Sunday, September 13, 2009
So along with probably every other woman in North America and the blogosphere, I saw Julie & Julia.
I really enjoyed everything about the experience of seeing Julie & Julia. I saw it with my best friend Hayley a few days after it came out in theatres. It was really funny to walk up to the box office just shortly before the movie time and see a long line of women with a few husbands and boyfriends in tow. There were women (and men) from all age brackets in attendance, which really enhanced the experience as the older ladies would laugh at Meryl Streep's re-enactments of Julia Child's cooking show; for them there was an added layer to laugh at because many of them had likely seen Julia Child's cooking show. Meryl Streep did such a phenomenal job as Julia Child, I'm sure she'll at least get a nod for Best Actress.
It was hard to leave Julie & Julia not feeling excited about cooking. Cooking has become a greater interest of mine in the last year or so. I really enjoy cooking well for myself and others. A few culinary projects of mine that I've been meaning to get to are:
- learn to roast vegetables properly (last winter I tried to roast yam but I burnt it/dried it out instead and it didn't really taste cooked);
- cook fennel. I've been coming across this vegetable at the grocery store and at markets so I want to learn how to cook it.
Julie & Julia also had me thinking about my dream kitchen. Julia Child's kitchens were so spacious. I would love to have a kitchen large enough for me to have a work table like the one pictured above. I would also love for that table to be able to double as a harvest kitchen table, but I would also want to have a dining room as an option too.
I love my place. The kitchen, however, has very little counter space. I have two small counters. The main counter space is about 2 feet wide by 3 feet deep and is where most of the chopping and food preparation happens. It can really get cluttered if dishes are not done right after a meal. The other counter is maybe only 1.5 feet wide and holds a dish rack, a block of knives, paper towel (which I use sparingly) and dish soap. My room mate has a chest of wicker baskets which holds kitchen things, the top of which gives us another surface.
We didn't have a kitchen table for nearly two weeks when we moved in (I wasn't bothered, I was on vacation for a week). We decided that to maximize our living space (our kitchen and living room are one big open concept room) a drop-leaf table was ideal. On Craigslist I found the perfect vintage arborite drop-leaf table--the pattern of the arborite even matched that of my grandmaman's kitchen tables. The nice thing about the drop-leaf table is how compact it is when the leaves are down. We now have enough surface space to cook and I will continue dreaming of my future kitchen when watching Julie & Julia when it comes out on DVD.Labels: decor + design, food, movies, photos, quotes, September 2009
posted by Vanessa at 6:17 PM
