Great finds! I have used 'The French Chef Cookbook' and found it informative. Bear in mind how it came about. American cooking was pretty desolate in the fifties and early sixties; Julia started these programs on PBS in 1963. Some of the recipes are pretty simple, but they all demonstrate some concept. Her instructions are direct and always have some reasoning behind them. So if she says to dry meat with a paper towel before cooking, it's because without drying it the meat will steam rather than brown. If you are a Julia junkie, and have decent internet speed, you can find just about all of those programs online through Amazon Prime. While we 21st century cooks are talking about high tech stoves and ultra expensive cookware, it's interesting to watch Ms. Child make fantastic food using what appears to be ordinary cookware and (horrors!) an electric coil-top stove. It ain't the tool, it's the artisan. It's also fun to see the sponsors--S&H Green Stamps is one! Many of the episodes are also available on YouTube. The one at the link demonstrates how to roast a chicken. This is how I learned to truss a chicken. (She starts the trussing process around 12:20 into the program) Here is a link that might be useful: Julia roasts chicken

Posted by teresa_mn "----- As Bob Dylan - another Minnesota native sang "The times they are a changin'." When CDs first came out and were extremely expensive, I was enticed to buy a CD which had all the telephone directories of the entire US on it; because on the ad, it said "If you buy this CD, you will be saving 400 trees". Remember the White Pages? Yellow Pages? Sear Catalogs? Wonder how many trees Kindle saves. dcarch

I was shocked when I saw her kitchen (on some forum - could have been here) for the first time a few months ago. My grandmother - born in 1904 - adored Julia Child's TV show...I have such happy memories of watching my somewhat bitter old grandma sitting close up to the TV to watch Julia Child and she'd laugh and laugh and smile and smile and take notes. She just came alive. It's only now that I realize she must have been imitating Julia Child (or maybe just that era) cause she had such a similar kitchen w/ that peg board and big table to work or eat at and so much more. Julia's kitchen makes me feel so at home I could cry! That's all those women needed - Julia and my grandmother: to be able to reach out an arm like an octopus and grab what they needed. Love it! Yes it's a bit too cluttered for my taste as well but it's a different kind of eye candy to me. :) Man I wish my local wood countertop supply stores had better samples (they sorely lack in that department and I can't make such a big commitment without it being local and without having good samples to take home)...I'd love to have that butcher block countertop look - whether the kind you cut on or not.

In the 70's my mom had a "Europeanish" kitchen in yellow, red and black. I knew people who had the avacado/coppertone/harvest gold kitchen, but my relatives are a flamboyant lot :). When I asked her about her 60s kitchen she said it was white appliances,blue,white and a touch of purple. I think my mom would've floated off the floor if someone painted her a yellow fridge. She had a cherry red sink in the 80's and now has a lemon yellow one. This genealogy blog shows cabinets like Julia's kitchen. They look old world like my relatives. (What was Czechoslovakia at the time.) I love the retro Revolution and "Save the Pink Bathrooms" blog but she's more 60's ultra modern. I do want the Euro 60's look if that's actually a look. A turquoise fridge! Wow! I sure would like to see a picture of that! An 8ft table probably wouldn't fit in my kitchen. That is really big. I know an older couple with a mid-century ranch complete with copper pull down lamp, a Mamie pink bathroom, a yellow bathroom of the same style, and a vast collection of amazing 50s,60s and 70s stuff. I sigh over the lamp every time I see it. Their kitchen tile is a pink/salmon swirly tile on the diagonal. It's just gorgeous. Funny! I have this stupid food thing (celiac) so I have to do a lot of from scratch cooking to afford my gluten free diet. That's how I found Julia's kitchen :). I took one look and thought how I didn't remember it being that neat looking. Thank you everyone for your wonderful input. I will show the whole step-by-step process. I'm so excited about this! Here is a link that might be useful: Euro 1960s?