Off to Vancouver...

When I woke up this morning, I decided to do something I’ve never done before in my life. I decided to make… are you ready for this… scrambled eggs.

Why have I never made scrambled eggs before? You see, Jason had a terrible childhood experience with them and I haven’t dared to cook them for him for fear he’d throw up. And what would possess me to get out of bed on a random Thursday morning and make scrambled eggs just for myself? “My Life in France.” No, it’s not my life in France, although I did have one and remember it with great fondness, but Julia Child’s life in France. “My Life in France” is a memoir of her formative cooking years in Paris written with her nephew Alex Prud’homme. I got it for the flight to Seattle tomorrow, but couldn’t help reading the first few chapters last night.

Her description of Chef Bugnard’s demonstration of the scrambled eggs technique at Le Cordon Bleu got me so inspired that I pulled out Mastering the Art of French Cooking and decided to give it a quick try before running off to work. Don’t you just love Julia? No other person has this effect on me. She makes me stop in my tracks, drop whatever I was doing, whip out a pan and start cooking. I love eggs in most forms -- poached, sunny side up, en cocotte, and even hard boiled -- but scrambled eggs were never my favorite, at least not until this morning. Who knew scrambled eggs could taste this good! I am sure a little truffle oil didn’t hurt, but the texture was light and shimmery like a cloud.

I can’t wait to read the rest of the book on our flight to the west coast. We are spending a weekend in Seattle and then a week in Vancouver where we plan on eating mountains of sushi, with small breaks for hiking, biking, reading more of Julia’s stories, and activities I won't discuss on this family-friendly blog.

Many fish tales await you when we get back.

Scrambled Eggs
(Adopted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1, by Julia Child )

Serves 4

1.5 Tbsp softened butter
8 eggs
4 tsp water
Salt and pepper
1.5 Tbsp heavy cream

1. Rub the bottom and sides of an 8 inch non-stick skillet with butter.
2. Whisk eggs in a bowl with water, pinch of salt, and pepper just until the whites and the yolks are combined, about 20 seconds. Don’t over-beat.
3. Pour the eggs into the buttered skillet and set it over medium-low heat. You read that correctly – you pour the eggs into a cold skillet. Cook stirring constantly with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon. Nothing will happen for 2 minutes. Keep scraping up the bottom and sides of the skillet. The eggs will soon start to thicken and turn into pale yellow curds. Cook until they are no longer liquidy. This doesn’t mean they become the consistency of a yellow kitchen sponge. As soon as they are no longer runny, they are done.
4. Take off heat, and stir in the cream. Serve with chives, parsley, or a little drizzle of truffle oil (my favorite). I am guessing these would be fantastic with a dollop of black caviar.

The recipe can easily be halved or quartered. Just use a smaller pan.