Old Bogs, Thank You Paula Deen, And Other Musings

I've been sitting here for some time now on my throne...going back in time. Back to the Julie/Julia project....reading the actual blogs that Julie posted as she was making her way through THE BOOK. I figured since we're neighbors it would be fun to take a peek at it. She is right...Julia taught a lot of us to cook....I know the first time I fixed one of the potato dishes in her revolutionary cookbook it seemed to take longer than it should've ...but the time after that...PERFECT!! The potato and onion soup might have been quite as creamy like you know potato soup usually looks like...but "YUM!" That was the first dish I prepared out of the book by the way.....Ahh memories! Practice practice will eventually produce the yummy sauce for some poulet' sautee' dish in the future...and yes butter is better....margarine is just gross! LOL Moderation is the key! LOL Well that and plenty of Tae Bo sessions...which I might add I still have to do before I fry the chicken for our supper....which leads to my next cook that I have to thank...Paula Deen taught me how to finally fry chicken with a decent crust on it! Her Southern Fried Chicken is fool-proof....love it! Her (well now mine) Chicken Brunswick stew recipe that I found a couple of years ago on the Food Network website is so good you will make "the face" that everyone makes when they take a bite of something and the goodness just explodes in your mouth and you can't wait to take another bite! I saw the character who played Judith Jones in Julie and Julia make that face when she tasted the recipe out of Julia's cookbook when she prepared it at home....and of course the YUM is perfectly acceptable! Paula's first cookbook and THE BOOK are on my shelf here in the kitchen and I peek in them often to make sure I remember the amounts of this or that for recipes that I prepare regularly. Between the two of them....and how my sweet Mammaw always fixed her special eggs for breakfast when I was growing up ...I think I am becoming a better cook. That's what happened to Julie Powell I think in her year-long journey that despite the tears and fights and things that life in general throws at us from day to day...she experienced all that great food and learned a lot in the process. Once we all got our hands on her book and or read "My Life In France" which I highly recommend btw...her magnum opus that she and her two friends put together so long ago experienced a rebirth as copies flew off the shelves. Whether she thought much of the project or not....when she heard about it...I think she would have been honored had she lived to see what it came to be....and appreciated how people once again wanted to learn how to cook from Julia.

The overcast afternoon is drifting away and my chicken pieces are snug in the Frigidaire coated in seasonings...waiting to be coated with self-rising flour, etc, fried and enjoyed. Meanwhile...I see my Billy Bands and the chosen workout for the day sitting here on my island reminding me that I need to get at it. Another week starts tomorrow and also reminds me to make sure I have enough ones for lunch money....and mentally I have started a list of things I need to get done before Friday....an away game...SIGH....two hours away...which means post-midnight pick-up surely! UGH! Poor hubby! Of course a long weekend will give us time to recharge our batteries. Won't that be nice! Now what can I cook for Labor day??? LOL....I'll keep you posted! Loveyameanit..Queenie