Day 100: Woo Hoo!

Menu:

Marinated Pork Loin JC

BraisedCabbage JC

Potatoes, Onions and Carrots in a Wine Sauce JC

Custard w/ Praline JC

Pio Cesare Wine

I ended my project today by cooking Julia Child recipes all day long. It was worth every minute spent preparing it. The pork was so melt in your mouth tender. The vegetables were really flavorful with the wine sauce blending them together. I braised the cabbage in wine and then added the vegetables and cabbage to the pork and then baked it all for an hour and a half. I had made the custard praline a few days ago but it turned out loose and a bit liquidy. It tasted really good though. I made it again today and it turned out perfect! This meal was a perfect 10 and a great way to end my project.

When I first started this project I had no idea what I was getting myself into. It is a very expensive and time consuming project. Each and every recipe required a pan purchase or a different type of liquor or wine. I have an abudance of pans and wines and flavorings. One pan that I needed for the Beef Burgundy cost almost 100 dollars. But Julia recommends the porcelain clad cast iron type of flameproof dish. It is best to use that type because she takes you from the stovetop to the oven in the same pan in several of her recipes. It takes some getting used to but I've never been a fan of Teflon so I adapted pretty quickly. I have several copper molds, tart pans and I have doubled the amount of cooking utensils. It was all worth it in the end because Michael and I experienced some of the best meals of our lives. Had it not been for Michael pitching and doing dishes most nights, the project would have went to the wayside real fast. At least three sinkfuls of dishes per meal on most nights. Thank you for helping and supporting me...even though I know you'd say the food was thank you enough. Glad you enjoyed it, baby! Thank you for my new floor. I love it!

After doing this project I have learned that I absolutely am not a person that enjoys doing things by instruction. I've never cooked with recipes, In the 25 years I have been cooking for my family, I've always just thrown meals together doing what feels right when I add my ingredients. Julia is very scientific while I prefer to cook with passion and with a more artistic approach. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Julia Child, her recipes are definitely a work of art...her art. No matter how hard I try to follow her instructions I just can't seem to duplicate her masterpieces. I've learned a lot from her cookbooks and enjoyed her book, "My Life In France" I've mostly learned that I'm no Julia Child. She's like a renoir painting, a one of a kind.

Facts:

Day 100 of 100 (I'm amazed that I completed this, utterly amazed.)

100% Amazed!

God bless to all who have hung in there with me, especially you my dear Michael. You always make me feel like the sun, and the moon and the stars!