I might be crazy, but . . .

Well, I've done it. I've placed this monstrous tome in my Amazon shopping cart and, if I can ever convince the USPS to deliver mail to my new apartment, I will be the proud owner of Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Inspired by Julie Powell's book Julie and Julie: My Year of Cooking Dangerously and the subsequent movie, Julie and Julia, starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams- I have decided to master the art of gluten-free French cooking. Well, let me modify that statement, somewhat master the art of gluten-free French cooking. I have no intentions of preparing all 524 recipes (I, for one, am perfectly content to leave aspics alone) or limiting this experiment to one year (between work, classes, personal life and hobbies I'm unwilling to abandon, I don't have that kind of time on my hands. But I admire Julie Powell immensely for her dedication and perseverance). I plan to start with a naturally GF Julia Child recipe and see how things progress from there.



It will certainly be an interesting experiment. Joe says he's prepared for some kitchen meltdowns, but I believe this is partially because we're still new and he doesn't believe there will be meltdowns. There will definitely be meltdowns. I figure I have one advantage on Julie Powell- I've successfully killed many lobsters in my time. I grew up in Maine after all.

Because I was anxious to get started, I decided to begin with something relatively simple- hollandaise sauce. I was inspired to make this partially by Julie and Julia and partially by a package of gluten-free hollandaise sauce I saw in Hannaford last week (major props to Hannaford for their excellent GF selection). I thought to myself, "how ridiculous. Hollandaise is definitely GF and why would you ever make it from a packet? It's just three ingredients!" So, thus challenged, I set out to make hollandaise.

Hollandaise Sauce

• three egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 cup butter

I was absolutely right, hollandaise is super easy and an excellent opportunity to build your wrist muscles! Just wisk together the egg yolks and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Heat over extremely low heat and stir constantly. Add the butter 1/4 cup at a time, waiting until the first butter addition is completely melted before adding the second. Keep wisking until the sauce thickens. We enjoyed it over asparagus on toast and with poached eggs and ham in an Eggs Benedict sort of thing. Yum!