This cold has really kicked my butt. I have been since since early Thursday morning, so I haven’t been doing any interesting cooking. I have been eating soup with doctored up chicken broth according to the directions in Julia Child’s cookbook. It definitely makes a better tasting soup. I went to both ballet and Tahitian practices. I nearly passed out in Tahitian class after 1 1/2 hours. In spite of being sick, I have kept the various appointments I have had. Recently I had a phone interview, which turned into an in-person interview on Monday. I have been certain that my cold would be gone by then, but so far that isn’t the case. These things usually last 3 days, but I’m on my fourth day and still not feeling better. The cough has started, and my throat isn’t much better compared to Thursday.

Tahitian dance class kicked my butt yesterday. For those of you who don’t know, I spend 2 1/2 hours every Saturday in Tahitian dance practice. The first hour is easier than the next 1 1/2 hour session–usually. This was a typical Saturday where the second class was harder. We worked on a specific move. I was lucky to walk out of the dance studio. I tried some similar movements today, and I’m still sore. Nothing like being barely able to move on my birthday. However, I didn’t make any plans this year. I wasn’t sure what to do, and then it got too late for my friends to be available. I was too tired after dance class on Saturday eto even consider going out.

I have had quite a few birthday wishes–more than I expected. Thanks to all!

I finished off the last of the boeuf bourguignon on Thursday, which meant that I needed to cook again. This time I cooked boeuf a la mode, which isn’t beef with ice cream. It’s beef braised in red wine. Actually, it’s a beef roast marinated for hours in red wine with vegetables and spices. The marinade was surprisingly fragrant. After letting my roast (all I could get was bottom round) marinate for six hours, then it had to be browned on all sides and then put in the oven with the marinade and additional beef stock. Again, this takes most of the day. I thought I would have time to do other things while the roast cooked, but I was wrong–again.

The recipe called for carrots braised in butter, which I had made before, so I was confident I could have those turn out. I also had to make brown-braised onions–also made before. I burnt the carrots. They were fine, nearly done, so I turned down the heat. I have no idea what happened, but when I went back to check them, they were burnt. I saved most of them, but a few were a lost cause, stuck to the bottom of the pan in the brown muck. The onions turned out much better. I even blanched them properly, so the skins came off. I love the taste of the onions, but I hate the little suckers. Blanching and peeling tries my patience. I nearly bought jarred onions, until I saw the salt content.

The roast turned out rather well. I expected the roast would be funny colored from the wine, but it looked normal and tasted wonderful. After cleaning, it was time to bake. My birthday is this weekend, and for months I have had a Betty Crocker gluten-free cake mix. I got a coupon to try it, so the mix was free. I also added Julia’s butter cream with powdered sugar. I’m used to butter cream frosting, but I have never seen the recipes in French Cooking. This butter cream had butter, of course, and egg yolks. It’s the fluffiest frosting I’ve had. My chocolate cake required chocolate butter cream. The great thing about these butter creams is that they can be flavored with anything.

Oh, the gluten-free cake mix is excellent. It has the perfect sponginess that you expect in a cake. Gluten-free baked goods can often be very heavy. I did add the ingredients differently than it said on the box. I beat the butter with a small amount of mix. I whipped the eggs separately until they were frothy, and added those to the creamed butter and beat that good. I added more mix until the butter was fully creamy and then added the water slowly. When it got too watery, I added more mix. When it got thick, I added more water until all the water was in. Then I put in the rest of the mix and beat it for several minutes.

So, I have never made an omelet. I never eat omelets. I have never even ordered an omelet at a restaurant. I guess that means I have never eaten an omelet. One wonders how you get to be my age in life without ever eating an omelet. I can’t say that they were that popular in Nebraska. No one in my family ate them either.

I would have thought that you needed to add milk or water to the eggs, but not according to Julia. Butter is required. And, I have to say that everything tastes better with butter. I read the directions for flipping the eggs several times, since omelets cook quickly.

Oh, you also need an omelet pan. I bought a non-stick French skillet from All-Clad. I love my All-Clad cookware, so, of course, I wanted more. Actually, I didn’t buy the pan. It was one more of many birthday gifts. I was supposed to get a 7″ and an 11″ pan, but the company screwed up, and I didn’t get the 11″ pan. I hope it shows up before a week is up, but I have my doubts.

Back to the eggs… I don’t like creamy eggs. I like mine cooked, so I cooked my omelet a little longer. I also added cheese, so officially I cooked l’omelette brouillée au fromage. My fromage was Havarti. I have to say that non-stick pans make omelets easy to flip. The eggs were lightly browned with a buttery flavor. It was perfect for dinner, since lunch was left over beouf bourguignon. One serving of that stew, I don’t want to eat the rest of the day.

I need to get back to the gluten-free part of cooking. I have gotten a bit caught up with the techniques in the book that I never learned.

