1st Julie & Julia Sequel

We did it! Meredith and I congregated in the kitchen at precisely 3pm Saturday the 9th of January. We got a bit behind schedule because I forgot to print off the shopping list (quite essential to cooking with Julia) so Meredith had to re-write it and we headed off to Wally World.

*Side Note*

a little tidbit for you all, do NOT under any circumstance, enter Walmart on a Saturday and expect to accomplish much of anything in less than an hour and a half!!

So, approximately 20 minutes after four we swirved through traffic and made it home in one piece.

After flooding the counter with basil leaves and Italian seasoned bread, we reviewed our recipes once again which were the following.....

Bruschetta with Tomatoes and Basil

French-Style Potato Pancake

Raspberry and Lemon Cake

ALL some of Julia Child's special treats :)

We began with potato pancake because we knew it would take the longest and shortly after began the bruschetta. Meredith took on the "potato pricking" which was a first for her while I prepared for the tomato dicing. We quickly discovered that Meredith is gifted with potato whispering, because the potatoes cooked beautifully!

We diced tomatoes endlessly while having the bread toasting in the oven...well what was left of it after we nibbled on a few slices! We found out that the bruschetta was actually the easiest to make and our challenge was going to be the Raspberry and Lemon cake! Despite its simplistic appearance, there were actually great lengths taken to accomplish this masterpiece! It involved making the pound cake, whipping the frosting (which required trial and error and additional taste-testing) and two types of jam spreads. After the pound cake finally cooled, it was definitely a task trying to spread the sticky jam on one side while ensuring it didn't sneak off the middle and onto the smooth frosting! In addition we had to place the raspberries strategically on the layers so they were balanced and the cake looked rectangular without resembling the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

All in all, we had three successes; simply disregard my families opinion! :) However, by the end of that LONG evening, practically anything would have sufficed as a scrumptious reward to our Julia laborings!

By the way....as you can see by the darkness of the room...we didn't finish until about 9p.m. :-|