Julia’s 100th; Mastering the Art of Culinary Inspiration; No Excuses, No Explanations, No Regrets

So, I started this blog as a way to organize my thoughts, clear my head, and find a path towards my life passions. By combining my love of and interest in food, cooking, and people, I hoped to discover what I want to do with my life (at least at this stage and time). I don’t know if I’d call it fate or good inspirational timing, but as I was working on my blog, I saw the Google icon featured a tall, jolly-looking cartoon woman amongst an array of gourmet-looking foodstuffs. Julia Child! I scrolled over the icon and the description popped up, announcing “Julia Child’s 100^th Birthday.” Oh! Luckily, the movie Julie and Julia was in the stack of DVDs I had checked out from the library, so I was able to satisfy my Julia Child craving by watching Nora Ephron’s depiction of the relationship between a government worker turned food-blogger and her idol, a government worker turned food icon. Every time I watch it, I marvel at Julia’s gutsy, spunky hoodzpa and Julie’s ability to push through all her challenges and accomplish what she set out to do: cover every recipe in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 365 days and record each experience in a blog.

I love how she always has cats in her kitchen.

Now, I should make it known that I haven’t been a very consistent blogger in the past. My last blog about my stay in Paris lasted 6 posts and had 4 followers, all my close girlfriends. Even before the age of blogging, I couldn’t keep a diary for more than 2 days. But now, I’m determined to keep the conversations rolling and this blog cooking. With the timely inspirational appearance of my favorite food fairy (Julia Child- in case you spaced out while reading this), I promise to write a post at least once a week and always find time to cook and converse with friends. Finishing with a Julia-inspired mantra: No Excuses, No Explanations, and No Regrets!

The Beginning; A Balanced Breakfast; The Cinnamon Toast Post

How do I begin? This is a question I’ve been asking myself constantly ever since I graduated from college. How do I begin to live life as an adult, a non-student, a 23-year old woman? Can I even call myself a woman when I’ve yet to experience so much in life and when I still feel so often like a young girl? I don’t think I’m the only one of my generation who is having this dilemma, this quasi quarter-life crisis, so it’s comforting to know that many of my friends are in a similar boat. All we can do is keep paddling, paddling down the stream of life, supporting each other along the way.

On a less philosophical note, how do I begin this blog? I’d like to start with a positive post and I can’t think of anyone more positive to start with than my dear friend, Olivia. After meeting freshman year in the dorms, I knew I’d always want to keep in touch with this bright, sunny, orange-loving girl. Five years have passed and she’s still as bright and sunny as ever, but now with a wise, protective UV shield around her to filter out harmful rays of negativity- a sign of maturity from experience.

Last Thursday morning, we enjoyed a simple breakfast together at my place: Vital Vittles Flax-Seed Oat Bread with a layer of Berkeley Bowl Roasted Almond Butter, a thin overlay of California Wildflower Honey from Soquel, CA, and a sprinkling of Cinnamon, all toasted so that the sweet, roasted, and spiced flavors mingled together and saturated the crisped, warm bread. When sprinkling the cinnamon, Olivia accidentally added an overly generous amount to hers and said, “I forgot that too much cinnamon doesn’t taste very good.” I chuckled and sprinkled some of hers on mine. There’s a delicate balance one must keep in mind when making something even as simple as cinnamon toast. To accompany our toast, I French-pressed some coffee for her and drank lactose-free milk myself.

As we sat and ate our breakfast, we caught up with each others’ lives, conversing about the usual- how was your week, how’s work, how’s your love life? During our conversation, I noticed how she would often play the “Devil’s advocate.” I pointed this out and she laughed, saying she does that to keep a balance, to give an opposite opinion. That got me thinking: balance is such an essential part of life- it keeps us afloat, it keeps us from falling off the tightrope or tipping over the boat. Without balance, one can go to extremes that can cause pain, sadness, or disappointment. You may drink till you puke or dance till you drop or add too much cinnamon to your toast, but sometimes these extremes are necessary to learn what one’s boundaries are, to discover what balance means to you. Even when one teeters on the edge of imbalance and ventures into the extreme, friends and family can help bring you back to balance and remove the extra spice, the excess cinnamon. 

            Olivia and I ended our meal with some sugarplums from my aunt’s backyard, fruits with a perfect balance of sweet and sour. And as we said our “see-you-soon”-s, I felt my hunger to keep a balance in life restored.