Julie and Julia

So, there's a big buzz about the new movie Julie and Julia. This weekend on PBS, as part of their pledge drive, they were showing classic episodes of Julia Child's original cooking show, The French Chef. They interviewed Nora Ephron, which I thought was weird, until I remembered that she directed the movie. I never really heard of Julia Powell until this movie came out. I don't actually read too many food blogs because they rarely allow full posts to show up in feed readers and I'm picky about being able to do that. Anyway, while I'm sure Julia Powell is a great person, but I'm just not super interested in her story. I am, however, interested in Julia Child. She had a really unique, interesting life, and I think a movie just about Child would have been more than appropriate. Meryll Streep seems like a great choice to play her, and could have carried the movie herself. The Nora Ephron treatment is something I'm also unsure about, so I probably won't be seeing the movie, certainly not in the theater.

As for cooking, I made my first meal since moving this weekend. Shoulder chuck roast with onions, Yukon Gold potatoes, and carrots. Made a marinade/sauce from red wine, balsamic vinegar, salt, my "Garlic Pepper and Spices" mix from the Garlic Survival Kit, onion powder, and powdered thyme. Marinated the roast for maybe half an hour while cooking down the onions in cast iron pan. Somehow, having owned my food processor since Christmas 2006, I didn't realize that I had a slicer insert! I used it to slice my onions (cutting the onions in half first) and it was so much easier than spending an eye-burning time with a knife and cutting board. Hooray! I cooked the roast in my crock pot with some chicken stock, because it always turns out tender and is a total no-brainer to make. It turned out pretty good!