I have always felt that in order to truly enjoy a book, a person must see themselves in some part related to the main character.  Big or small, the relation causes you to connect to them and care about their resulting fate.

The story of Julia Child  in her biography My Life In France gave me an opportunity to read about the famous cookbook author’s introduction to the world of French cooking.  Once Julia found she had a love and talent for cooking and wanted to share it, she said her goal in cookbook writing became “writing these recipes for myself.  And I was the type of person who wanted to know everything about a dish – what worked or didn’t, why, and how to make it better – so that there would be no unsolved questions in our master recipe.”

Yes, I can relate.  That aspect of Julia’s cooking ‘personality’ definitely hit home, as I am always experimenting with my most frequently made recipes to find ways to make them ‘the best’.  Something as simple as Scrambled Eggs gets the treatment in my kitchen.  I found out in the book that Julia and I make our eggs very similarly, and they turn out light and fluffy and delicious.

All the experimentation in the kitchen can lead to a situation like the one described by a friend and fellow recipe tester of Julia’s, however, when she writes, “I have now got beurre blanc licked to a frazzle . . . Also have put on 5 lb. which on a figure like mine aint good.  It looks all right, but I like to be able to wiggle freely in my clothes instead of bursting out the seams.”  I can surely relate.

Perfect Scrambled Eggs

from Shortbread

serves 4

Ingredients

• 8 large eggs
• pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon heavy cream or half and half (optional)
• additional salt and pepper, as needed

Directions

1. Heat a large non-stick skillet over low heat.
2. Break eggs into a bowl and add a pinch of salt. Gently mix with a fork to blend yolks and whites together.
3. Add butter to skillet and swirl around to coat bottom and sides of pan.
4. Pour eggs into skillet and let sit over low heat for 2-3 minutes until bottom starts to set. Use a wide rubber spatula to lift eggs up from underneath and turn them, breaking them up slightly.
5. Cook and stir gently until eggs are firm but still a little moist. Remove from heat and add cream or half and half to the pan, if desired, stirring once more to combine. Sprinkle with additional salt and pepper to taste.
6. Serve immediately.

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Last night we had a traditional Southern “vegetable plate” for dinner – collard greens, field peas, fried squash and eggplant, and pepper relish.  After informing my husband of the menu, he promptly gave me the “Where’s the beef?” look, which reminded me of this month’s Kitchen Reader‘s book selection, Julie & Julia.  In the book Julie Powell recounts her year spent cooking through Julia Child’s classic cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking and blogging about it at the same time.  In the early pages of the book Julie recalls one of the first recipes she made from the book, a potato and leek soup, and how her husband Eric told her it was “Really good.  And there wasn’t even any meat in it.”  And that because he is Texan by birth “the idea of a dinner without animal flesh gets him a little panicky”.  But apparently there is no lack of meat dishes in Julia’s cookbook, with recipes ranging from Boeuf Bourguignon to Rognons deVeau (veal kidneys) so he didn’t have to worry about that part of things.

In the middle of something of an identity crisis before turning 30, Julie takes on this cooking challenge with the hope that it might give her life some purpose.  The resulting trials and terrors and cursing and crying took her on a roller coaster ride for the next year as she worked to finish her goal, wondering along the way what in the world she was thinking.  Her husband, the rest of her family and her friends all wonder the same thing at times throughout the book, and Julie finds herself not only gaining quite a bit of weight, but having to make a few sacrifices, too.  Like missing the final episode of her favorite TV series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer:

“…it’s not so unlike the Bible, except with stunt doubles and better jokes…Also like the Bible, Buffy got a little bloated and Revelation-y toward the end…But still, this was it.  The end.  You don’t skip out on Revelations, no matter how kind of weird and lame it is.  Or maybe you do.  But not the last episode of Buffy.” (I must agree.)

But finish she did, and by the end of the challenge Julie finds herself changed from the immature girl in the beginning of the book into someone with confidence and vision.  Even though she was devastated to find out that Julia Child didn’t care for what she had done, she persevered and her life was forever changed indirectly by her.

One of Julie’s favorite recipes from the cookbook was Oeufs en Cocotte, or eggs baked in ramekins.  Sounding easy enough, I gave it a try.  You should, too.

Oeufs en Cocotte

adapted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child

For each serving:

1. Preheat oven to 375F(187C) degrees.

1/2 teaspoon (2 mL) butter

1 ramekin 2-1/2 to 3 inches (6.3-7.6 cm) in diameter and about 1-1/2 inches (3.8 cm) high

2 tablespoons (30 mL) whipping cream

A pan containing 3/4-inch (1.9 cm) of simmering water

1 or 2 eggs

Butter the ramekin, saving a dot for later. Add 1 tablespoon (15 mL) of cream and set the ramekin in the simmering water over moderate heat. When the cream is hot, break into it one or two eggs. Pour the remaining spoonful of cream over the egg and top with a dot of butter.

Place in the middle level of the hot oven and bake for 7 to 10 minutes. The eggs are done when they are just set but still tremble slightly in the ramekins. They will set a little more when the ramekins are removed, so they should not be overcooked.*

Salt and pepper

Season with salt and pepper, and serve.

(*) The ramekins may remain in the pan of hot water, out of the oven, for 10 to 15 minutes before serving. To prevent overcooking, remove eggs from oven when slightly underdone.

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