Delores Melon

I finally managed to “cook” something. At least something that didn’t come out of a box first. I turned to Julia Child for my culinary education. First, let me say, I think Julia is fabulous and a fantastic cook. I don’t think she’s the best teacher for me. That said, I didn’t do too badly.

The menu consisted of Poulet Roti (Roast Chicken) and Gratin Dauphinois (Scalloped Potatoes with Milk, Cheese, and a pinch of Garlic). The chicken was gorgeous. Perfectly browned and juicy. Not as flavorful as I’d hoped, and did start to dry out as it cooled. I’ve had much worse though. MUCH worse. I also didn’t cook it as long as I probably could have, as the dark meat wasn’t up to Man’s standards. The temperature read fine, I think. I’m still not entirely sure where to stick it to measure correctly. So, we just ate the breast meat.

I didn’t follow Julia’s instructions completely, as she would have had me in the oven every ten minutes or so readjusting the birds position. Possibly that would have aided in a better balance in overall doneness. In a future chicken attempt I’ll possibly revisit Julia’s method, but keep another cookbook nearby.

The scalloped potatoes were quite a different taste then I expected. I attribute that to eating far too many processed foods. I actually did like it, although I don’t think Man did very much. It had a very potato taste, which I think is the point. Betty Crocker has a bit of an artificial, salty taste. I think using better potatoes next time will also help. I do plan to attempt this dish once more, possibly using heavy cream instead of milk. Again, I wasn’t following the instructions completely, this time, because of the dish I used. The recipe called for placing the dish on the stove top prior to baking. Unfortunately I was using a baking dish that didn’t allow that.

I believe that by skipping the most important step of all contributed greatly to my final results: reading the entire recipe before starting. My cooking style has always been, read as you go. And it’s not been very successful. Dishes not being ready at the same time, or dishes being ruined because a step that needed to be prepared in advance wasn’t. Once I manage to get past this stumbling block, and learn to SLOW DOWN and take it step by step, I should have better success.

Learning from my experiences is far better than getting pissed and throwing in the towel. I think Julia’s book is super, but given my tendency to be a little ADD, a different format may be needed. At the very least, another cookbook to supplement or give a better visual for what she’s talking about.

I would have taken pictures, but it wasn’t until I was cleaning up the dishes that I realized I had forgotten. lol The chicken really was gorgeous!!! I swear!!!!