Even with the garden overflowing and working everyday to decide what to do with it all, we went to dinner at a
French restaurant last night and ate and drank ourselves silly. We were inspired by the the film Julie and Julia, which I thought was excellent. I had read Julie
Powells' book about her efforts to cook every recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year. Having a catchy idea for a blog and getting discovered and turning it into a book and a movie- every
bloggers dream. Nora
Ephron did a great job of marrying the two stories, that of Julie Powell and Julia Child during her early days in France and the writing of
MtAoFC. It was a love story as much as anything, an enchanting portrayal of the two couples, in love with one another and with food, and of husbands who support their wives in their pursuits, no matter how desperate or challenging.
As an aspiring young chef, MtAoFC was certainly my bible, the film made me want to dig it out and cook up something spectacular from the pages of this classic. Tonight we'll be eating a mountain of haricot verts with roasted red peppers and one of my favorite eggplant dishes- Imam Biyaldi.
Imam
Biyaldi means "the priest fainted" and Marian
Morash in the
Victory Garden Cookbook says she isn't sure if that was because the dish was so delicious or because of the amount of expensive olive oil used in its preparation. But its a winner and
Marian's book is one of the best in helping people with lots of vegetables on hand to use them up in many creative and delicious ways.
What's your favorite vegetable cookbook?
Peppers ripening, almost ready to roast.
Read my latest column in the Chapel Hill News for more on gluttony.
3 comments:
I just realized I had already posted this picture of peppers! Oh well, and not that I don't have other varieties to show.
The Julia movie is on my 'to watch' list for fall - the weather's too nice right now! It looks like your garden produced a real bounty for you, love the peppers.
I like lizards too - and you can tell that they're really at risk - it's almost too much temptation for dogs (and obviously, cats too) to resist when they spot one. I've seen several with no or short tails - hope it doesn't hurt too much when they lose them!
And I often dig up piles of the small olive size white eggs when I'm turning over the compost or a bed in the garden to prepare for planting, I try to put them back where I found them, figuring the mother lizard chose the location with care for moisture and heat. We have lots of teeny babies in the yard now, I think they are pretty quick and have lots of places to hide so don't think they will dissappear completely, hope not.
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