As we near the end of our first book, I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti, get closer to the start of our second book, Garlic & Sapphires, and having just watched the movie Julie & Julia, I started thinking about all sorts of things: blogging, cooking (and blogging about it), and reading books and cooking and then blogging about what you’ve read and in turn, cooked (if you followed that, you’re a borderline genius).

[ Psst... If you're at all unfamiliar with Julie Powell's blog, The Julie/Julia Project, about her adventures in cooking one of Julia Child's cookbooks and how it was turned into a book and then consequently the aforementioned movie, or the story behind it, then perhaps you won't follow this very well. So I suggest you do some research (Wikipedia always helps, a little). ]

So Julia Child didn’t like Julie Powell’s blog. She thought that Julie wasn’t “a serious cook.” That sort of annoys me, although I get that it was probably a generational gap, or perhaps Julia wasn’t getting the snarkiness or maybe even didn’t like the expletives that possibly were sprinkled (or peppered, haha) in. I get that. But what I don’t get is why cooking has to be serious. Why can’t it just be fun? Or maybe even predictable, sometimes, in a comforting way? Why does it have to be serious to the point where a blogger is considered “flimsy” for her attempts?

Don’t get me wrong- I love Julia Child. I recognize how she revolutionized cooking and changed America’s outlook on cooking (and the world, I suppose). I love that she loved butter, because, hell… I do too. Probably more than I should. I know she was fabulous. But, I mean, we aren’t curing cancer here. We aren’t formulating a plan for world peace, or assisting in the Healthcare reform bill, or anything.  It’s a cookbook. It makes people enjoy life more, expand their culinary horizons, that sort of thing. It’s a pleasurable book, not War & Peace. Just like how we’re reading, and cooking, and sharing our experiences about both, and it’s a pleasurable experience. And while in some forms cooking can be serious business (for example, if you’re a restaurant owner I’m sure it’s fairly serious), I don’t find that it has to be stuffy. And I sort of resent anyone who does. Why can’t you cook and when something goes wrong say “fuck” or “shit”? I do it all the time, like that one time when I forgot to put the eggs in my cupcake batter and realized after they were in the oven. I’m pretty sure Julia uttered the ‘F’ word once or twice, too. Why can’t you take on something and do it with humor and seriousness? I don’t see anything wrong with that. I don’t see why you can’t have a sense of humor about making coq au vin or lobster thermidor. What’s so serious about lobsters and cheese!? It’s delicious, yes, but lobsters are pretty funny too, or at least cooking them can be. And in laughing about it, I don’t think it makes you a less serious cook than anyone else. At least you’re putting the effort in to make something like that or boeuf bourguignon, and not defrosting a microwave meal or frozen pizza. I think it was an homage to Julia, and I’m sorry she didn’t see it that way. But you don’t have to be a Le Cordon Bleu graduate to love, enjoy and appreciate cooking, or do it well.

Because here’s the thing: cooking IS fun. It’s a blast. I love it, I love it as much as I love art, and that’s a lot. I am not a classically trained chef, I never took a pastry class in my life, and I probably cut my onions the wrong way. I don’t have T-Fal pots and pans, and you know what? I don’t give a shit. I love to cook. I love to bake. I don’t do it to impress anyone, and I don’t need to. I have fun with it, because it is fun, and I love not only the creation process, but the devouring process. It doesn’t have to be boring, the same, boring, tasteless, spiceless, flavorless chicken every night, or the same lousy casserole no one likes  to eat, but at the same time, no one thinks they can do any better, because OH-EM-GEE, cooking is, like, so totally complicated! You don’t have to make an 8-course meal every night, use Smart Balance every time, or worry about how fattening everything is every single day. Loosen up. Live a little. You don’t have to be Julia Child- and you certainly don’t have to cook lousy food because it’s  quick or tasteless food because it’s “healthy”! Because it’s supposed to be fun, and enjoyable, and savored when it’s eaten; whether it’s drenched in butter or just steamed vegetables, and you’re supposed to be you- make what you like to eat, how you like to eat it, and when.  It doesn’t matter if you’re a vegan, vegetarian, a person of Muslim or Jewish religious beliefs who won’t eat pork, or a Hindu who won’t eat beef: YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO ENJOY YOUR FOOD. And even more so, enjoy CREATING it! Cookbooks are supposed to inspire you, and make you happy, and you’re not supposed to be worried or scared it won’t turn out perfect, or commit yourself to an entire day in the kitchen just to feel like you’re doing the recipe and it’s author justice.

For example, the four of us plan to take on Giulia’s gnocchi as our final project of her book. I can’t speak for the others, but making your own pasta is sorta terrifying. I did it once for a Daring Bakers’ Challenge on Cupcake Rehab and it was a bit daunting. But it was lasagna, so it wasn’t nearly as difficult as potato pasta formed in little pillows with your thumb and a fork. It wasn’t like anyone was going to say “Your lasagna noodles are too thick/thin” or “Your lasagna noodles  don’t have the right shape.” Now I’m fairly certain that gnocchi is not brain surgery, as people have been making it by hand for many, many years. But still… when you create something that seems larger than life like that, it makes you feel different and accomplished. And it’s kind of a testament to the person who wrote the recipe if you can make it and say “Wow, that wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be!” because that means they’ve achieved the best thing a “teacher” can achieve: teaching on a level you can understand, learn from, and launch off of, so to speak. Julia should have been flattered that she was so adored by Julie, that she inspired her so, and that her recipes translated so well they could be created in a tiny kitchen in a Queens apartment, not to mention so long after the book had been first published.

I should say now that I’m extremely glad that not all Julia/Giulia’s are the same and that Giulia Melucci didn’t view us  and our blog the way Julia Child viewed Julie Powell and what she was doing. Just as I hope every other author we choose sees it as flattery, not mockery, or us trying to “use” a book for fame. Because that’s certainly not the case. It should be taken as flattery. That, and seen as a group of friends doing what we love, keeping ourselves sane through the therapy of reading and cooking,  sharing the experience with all of you and maybe, just maybe… learning something new both in our kitchens and about ourselves.