What's all the Butter Scuttlebutt? She lived to be 91!

Have you heard? Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child has soared to the top of the book lists! For the first time since it was published it will reach number one on the NYTimes bestseller list next week! Amazing how the movie is spurring on cooking and reading!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/business/24julia.html?_r=1&8dpc

However, everyone is in an uproar in the blogosphere and mainstream media about the age of Lipitor and pork fat!

You know, Julia and her husband both lived long and rather healthy lives. Its a matter of chemical make up, family history, diet, exercise and just plain luck of the draw on who has high cholesterol or blocked arteries and although food has something to do with it, it isn't the only reason for health problems.

What Julia Child did with Mastering the Art, was make what seemed a mystery to most Americans, accessible and something that could be accomplished in the home kitchen.

Go to Amazon.com or ecookbooks.com and see how many other cookbooks come up under Julia Child's name and you'll see she didn't limit herself to just butter-laden, meat-heavy dishes. She was bound by the French techniques which suited her personality and thinking, but very often diversified to suit the American kitchen and palate.

I have been a vegetarian for the last 20-some years and have always had a huge dislike of any sort of organ meat such as liver or kidneys, sweetbreads or other innards.

I happened to be home one day and tuned into Good Morning America when she was their on-air cook and watched Ms. Child prepare calve's liver with bacon and onions. Watching that three minute segment, her technique was awesome and her description of each step was so understandable and made it sound so delicious, that I know I could have made the dish, had I been so inclined. It was amazing to watch her.