Hello there, if there is anyone?
Anyway, that's how I think Julie Powell started her blog back in 2002.
I had a great plan of creating my posts after hers, or at least this first introductory one, quoting her directly or paraphrasing. Much to my dismay, her blog has been removed from the Internet altogether. So I will try to substitute the lack of original writing with what I have picked up from the movie (THE movie), Julie&Julia.
Despite my first meeting with my supervisor was yet to come, I couldn't hold back to the recipes, especially when the little spinach parcels caught my eye. As a great spinach lover, I have seen it as my duty to test this specialty out and give a professional verdict on it. The salad side-dish is just a bonus.
So on that lovely Monday when I have ended school at 13:05 - which is a rarity these days, I forced my mom into a shopping trip for all the necessary ingredients. She wasn't happy, but I was.
When we came home, the thought of having to wait for the pastry to defrost was equal to torture and I spent the time nervously nibbling. I just had to start! And so I sailed my way in with dicing the salad ingredients, and I wanted to be painfully on point with the recipe so I used our older-than-me food processor to do the job. I must admit it took more time than I would've, and have learnt the golden lesson of not sticking to the recipe like honey to everything. Also, it is really important to leave to mixed salad aside and let all the water based vegetables release it, or else your salad will be a floating mess. Next I created the little parcels from self-raising dough as opposed to Jamie's filo pastry as I couldn't find it in my local supermarket and was pretty anxious to do the recipe. I must say it worked just fine, maybe even better as I prefer the taste of dough with a filling over a taste of filling with dough, if you catch my drift.
Anyway, that's how I think Julie Powell started her blog back in 2002.
I had a great plan of creating my posts after hers, or at least this first introductory one, quoting her directly or paraphrasing. Much to my dismay, her blog has been removed from the Internet altogether. So I will try to substitute the lack of original writing with what I have picked up from the movie (THE movie), Julie&Julia.
Despite my first meeting with my supervisor was yet to come, I couldn't hold back to the recipes, especially when the little spinach parcels caught my eye. As a great spinach lover, I have seen it as my duty to test this specialty out and give a professional verdict on it. The salad side-dish is just a bonus.
So on that lovely Monday when I have ended school at 13:05 - which is a rarity these days, I forced my mom into a shopping trip for all the necessary ingredients. She wasn't happy, but I was.
When we came home, the thought of having to wait for the pastry to defrost was equal to torture and I spent the time nervously nibbling. I just had to start! And so I sailed my way in with dicing the salad ingredients, and I wanted to be painfully on point with the recipe so I used our older-than-me food processor to do the job. I must admit it took more time than I would've, and have learnt the golden lesson of not sticking to the recipe like honey to everything. Also, it is really important to leave to mixed salad aside and let all the water based vegetables release it, or else your salad will be a floating mess. Next I created the little parcels from self-raising dough as opposed to Jamie's filo pastry as I couldn't find it in my local supermarket and was pretty anxious to do the recipe. I must say it worked just fine, maybe even better as I prefer the taste of dough with a filling over a taste of filling with dough, if you catch my drift.
The thing I was most impressed with, though, were the almonds and olives I had to grill on one tablespoon of olive oil. I took very good care of them and stirred them constantly. When they were on there for a while (5 minutes I would say), I took them off and tried them. Gosh golly, the flavors on those guys! The two combined so beautifully with the olive oil, creating a whole new taste, especially of the almonds. When tasting them in the salad, it was a crispy slice of heaven even though I must admit they were best when hot. I have roasted almonds once before, but that was for my granola needs, and I was shocked at what a different flavor they obtained, even the ones I slightly burned tasted so unusual. This post should actually be named "The Many Tastes of Almonds" haha!
One other thing I must mention is my "war wound" as I like to call it, and which I'm very proud of actually!
This was the first time I have hurt myself cooking and I look at it as a sign of dedication and hard work. (But don't get me wrong, one is enough for the duration of this project)
This is the finished product, assembled by moi! That was the other ridiculously fun thing to do - create the setting and look of the product, I have a feeling I'll be experimenting a lot with this. But the position under my kitchen window has it all.
P.S. This is my very first blog post and also the first stepping stone. Meaning the blog posts will develop according to experience and I need to create a few to see what goes best, how, where and when. So with the right amount of patience, this blog could get very far!
Bon appétit!