Julie/Julia dinner party

julia

Last week Julie (from Dinner with Julie) decided to host a Julie/Julia Dinner party for a handful of local food bloggers. We each brought something from Mastering the Art of French Cooking that we had prepared earlier. While we feasted Julia Child tutted about her kitchen as The French Chef reruns played in the background.

Here’s what we ate…

The menu

Vichyssoise

Delectable creamy potato soup served cold and delicious

courtesy Gwendolyn at Patent and the Pantry

Moussaka

The most incredible molded eggplant and lamb dish that took no less than 2 days to prepare

courtesy Gail at The Pink Peppercorn

Pommes Parisien, Ratatouille and (forgotten) glazed carrots

Simple fried potatoes, a bright provencal vegetable medley and simple glazed carrots (I’m a moron and forgot the carrots at home after spending the afternoon turning them)

courtesy me at Kitchen Scraps

Boeuf Bourguigon

Rich beef stew with loads of red wine, mushrooms and little pearl onions, so good, so beefy

courtesy our host Julie at Dinner with Julie

Souffle Grand Marnier and Reine de Saba

A double dose of sweets with a fantastic Grand Marnier souffle an a Reine de Saba cake (I fought Gail’s husband for the last piece)

courtesy Cheryl at Backseat Gourmet

There was also some salad on the table, but nobody paid much attention to it.

pomme

Pommes Parisien The synopsis version

Use a Parisien Scoop to scoop out little potato balls. Fry them in lots of butter (if you think you have too much, double it) over a medium-low heat until they get golden and lovely, then at the last minute turn the heat up and add lots of salt and shake em all around until they get lovely and crispy and dark golden and delicious.

Potatoes in butter