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.