Birthday Dinner ala Julia Child

Several months ago my friend Marsha, Tessa and I went to see the movie Julie and Julia.  I had read  both of the books the movie was based on (Julie and Julia and My Life in France) and loved both books.  In fact my first introduction to blogging was when I read Julie and Julia several years ago.

We loved the movie and we drooled over all the amazing food in the movie too.  On the way home we talked about having a Julia Child dinner sometime.

Marsha celebrated her 50th birthday this week so I decided that was the perfect opportunity to host a Julia Child dinner.  I picked up a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking at Costco and planned out the meal.

One thing I discovered is that Julia Child must have had a lot of time on her hands because nothing in her cookbook is quick and easy to prepare.  It gave me a better understanding and appreciation for what Julie must have gone through that year that she cooked every recipe in the book - it took a lot of TIME!!!

I started with the French Onion Soup on Thursday evening.  I also got the Artisan No Knead Bread (not a Julia Child recipe but European) going Thursday night too since it takes 18 hours before it's ready to bake!.

Friday morning I got the table set and decorated and made the amazingly delicious chocolate and almond cake and then moved on to begin the Boeuf Bourginon (which took about 5 hours to fix)

My friend Jane brought some french like appetizers - lots of yummy french cheeses, fruits and some delicious fig/orange jelly to eat with the cheese.  She also made the Barefoot Contessa Sundried Tomato Dip and some yummy hummus.

The french onion soup turned out delicious complete with it's cheese covered crudites on top!

The Boeuf Bourginone was perfect and so tender!

We celebrated and sang happy birthday to Marsh!

and did I mention how delicious the chocolate/almond cake was!!!  We enjoyed a wonderful evening together as friends!

We kicked the boys out of the dining room so we could have some girl talk and they went into the kitchen and did all the clean up - love those boys!!

Of course you can't have a Julia Child dinner party without wearing pearls!  I even wore my little vintage hostess apron for the occasion!