The Stefanie/Stacy Project

I wrote a few weeks ago about the book I was reading, The Julie and Julia Project. I had also been to see the movie, and all of it inspired me. I wanted to try a French meal. Well, it didn't necessarily have to be French, persay, but a JULIA meal was a must. I knew it could be fun, I was certain it would be difficult, and I did not want to do it on my own. Who could I talk into taking on the endeavor of cooking this "crazy"-as my husband called it-meal? (By the way, he didn't think we were crazy when he tasted the meal! It was good!)

Stef! Stef was the answer! Stef is a friend that I met through my husband, just over a year ago. She worked with him and she knew we were having a baby. She was so helpful, she sent us a detailed list of things she had found helpful-or in some cases not at all useful-with her son, who was just about 9 months older than Rusty. We decided to meet up with her for lunch a few weeks before Rusty was born, and I was hooked. Stef is so fun! She's one of the sweetest people you will ever meet and she truly has been one of my biggest "mommy lifelines." I'm pretty sure I have texted her or called her to ask her questions about something I was experiencing with Rusty even late at night! She always responds kindly, and she is completely honest. Not only is Stef helpful in the areas of "what do I do about this?" mom questions, she is incredible fun! We connected right from the start, and I find I can talk to her about everything, and we also always have fun together! I thought Stef would be the perfect person to ask to join me in my quest to cook the perfect Julia Child meal. I asked...she said "OF COURSE!" We were off!

I went online, searching for recipes. There aren't a lot of Julia recipes to be found on Google. They seem to be pretty closely guarded. I decided to try the library. I could not check out Mastering the Art of French Cooking, but I did find a Julia Child/Jacque Pepin cookbook, as well as a Le Cordon Bleu cookbook. I took both of them.

After some hits and misses-due to sickness in both households-we were finally able to meet up and plan our meal! We decided on three courses-appetizer, main course, and dessert. The appetizer and main course were to come from the Le Cordon Bleu book, and the dessert from the Julia/Jacque book. What was on deck, you ask? Let me tell you!

To begin, we would start with a lovely dish of Creme Cressoniere Frappe-Chilled Cream of Watercress Soup. This would be followed by Tournedos Montagnarde-Fillet Steaks with Goat Cheese and Pine Nuts. This main course dish had a lovely garnish of sauteed mushrooms, green beans and carrots. We would finish all of that off with Chocolate Roulade! This dish is divine...a lovely combination of ganache turned into a souffle with Chantilly Creme filling! YUMM! At the last minute we thought we should probably throw in some of Julia's mashed potatoes, just for good measure!

We divided up the food list. This included: pine nuts, beef fillets, garlic, onion, leek, heavy cream, light cream, chives, mushrooms, green beans, butter, olive oil, cocoa powder, bittersweet chocolate, 2 bunches of watercress, egg whites, egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, red wine, Madeira, potatoes, chicken stock, beef stock, goat cheese, pepper, salt, and other ingredients. Stef took care of the creams and alcohol, I took care of the veggies and meat. Yum! This was going to be SOME meal!

Finally, the day was here! Kev and I first had plans to go to a Canucks open practice-courtesy of Kev's friend, Clarence. Stef was game for taking care of Rusty, so off we went. We dropped off my mixer, all of our food, and our munchkin and off we went! We enjoyed some time together-well, us and two of Kev's buddies!

After a couple of hours we were back and ready to go! The big boys-Kev and Jake-took care of the little boys-Rusty and his buddy, who we will call Monkey #2! Stef, who has all of these amazing hidden talents, had whipped up some lovely aprons for us that morning-which I was VERY excited about, as I had been looking for a cute apron for AGES-so we donned the aprons, got out our pots and pans and ingredients, and started cooking!

First of all, I'm not entirely sure I have ever spent that amount of time in a kitchen on one meal! I had also never undertaken such a huge meal with another person. I hoped our cooking styles would combine seamlessly, and although we were secretly planning to mess at least one dish up, we were hoping that they would all work! Timing was the big key. We told the boys not to expect to eat until 9 p.m. and that perhaps they should have some snacks on hand.

First up, the Chocolate Roulade. The souffle needed to bake and cool to room temperature before we could add the Chantilly Creme and roll it into the log. I prepped the pan-which included buttering parchment paper and cutting the corners to make a perfect overlapping square-as well as whipping up the egg whites in my new Kitchen Aid. (Can I just say again how much I LOVE my new Kitchen Aid mixer???) Stef took care of the ganache, a tasty combination of bittersweet chocolate and heavy cream. I know, just the ingredients sound amazing! I think this was probably the part we were the most nervous about. Cakes and souffles are such tricky things, eggs whites included. The instructions said things like "don't let the egg whites get too dry. They must have the perfect glossy sheen. Fold them in quickly!" (Have you ever read a Julia cookbook? QUITE hilarious! Part of the directions for this chocolate roulade cake said "with a sharp knife, trim both ends of the roll with neat crosswise or diagonal cuts and discard, (meaning eat them yourself.) It actually said that! It was full of these witty little things, almost like watching an episode of Julia on TV.

