Julia and Jacques

Jacques Pépin and Julia Child duel it out in the kitchen

David and I recently discovered (one evening off) Julia and Jacques: Cooking at Home which streams for free on Hulu. We've probably watched almost half of the twenty two episodes available and perhaps more satisfying than the cooking tips we've picked up from the show is the witty back-and-forth quibbling between Jacques and Julia (mostly coming from the latter end).

"Do you want white or black pepper?" 

"Black." 

"I guess you like speckled food."

Perhaps my favorite episode so far--for cooking tips--is Eggs. Jacques Pépin demonstrates his master technique of scrambling eggs in the skillet (perhaps before it became common knowledge to not use metal utensils on Teflon) then folding them over into a beautiful fluffy pocket while Julia finishes hers with a raw egg. I thought I'd try Jacques' technique of scrambling in the skillet, today, but had added too many ingredients to my scramble, making me think scrambling in the skillet wouldn't turn out so well.

Not nearly as lovely as Jacques'

Using leftover queso fresco, baby arugula and a little red onion (plus garlic powder, pepper, fleur de sel and dill) and leftover wine from my Born This Way album listening party the previous evening, the sum made for a nice lunch.

a malbec which was to be followed by a rioja

David and I never did get around to tasting the rioja; the Goulart "clásico" malbec was only... "acceptable" ($20 for the lot). Perhaps we'll try the former with dinner tonight.