This month we will read and discuss Julie & Julia by Julie Powell. You may wish to watch the movie after reading the book, to compare. According to the New York Times:

It was one of the best ideas yet hatched in the still-young history of blogging: in the space of one year, try to execute each and every recipe in Julia Child’s landmark 1961 cookbook, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1,” and write about it. Julie Powell, a bright young woman frittering away her late 20’s as a low-level drone at a government agency in New York, hit upon this concept in the summer of 2002, when she was racked with anxiety about turning 30 and desperate for some distraction “to pull myself out of a tailspin of secretarial ennui,” as she later put it. To Powell’s surprise, her blog, which she called the Julie/Julia Project, struck a chord with legions of readers who followed her triumphs and travails as she attempted Child’s straightforward but labor-intensive recipes for Homard à l’Américaine (lobster simmered with wine, tomatoes, garlic and herbs) and Bifteck Sauté Bercy (pan-broiled steak with shallot and white-wine sauce). Continue reading →