A Julie-and-Julia Inspired Journey

I have always loved the 2009 film Julie and Julia by Nora Ephron. It tells the personal journey of Julie Powell who challenged herself to cook all of the recipes out of Julia Child’s cookbook “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” in one year, while intertwining Julia’s own culinary exploratory adventure. In the end, both women find more about who they are, what they love, and how it relates to the world around them.

In 2011 we lost my father. He was the biggest cheerleader for all my creative pursuits, and he shared with me his love for cooking and baking. This passion he got from his mother, my Oma. We lost her in winter 2018.

As a way to continue to cherish their memories, I decided to go on my own culinary journey. I chose a book from Amazon, Classic German Baking by Luisa Weiss, convinced my partner to take pictures for me and eat the "weird root veggie dishes", and started a blog as a way to document my progress.

Why Classic German Baking? My father was in the Air Force and as a family we lived in Germany for three-and-a-half years when I was an adolescent. I wanted to recreate those special tastes and memories from our time there. Most of my family has German/Prussian ancestry, so I thought it would be fun to learn more about the culture & cuisine as an adult.

Why blog about it? Accountability. I felt like if I kept myself to a schedule and shared my thoughts and reflections I would follow through with completing the entire book versus adding it to a pile of “To Dos“ that are really just “Never Dones”.

What will happen when you get through the entire book? I am unsure. We will see what happens when we get there.

What else will be featured on the blog? Anything in my life that I love, find inspirational, or that keeps me going: small things and moments that elevate everyday living. In general, I relate to Julie Powell in that I find my day job soul-sucking. I hope this will be a fun and delicious outlet for me to see what I can do.

You can read Julie Powell's original 2002 blog here.