Julie & Julia

A movie that i saw over winter break was Julie & Julia. It is a beautiful movie about two extraordinary women who face huge struggles in different time spectrum's and how one impacts the other.

How such is Julia Child is a wife of a diplomat who is located in Paris. Julia looks for a hobbies wail they are stationed there and finds a huge talent hidden in cooking. She goes on to wright a cook book and it ends up in the hands of a Mrs. Julie Powell 40 some odd years latter. Julia is a 30, underemployed new yorker who is looking for a way to allow her inter writer to come out. But as i said she comes across a cook book that changed her life. She started a blog stating in the begging that she was going to cook 524 recipients in a time period of 1 year. They both faces every obstacle possible but continues down these crazy journey.

Well i am not a Julie or a Julia but i am taking on a challenge. I am going to cook 4 recipes at least every month and then wright about them to you. I will offer challenges that i faced and ideas to change or make the recipes even more amazing for special occasions. And i know i missed the ball on January but i did make a few things i helped with that my mom made. Our success came from The Pioneer Woman Cooks, and Bon Appetit. But that dose not include our awesome improvements. :)

1- We made a amazing pasta dish consisting of minced garlic, shredded Parmesan cheeses, olive oil, white win, half & half, and butter because butter makes everything better. Put in garlic and olive oil first after the garlic is melting add in the cheese and wine. After the cheeses is melted put in some half & half. it should be very thin and soupy. Taste it and use your own opinion to see if you need to add any more or if you think its missing something. The sauce was a amazing mixture of creamy light but thin texture but it had a pretty strong taste because of the win. And it was KICK BUTT AWESOMENESS. :)The pasta was simple angle haired with a little bit of olive oil in it to stop it from sticking together. Cook like the instructions say. Heat to a boil, put in for 8 min. with a splash of olive oil, drain and server. We mixed the sauce and pasta together and then finished it off with some very rip and fresh tomatoes, diced them, and sprinkled them on top of the pasta after its severd on plates. Save the rest if you have any and hid it from roommates or your spouse and take it for a easy lunch the next day.
*This recipes can also be used for a wonderful dip. Just change out the pasta with toasted bread and you have a superb dip for a curtail event or a snack dinner for two.

2-I made a rice crispy treat dessert and yes this is Jr. high stuff but it is making it up on the blog as a recipe because i finally was able to use some of my marshmallow puff mixture that i got for my survival kick form my friends at the beginning of the summer. Yes i mean June 10 of 2009 was when i got it. But luckily for me and the puff stuff it NEVER expires and i had never opened it so it was still air compressed or what ever its called. I used both marshmallows and the puff stuff because i did not have enough real marshmallows so the last ounce was puff. Heat 4 tablespoons of butter up in the microwave(best invention ever) then put in your marshmallow and puff and heat up on high for about a minuet and a half till they are a could of sugar goodness. DO NOT watch them exploded, its not worth it. :) Them add in about 7 cups of the rice crispy's. After all mixed up put in a like 9 by 13 pan and wait till they are cooled. It was really good and it was all gone by 11 o'clock that night. :) it was made with love which is how you must always enter the kitchen or your food will never be a success. Or so said my very wise head chef boss sir. Otherwise know as Mr.sir or Todd.
*Thoughts for next time Wail heating up the marshmallows but in both red and blue food coloring to make a black color. And use chocolate rice crispy instead, to make a Halloween or just different treat.

3-OK to start the new year right Me and my mom made a cake that was GREAT!!(Bon Appetit). Its a devil's food cake with peppermint frosting which is composed of two cakes with coco powder in it and so it is a dark bitter but very good chocolate cake. With a chocolate ganache and white chacolate cream in between cake layers. You cut the cakes in two so you will have four layers. So it will be cake, ganache, cream, cake, ganach, cream, cake, ganache, cream, cake. You can them make the pepermint frosting by hand, or for new years eve drissle the remander ganache on the whole thing.
*You WILL need to put strais into the ckae so that it dose not fall over.

4- Another pasta we made was a shrimp tomato pasta(from The Pioneer Woman Cooks). Which had Shrimp, olive oil, onion, garlic cloves, white wine, tomato sauce, heavy cream, basil, pepper, and butter because butter makes EVERYTHING better. Pasta is pasta so make it like you normally would. We put half the butter and olive oil in a pan first on medium heat after butter is metaled cook shrimp in it for 2 min. Then put the remaining olive oil and butter in a new pan and add garlic and onion (both diced) cook till they become golden and translucent. Pour in wine, then the tomato sauce after the wine has sat for a min. Reduce heat to low and then add cream. Strum together and then add the shrimp. after mixing that put in the basil and pepper(and parsley but we where out), mix, add pasta stir and LOVE!!!

If you would like to get the exacts measure for these recipes let me know but really measures are not as much fun as going at it with your kitchen. :) I hope you will follow my journey but even start your own. But i will end this blog with what i think Julia Child and Julie Powell would by saying........

Bon Appetit!!!