Happy Birthday Julia

I don’t know if it’s because I talk about food all the time, or whether, I’m always reading something about food, but I’ve come to be known around the office as the go-to for food related conversations. Case and point, a co-worker of mine came into my “office” (I sit in a big open space) and went into elaborate details about his weekend of soup cooking. He got all excited and
the face that rarely smiles was elated at his accomplishment. I asked the appropriate questions like “what kind of soup?”, “What was cream or broth based?”, “What kind of vegetables did you put into it…” and was proudly told all. Quickly after that, I was approached by another woman in the office with her list of things to bake in the upcoming weekend, which lead to a monologue about her love of cooking and baking. Let me remind you, this was Monday morning at 11:30am.

The reason I mention of this is because when I walked past soup man’s office this morning, and said good morning, he replied, “Good morning Julia”. Now, I’ve been called a great many things in my day, and Julia is the one that rubs me the most. It takes an ounce of effort to say Julie and I feel like calling me Julia is the lazy man’s way of calling my name. It’s Julie people, not Julia. These thoughts must have reached my face and contorted it, because he quickly followed up with “you know, as in the famous chef”. AH!, If you want to call me Julia and refer it back to Julia Child, I’ll take it. But only if it refers to Julia Child.

It’s Julia Child’s birthday on Saturday. Although she died in 2004, I still feel like celebrating her birthday. I have to admit, I’ve got a little bit of Julia fever, as I have her cookbook, I’ve read her memoir and saw the movie about her last Friday.

To celebrate her cooking accomplishments and to toast the summer of 2009, I’m collaborating with a good friend to throw a dinner party. I can’t wait to laugh, drink wine, cook and consume it all in a ¼ of the time it took us a create it. And in that order. Still working on the menu - but I’m not concerned. I’ve got 2 days, 524 recipes to go through, and an Interview (YEAH!) to plan for.

Ok, maybe I’m slightly concerned.