I haven’t written about hula and Tahitian dance in awhile. Things have been going better there. So well, in fact, that I have decided to take ballet class. Actually, ballet class should help me be a better hula and Tahitian dancer. My first ballet class was on Friday, except the teacher had some emergency, so I showed up in pink tights and a black leotard to a dance class that got canceled.

You may expect to read about my ballet mishaps either late Friday or Saturday. I must love trying new things that no one else would do at my age. I guess I like a challenge, although dance classes have often been more misery than challenge. The torture my body goes through… The comparisons I make to the teenagers–thinking I should be able to do what they do. I don’t exactly learn quickly. I’m improving on that though. I’m ambidextrous, which is mostly cool, until I want to do something physical. Then I don’t know which is left and right. When everyone else is going right, I’m typically going left. I have to think about it. I have to make a physical memory, so that I remember what to do.

I really don’t know what to expect in ballet. I’m sure that four years of dancing will help in any type of dance that I do. I’m not very fond of the tights and leotard, although I have to admit that they are comfortable. It’s more clothing than Tahitian dance–that took a lot to get used to.

My latest cooking adventure took me to the chicken section. Reading this cookbook made me realize that I know very little about cooking, although I thought I did. So tonight, I trussed a chicken. I have never tied up chicken, yet I have always been annoyed that a roast chicken’s legs droop while cooking. I had planned ahead for this trussing. It’s not like I owned string that wouldn’t interfere with food or even the gigantic needles required to push through meat flesh.

The trussing was surprisingly easy, although I didn’t quite understand how to make wings “akimbo.” I did get them tied to the chicken so that they didn’t fall off during the cooking. Every recipe that Julia Child provides requires that you stand over the stove or oven for the entire cooking time. I laugh when I tell people all the steps it takes to make a recipe. Tonight, every eight to ten minutes, I basted the chicken with butter and oil, and finally its own juices until the skin was crispy golden brown. It’s simple, but time-consuming. It was the best roast chicken I’ve had. Juicy, moist and fully chickeny. I ate entire half breast.

I also thought while I was roasting that I would have time to fix some sort of vegetable, and the carrot recipes looked good. I only made a third of the recipe. Just thinking about cutting one and half pounds of carrots made me want to lay on the couch. I spent two and half hours in dance class today. I didn’t walk out standing straight. I was lucky to walk out at all. Hours later my legs still hurt. So I chose the simple carrots braised in butter. There’s just some water, a bit of sugar and butter cooked with the carrots until there’s no liquid left. The carrots were amazing, and I ate the entire half pound that I cooked.

I didn’t have to make any adjustments to the cooking chemistry, but it was a great experience to roast a chicken properly. Every time I work through one of these recipes, I have this great satisfaction of accomplishing something. There is immediate gratification. It’s not something I find in everything that I do.

The best part since I’ve started this project is that I have lost weight. My clothes are looser. I almost didn’t want to add that because it goes against all the dieting rules. I think it’s because these meals are so filling that I don’t snack, which means I don’t eat the high-calorie chocolate I keep around.

I chose boeuf bourguignon as my first entree from Julia Child’s cookbook. I thought Thursday would be the perfect day to do some cooking. While working at home editing students’ papers, I could cook. I didn’t plan on the cat creating a disaster in the kitchen that morning. I had read through the recipe, so I knew I needed almost an entire day to make the stew. I got a late start, since I began working first after cleaning and didn’t begin cooking until almost noon. That is when I realized that I needed pearl onions. So after starting the bacon boiling, I took off for the grocery store behind my house. I returned with pearl onions, mushrooms and bordeaux wine (Mouton Cadet 2007). It was smart to have bought the wine, since the recipe required three cups of wine. I didn’t realize that a bottle of wine only contains slightly over three cups. It was a good bottle of red wine. My stew was turning expensive with the $11 bottle of wine added to the mix. I’m lucky that this grocery store carries some unusual items, although the French wine choices are slim. I didn’t see a single California burgundy or bordeaux.

Julia Child does not give a time estimate for the stew. I will warn you now that it takes at least six hours with the shortcuts that I took. After the bacon had every last smoky essence boiled out, it was time to fry it. The book says to brown it lightly. I’m not quite sure how to light brown bacon. I did the best I could. I had grease splatters everywhere. Next it was time to brown the stew meat. The recipe calls for three pounds. All of this meat needs to be patted dry and browned in batches. Too much meat crowded together means the meat won’t brown. I had to brown three batches of meat in the Le Creuset dutch oven. While browning meat, I fixed up the canned beef broth. Beef broth alone doesn’t quite have the flavor it should, so Julia has a way of doctoring it up. I was nearly ready several hours later to pop the meat, onions, carrots, broth and the entire bottle of wine into the oven for two to three hours. I was looking forward to a restful few hours. Another chance to work while I waited for the stew. I was wrong. Pearl onions needed peeled and cooked. The cooking alone took 40 minutes. I blanched the onions and popped them out of their skins before cooking. I have no idea how long that took. I began the onions when the stew began its second hours of cooking.

