original hardcover, First Edition, that was published in 2005. When I heard that there was a Julie & Julia movie being released (August 7, 2009) based on this book combined with the life of Julia Child's and afeaturing Meryl Streep based on a screenplay written by Nora Ephron....I knew that I had to pull my copy off of the shelf and read it. Because of course, I want to see the movie and I like to read the books before I see the movies, most of the time!

In August of 2002, Julie is a twenty nine year old wife and secretary living in a tiny apartment in New York City and unhappy. She's searching for fulfillment and isn't finding it in her office job. She comes up with the idea for a project to cook all of the recipes in Julia Child' Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year and write about her daily experiences in a blog. She isn't a chef but she likes to cook and her mother has a well worn copy of the cookbook that she borrows. Julie's husband and friends are supportive but her mother isn't too crazy about what Julie sets out to do.

What I liked about this book was that it was about a normal, everyday person who sets a goal for herself ,an experiment of sorts, and she blogs about it daily. This book is heartfelt and it is written based on the thoughts, experiences, frustrations and accomplishments that Julie goes through during this one year project that she writes about on her blog. Some people may be offended by her political comments and comments about 9/11 victims and families as she writes about working for a government agency that deals directly with this situation. Her comments are callous and insensitive at times but again, these are her thoughts and feelings written from her blog. She also swears.... a lot...the "F" word is used quite frequently. It didn't bother me that much but I can see that some readers may be offended. She talks about her body...how it is changing eating so much high fat foods...and her sex life and her friends sex lives. So be warned, if this kind of stuff bothers you...you may not want to read it.

I found it fascinating to read about all of the different foods that Julia Child's cookbook covers. There are a lot of recipes with eggs, butter, mayonnaise, beef, organ meats, duck, fish, shellfish, more butter....did I mention butter?! There is a lot of butter in Julia Child's recipes. Of course, it was interesting to read about how Julie tackled every new task at hand with vigor and quite a bit of frustration as well. I don't know if I could eat all of the organ meats...and prepare them, especially brains. Yuck, I dissected brains in anatomy class in college and that was hard enough for me. I don't think that I could cook them let alone eat them. I have eaten french food as I have been to France and my mother in law is of french heritage. She has cooked ox tails...I didn't eat them though. I have been to french restaurants and had frog legs...that is as risky as I've ever eaten. Julie did all of her cooking in a tiny kitchen in what she described in detail as not being very clean and in which a few stories could easily turn your stomach. Her husband Eric was a doll to put up with all of this for a year and he was actually quite supportive and helped Julie out on many occasion. He was her cheerleader and confidante and it had to be a rough year for them both. Now, they are reaping the benefits!

Julie Powell turned her Julie/Julia Project into a memoir, Julie & Julia: 365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen . According to Wikipedia, Nora Ephron adapted the film Julie & Julia based on Julie Powell's memoir. What is so cool to me is this: Julie & Julia is "the first major motion picture based on a blog". I find that so amazing that there is actually a movie based on a blog...wow! Julie Powell still maintains a blog...on blogspot...you can find her blog, called What could happen?, here. Julie & Julia is scheduled for an August 7, 2009 release. Meryl Streep stars as Julia Child and Amy Adams portrays Julie Powell.

If you are a foodie, a blogger, or you are just curious about this kind of book I would recommend reading it. Read it with an open mind. I enjoyed reading it as it took me to a place that I haven't experienced before and it was fun to read. It made me think about my own life and what I "projects" that I may want to tackle in the future.

I want to share a quote at the end of the book that Julie Powell writes that summarizes this book nicely:

"And that was it, really. A secretary in Queens risked her marriage and her sanity and her cats' welfare to cook all 524 recipes in Mastering the Art of French Cooking- a book that changed the lives of thousands of servantless American cooks-all in one year. The same year she turned thirty. It was the hardest, bravest, best thing a coward like her ever did, and she wouldn't have done it without Julia."

Interesting information on the book: The paperback was retitled Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously. I mentioned above that I have the original hardcover, First Edition that was published in 2005. I was doing some searching and I was surprised to see that this edition appears to be out of print. It is selling for outlandish prices at Amazon...$61.34 for a very good condition copy and the lowest price for a new copy is $119.41.

Here's a peek at the Julia & Julia Movie Trailer: