Julie & Julia

My mother is going to be in town this weekend for my grandmother's 80th birthday so I get to do the whole family thing. Something I've been doing a bit of lately. I ate at Mars 2112 with my uncle and aunt and littlest cousins last week. Cute kids but my goodness what a rip off that place is. It's basically a step above MacDonalds and yet fairly expensive. I probably would have liked the whole trip to Mars when I was little though.

A somewhat better dining experience this week was a rather brightly colored cajun and southern food place called Mara's Homemade which is somewhat oddly located on 6th street with all the Indian food places. I had chicken in cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes that weren't really mashed and it was good, yet not spectacular. One of those places that you enjoy well enough but don't recommend or take people to when they visit. Although southern cooking isn't particularly my thing so that could be influencing me here. The service was very good and the owners are friendly and accomodating which makes it a nice time though. The service is slow as all the food is cooked after you order, but they warn you about it ahead of time which is rather more than most restaurants do. After eating at Mars, it was nice to go to a little family-run place.

The reason I've been thinking particularly about food is that I've been reading Julie & Julia. It's a book I picked up for free from work. And it's funny because I'd read reviews, but I'd never really been interested in reading it. Largely because I don't cook. Honestly, if it requires anything more complicated than boiling water, I'm probably not going to be making it for dinner.I bake from time to time, but that's about it. I'm not even interested in cooking as something other people do. I don't watch cooking shows or know the names of celebrity chefs or anything like that. My relationship with food generally consists of being handed it--fully prepared--and then sitting down and eating it. And I enjoy that relationship a great deal.

So reading a book about cooking food that sounds fairly gross to me, having grown up not using a pound of butter in each meal, didn't seem like it would really be my thing. And to be honest, it's really not. I can't say I'm really interested in Powell's eggs poached if red wine sauce and whatnot. But I wanted to read something light and it is that. Also, it does have a fabulous cover. The color scheme is feminine and inviting, the font modern and easy to read. Best of all though, is the little egg beater and dish. They manage to get the topic of the book across while also letting the reader know that the tone is going to be a bit quirky and fun. Not your grandma's book about cooking or whatever.