Mushrooms. I don’t like mushrooms, but the recipe calls for them, so I thought I might as well add them. I cheated. Instead of buying whole mushrooms, I bought cleaned, sliced mushrooms. Also, I didn’t get a pound. I bought one bag. I didn’t even notice how many mushrooms were in the recipe before going to the store. The mushrooms had to be browned in butter. These also must be browned in batches. If they are too close together, they don’t brown. It took two batches to cook 10 ounces of mushrooms. I was glad that I didn’t have a pound of mushrooms. By the time, I finished with the onions and mushrooms, it was time to take out the stew from the oven.

Oh, I forgot to add how many pots and utensils this dish takes. I kept using the same ones and washing them between uses. The pot used to boil bacon was used for making broth. The fry pan was washed after the onions.

Now, I’m thinking all I have to do is add the mushrooms and onions, and the stew is done. No. Although by now my house smells wonderful. Now, I have to remove the meat from the dutch oven and drain the liquid into a pot to be reduced. The onions and carrots used for flavoring have to be removed from the meat. The sliced onions are virtually invisible, and the carrots are nearly disintegrated. After emptying the pot, it has to washed. I looked at it. The dutch oven contained sticky brown stuff up the sides and on the underside of the lid. These dutch ovens are amazing to clean though. It took a couple of minutes in warm, soapy water to remove the sticky stuff. Now my pot was new again, so everything had to go back into the pot:  meat, bacon, pearl onions, mushrooms and liquid thickened with gluten-free flour. It worked again!

The stew doesn’t look like much, but it smells and tastes wonderful. The length of time it takes to prepare is worth the amazing tenderness and flavor of the meat. The mushrooms were nutty. I have never had mushrooms like that. Most of the time, mushrooms are mushy and taste like dirt. These didn’t, but I’m still not a fan of mushrooms. And, so far there’s no rash from the mushrooms!

My cat, Spencer, has been doing his best to reach the highest spots in the house. After teaching on Tuesday, I came home to a broken tea pot from the top shelf of the kitchen stand where I keep various items, including the microwave and small appliances. He had found the precious cat toy stash that I kept there out of view. Apparently, he saw me put things there and remembered. I moved the toys on Tuesday afternoon, but that didn’t stop him from continually trying to climb the stand.

On Thursday morning after my shower, I found Spencer sitting very still surrounded by glass shards. This time he broke the coffee pot. He looked at me with such confusion. There was no way that he could leap past all of the glass. I wish I had a picture of his expression. It’s not one I see often. Spencer has things handled. He has this confident, cocky attitude.

I picked him up and shooed him away from the kitchen while I swept up the glass. It was everywhere, so I had to get out the shop-vac to clean the floor. Then, I had to mop the floor with the floor steamer that doesn’t work as well as it should. It’s faster than the all-purpose steam cleaner that works perfectly every time.

My Thursday, which is typically busy since that is when I receive students’ homework assignments, started around 10:30 am. I nearly gave up on my plans to make boeuf bourguignon until I saw the fresh stew meat that I would have to freeze if I delayed the cooking project further.

With the new cooking project, I realized that I could use some new cookware. Very specific cookware. When I read about stews and roasting meats, I knew that I needed a dutch oven. I did my research on the Internet as usual. I determined the size and shape that I wanted, and I found a Le Creuset pot that was perfect–except that it was $260. Now this pot will last forever–it’s cast iron with enamel inside and out. It makes it a good buy. I’ll be able to pass it down to my son. It’s unlikely that he will want it, but it doesn’t matter. I’m sure the thing would make it through a tornado and still be worth cooking in. Since my birthday is coming up, I thought this was the perfect thing to ask for. My mother didn’t disappoint. I’m now the proud owner of a Le Creuset cast iron enameled pot (red!). I’ll tell you later how my first dish (Boeuf Bourguignon) turned out in it. The pot is deep red, darker at the bottom and at the edge of the lid. The flash washed it out, even though I tried to correct the red color. The stainless steel knob was added. It doesn’t come that way, but I wanted to be able to have a knob that I didn’t have to worry about melting.

what might be wrong with me… The happiest moment today was when I found chuck bacon and clarified butter at the grocery store nearest my house. I was thrilled that I didn’t have to drive all over going to specialty stores to find these items–required ingredients for boeuf bourguignon. I walke dout of the store beaming about my find. I bought the stew meat earlier, but that store only had sliced bacon and regular butter. The weather here is perfect for stew. It’s a bit rainy and slightly chilly. Although when it stops raining the weather is beautiful.

I have quite an appreciation for Julie Powell who cooked all the recipes in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1. The recipes require a lot of planning, list making and trips to the store. I have made far more trips to the store than usual, and I have only cooked one sauce.