Me & Julie & Julia and Friends

SO.... Here in FX land, we go to the college cinema and get the cheap seats, so we are well-cinema-ed for the most part, just several months late. Last week, we were quite taken by the inimitable Ms. Streep and the film "Julie and Julia." As a fellow blogger wishing to make it 'big' as a writer, I shall repeat the effort with the Second Volume...

Just kidding. However, it did stimulate the taste buds and the culinary arts in FX land, and we decided that we would have a go at some cooking with Julia.

• The film must have been a boon to Alfred A. Knopf's sales (and it should, in my opinion, as they have provided me with so many hours of pleasant reading...), but Ms. Julia, in two volumes, from the 24th printing, (1973) was already in the FXVA personal library.

Our choice must have come from the movie... Le Marquis, chocolate spongecake. I remember the orange-zest from the film.

Several observations may be made from this experience, but only two really stick with me.

1. The svelte couple in that movie could not possibly have consumed these 542 recipies in the space of a year. I suspect that, in real life, they clocked in at 230 and 280 lbs each;
2. she may have been a government secretary, but they must be paying a bundle for secretaries up in NYC, because the darned cake must have cost $25 in materials alone.

In my youth, Dean & DeLuca were on the marching list, and they were not in the habit of giving away the comestibles, as Julia might have said. We attended state schools, and, in FX land & environs, the masses are expected to do their own typing.

Insofar as the cake goes. Some of the cooking staff complained about annoying makeshift double boilers and a lot of by-hand what-have-you, and "what's wrong with the microwave?" I pointed out that this was 50's technology, we put a man on the MOON, thank your lucky stars for a ROOF over your HEAD ...

Nevertheless, a very delightful result was had. Well, I liked it, but it tasted foreign to all of the munchkins in FX Land ("Honey, can you show me where France is on the map? East of Long Island?"), and it was decided that French desserts require a full meeting of the Board prior to blowing $30 on a recipe that mixes orange with chocolate.

I utilized the endorphins from the half pound of chocolate and the associated blood sugar mania to write a blog. Now, I am going into induced insulin shock, and blogtime is over.

[Edit note:] the excess sugar may have stimulated creativity, but did little for clarity. Hopefully it is a little better now.