I got a copy of Julia Child's Mastering the art of French Cooking (Volume I) as part of my reward for joining the Book of the Month club sometime in the 60's. It may have been after I was already at university, seems like it was. For joining, I got five cookbooks for $10 (total). One was the Spice Islands Cookbook, a second was the Joy of Cooking, and the other two I don't remember, although one of them may have been Larousse Gastronomique. Julia Child's book I still have. Fortunately I put one of those plastic book covers on it (so I must have been at university because I didn't discover them until I went there), and the cover is still, after all these years, in fairly decent shape. The book itself is somewhat the worse for wear, but I suppose that is not a bad thing. I don't remember when I bought Volume II, but it hasn't seen nearly as much use, although it is suffering, too.
I learned an enormous amount from that book (Volume I), and I still use it A LOT. Chocolate Mousse? Julia. Bouillabaisse? Julia's fish soup + fish + Rouille (I usually make it from potato rather than egg...). Coq au vin? Julia... Mayonnaise? Hollandaise? Julia. I get the proportions from her. And while I usually don't follow recipes for things like veal stew (when I can find veal to make it from), and those veal patties, they are her recipes, basically. Sometimes I follow them, sometimes I don't, but I almost always look them up before I start cooking. She changed my life. That is not (repeat NOT) an exaggeration.
I can't remember not cooking something or other--cookies when we lived on Mohawk Avenue (I was 7 and 8--that's where I learned to ride a bicycle), and I don't remember what else I cooked but it must have been something because I remember Mother getting furious with me when I used the fork from the silver child's setting my grandmother gave me to get something or other loose from the crank meat grinder. You don't make cookies with that thing, so I must have tried other stuff, too.
I really began cooking when we moved out onto the farm in Goliad; I was 11. Maybe it was when I was 12. Mother worked "half time" as the bookkeeper at Griffin's in Goliad ( a dry goods store, fabric and clothes and shoes, etc.), officially 8-12, but she NEVER got there on time and NEVER left until at least 1:00 p.m. She would come home and have to prepare dinner, as the mid-day meal was the big one for the day (this was a farm, don't forget, and Daddy had been up working for a LONG time...). In the summertime when we were home, we (my sister and I) would be starving by then, and we'd have to wait for Mother to fix dinner. So I got this bright idea that I would cook dinner. And I'd phone her at work several times, discussing what to cook (usually some kind of meat, canned veggies, and starch like biscuits or cornbread), and try to make it. I never got it right for a long time, and she'd come home and still have to make biscuits, but it was indeed a help. We at least ate sooner.
One problem I had (and still have) is getting everything ready at the same time. I started writing out lists of what to do first, second, third, etc. And while I don't still do this, I really need to at least write a list of what I have to prepare, or it doesn't all get done. This is frequently a bit of a problem because I'm a fruitcake and frequently don't decide exactly what to cook until I've actually begun doing it...
Stay tuned, Lillie
Spontaneity is half the fun, right?
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