Cooking with the Big Girls

When I was a little kid, I wanted an Easy-Bake Oven like nobody's business. I begged my mom for one, but she said no. I was crushed. But now I look back and smile at her reason: she said she'd rather I learned to bake real cakes and sweets. She did teach me how to bake enough cake for everyone in the family while following a real recipe (and occasionally coming up with alternative ingredients such as pancake batter when we ran out of flour).  I'm glad she did, but she also indulged me by buying me the Easy Bake pans and mixes and letting me bake them in the real oven. 


They didn't always turn out so well. 


Now they have re-done the Easy-Bake Oven to catch up a bit with the heat of an actual oven. They had to do this since the incandescent bulb is being discontinued, and the new version sort of looks like something from an episode of The Jetsons. that or a really cool microwave that someone in my college dorm would've had.


Check the new version of the Easy-Bake Oven.

Yet Another Book Recommendation

About the time that the movie Julie & Julia came out (the "Julie" being one of the most unsympathetic characters ever...but that is a topic for another day), I decided to go to the library not for Mastering the Art of French Cooking (aspic doesn't sound like anything I'd like to eat) but instead for the memoir My Life in France by Julia Child. I didn't really know much about Julia-save for the fact that she was quite tall, and my mom did a Dan Ackroyd-esque impression of her cooking after having too much sherry.

What I found when I read this book was one of the loveliest, funniest, and most determined women. And I think the thing I like the most about her was her enthusiasm for life. She had the normal but frustrating problems that we all do (apartment is too small, people are mean, I'm not good at this but I want to be), but she enjoyed her life. And I thoroughly enjoyed reading about her life. I hope to do so again soon.

Also, I think that we might've gotten along...this is reinforced by the fact that I didn't like the "Julie" character (even Amy Adams couldn't redeem her for me), and according to the J&J book and the movie, Mrs. Child herself wasn't a fan either.