The souffle was to bake for 10 to 12 minutes, and when it was done, it looked set and puffy, just like it was supposed to!!! We set it to cool to room temperature, and moved on to our soup. Now, we already knew there was a problem with the soup. I had looked around and found watercress NOWHERE! (Does anyone know where you can find watercress in this area? I sure couldn't find it!) We started looking through the recipes, and discovered we had everything we need for Jacque's Potato and Leek Soup. We were back in business!

I have never used a leek in cooking before. I have had things with leeks in them, but never personally used one myself. Thankfully, the cookbook came through yet again, showing us how to cut, clean and prep the leek. Who knew you had to soak leek pieces in a bath of lukewarm water?? I know now!While the soup simmered away, we prepped the ingredients for the main course, chopping, measuring and even taking a break to watch our boys play outside. The neighbors had put up a bouncy castle, and the little guys were finding it to be pretty fun! Even tentative Rusty-it always takes him about 10 minutes to warm up to something-got in on the fun eventually.

The clock was ticking, but surprisingly we were on top of things! We thought we might actually pull this dinner off!

We prepped the Chantilly creme...again, surprisingly easy with the aid of the wonderful Kitchen Aid mixer. It whipped that cream up beautifully and the Kahlua...mmm! It added the perfect touch! We took the souffle out of the pan, spread the cream on it, rolled it up, and it was good to go! Now for the main course...

The steaks were easy, a bit of searing on each side, mix up some goat cheese and egg yolks and spoon it on top, bake in the oven for 6-8 minutes! The green beans and carrots, easily boiled. The sauce for the steaks? YUM! We sweated-a new cooking term for us!-the shallots in a bit of butter. Stefanie said they actually were "sweating!" Then we added in the red wine and Madeira, followed by, you guessed it, more butter! The last thing was to mix in the toasted pine nuts. Add to that the side of sauteed mushrooms and we had pure deliciousness!

All it took was two inspired women, some amazing ingredients, a little bit of time, some husbands that weren't afraid to take care of the little boys and we ended up with an afternoon of laughter and fun, combined with a delicious meal at the end of it all! We mastered a bit of French cooking, and had a great time doing it! The Stefanie/Stacy Project is a success!!

The Recipes:

From Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home by Julia Child and Jacques Pepin (by the way, I loved this cookbook! It was interesting as it had little notes from both of them in the margins. Good instructions, with hilarious additions!)

Jacques's Basic Leek and Potato Soup

2 Tbs olive oil
4 cups sliced leeks, trimmed and rinsed
1 1/2 cups sliced onion
6 cups hot chicken stock
4 cups peeled, diced potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds)
Salt to taste (we didn't use any salt)
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper (we also didn't use any pepper).

Heat the oil in the saucepan, stir in the leek and onion pieces, and saute for about 5 minutes, over moderate heat, to soften.

Add the chicken stock and potato chunks, and season. Bring the soup to a boil over high heat, cover the pan, and adjust the heat to maintain a gentle boil. Cook for about 20 minutes, until the potatoes are quite tender.

Then mash, blend or puree to desired consistency. (We used an immersion blender to puree it in the saucepan, and we LOVED this consistency. We also halved this recipe and it easily made enough soup for four. This size recipe could be cooked and frozen for that cold, rainy day!)

Jacque's Chocolate Roulade

For the souffle

1 cup heavy cream
8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, in small pieces
7 egg whites
2 Tbs. granulated sugar

For the creme-Chantilly filling
1 cup heavy cream, well chilled
1 1/2 Tbs. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbs of the alcohol of your choice-we used Kahlua!

Make the ganache and batter first by heating the cream to simmer in a medium saucepan. Add the chocolate all at once, lower the heat, and stir briskly with a small whisk to melt it completely. Once it is smooth in consistency and color, remove it from the heat and let it cool for a few minutes.

While it is cooling whip the egg whites and sugar-we used my mixer, you can do it by hand-until they form stiff peaks and are glossy.

Scoop 1/4 of the egg whites into the ganache and stir briefly to blend. Pour that mixture BACK into the other egg whites and fold together gently and quickly with a rubber spatula. Work quickly to break up egg whites.

Pour batter into a pan prepared with buttered parchment paper-a 10 x 13 cookie sheet with high sides works best!

Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees F

For the Chantilly, mix the ingredients together in the mixer-or by hand, but it sure was EASY in the mixer- and then spread over the cake once it has cooled completely. Roll the cake onto itself until it makes a complete cake roll! Cut and serve! We garnished ours with icing sugar and raspberries! Delish!

I'm tired, so if you want the main course recipe you'll have to check out the Le Cordon Bleu book for yourself! Ha! We can't reveal ALL of our secrets!