Julia Child

I love what Julia Child has done for cooking.  I don't own any of her cookbooks, but hope one day to own one.  I want her DVDs too.  She makes me laugh so much and I learn so much from her on those DVDs.  Whenever she can't figure out what to say or where to go next, she'll say in her big booming voice "And Now".

This is a little about her personal history from "Life is Meals" by Jame & Kay Salter.

On this day, August 15, 1912, Julia McWilliams who under married name of Julia Child would become a major figure in American cooking, was born in Pasadena, CA.  Her father was well-to-do.  The family always had a cook, and Julia did not begin cooking until she was 32.  Before that, he said, "I just ate".

She graduated from Smith College in 1934-tall, animated, and at ease with herself-worked as a copywriter in New York for a while, but then returned home.  When the country entered World War II, she signed up with the glamorous OSS-Office of Strategic Services-hoping to become a spy, all six feet two inches of her.  She was sent instead to be a file clerk in Ceylon, where, as it turned out she met her husband.

She and Paul Child were married in 1946 and soon moved to Paris, where, trying to learn to cook, she attend the Cordon Bleu, the only woman in the class.  She met Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck, and the three of them started a cooking school of their own and collaborated on what was to become her influential work. Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which took ten year to write.  It wa dedicated to France and it people, who through generations of invention and concentration, had created "one of the world's great arts."

Her true popularity came through television.  She whisked up an omelet on her first appearance and viewer loved her from the start, her manner and high, enthusiastic voice.  She established herself as a personality, lively and imperturbable.  "I fell in love with the public," he said, "the public fell in love with me, and I tried to keep it that way."

Fervent, dedicated to instructing, she was always so relaxed that it was often thought that she had been drinking.  She became a national figure and remained true to her principle, as well as to public television, where she had the freedom to cook tripe, kidneys, and other things, unthinkable on commercial TV.

During her career she wrote ten cookbooks, all of them noted for their clarity.  She once said that her ideal house would have just two rooms, a bedroom and a kitchen, and when she was asked what her guilty pleasures were, replied, "I don't have any guilt."

She died in California two days before she would have been ninety-two.

My recipe today is from Rachael Ray 2 30-Minute Meals by Rachael Ray & the Food Network.  It sells for $8.99 on my Amazon storefront.  www.amazon.com/shops/oneofakindcookbooks   I love Tiramisu and this is actually a very quick & tasty version.

Quick Tiramisu

1 package lady fingers

1/2 cup strong black coffee

3 ounces coffee liqueur

2 cups Mascarpone cheese

1/2 cup powdered confectioners' sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

Open the ladyfingers and separate them.  Paint the ladyfinger with coffee combined with the coffee liqueur using a pastry brush.  Line 4 martini glasses with a single layers of ladyfingers, letting the cakes overlap a bit in them.  Pres the cake down to fit the lines of the glass.  Beat Mascarpone and sugar together, 2 or 3 minutes and spoon into the glasses.  Top glasses off with a cap of coffee and liqueur-soaked ladyfingers.  Dust each completed dessert with cocoa powder combined with a touch of cinnamon.

Happy Cooking!