I have to say that I am very blessed to have an amazing wife who takes care of me. I know everyone says that, but I’m telling the absolute truth.

Kate has always been into cooking, but the last couple of years she’s really taken to it. When we tore out the wall and opened up our kitchen with the remodel when we first bought the house I had no idea what else we’d be tearing down. We found an extra “room” in our marriage which is a joy of cooking, entertaining and eating. Not only does my wife make amazing meals, but she does so with a sense of gravitas and appreciation for the people she is cooking for. Almost daily, I can expect to have salads with almonds, beats, feta and rough greens or Texas Caviar and BBQ chicken, lightly crisped to perfection after crackling away in the oven for 40 minutes. All of those things were something we had today, I have a feeling I’ll be talking more about what we have for dinner, later.

In the last year, I’ve tried my hand at it as well. Masking my fear of burning the house down with a smug sense of feigned chauvinism and idiotic pride I said I’d never “get” cooking and would usually just set the table and pour the wine. But since I followed my first recipe from AllRecipes.com of German Style Kielbasa and Diced Apples I too realized that I could cook a thing or two and have since graduated to making fish, chicken, and beef. Vegetables I burn, but if it breathed, I can cook it.

I realized what Kate’s known all along, that cooking and feeding your loved ones is a gift that you share and become a part of when you do it. This is one of the many reasons why I love her.

And that is why, when she had expressed going to go see Julie & Julia this afternoon I wanted to see it too.

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Julie and Julia is a movie about the lives of Julia Child and Julie Powell. The storylines run parallel, like two trains on a culinary track, one before, laying the groundwork for the other. I found this movie to be really fun. From the scenes with Meryl Streep, who, much to my chagrin I have to put my cynical action-movie hat away and say that she’s not as annoying as I used to think she was. And yes, I will agree with all of you and say that she’s one of the best actors of our time, ok. OK. I get it. She was very good as Julia Child.

Amy Adams as Julie Powell was good as well. Her scenes played out like every other movie where people want to make something of themselves and be known for something. I can identify with her character very well, especially in our culture nowadays with our sense of attention-seeking and celebrity worship. However, while Julie Powell started her quest to make all of the recipes from Julia Child’s book Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 365 days I found that Julia Child’s journey was more of a adventure and not as planned or calculated. While I liked the scenes, and did get swept up in her zeal of discovery for cooking; at the same time, I felt like the parts with Julia and her husband seemed a little more enjoyable. Perhaps it is because Kate and I will be traveling to France soon, mixed with Julia Child’s charisma and charm but I still feel that those scenes were stronger and held more wonder.

Then again, maybe it was Meryl.

All in all, I thought that the acting in this movie was good, the script was good, but at times I wanted more of the Joy of Cooking, or the process, instead of the droll tedium of finding out how many comments Julie Powell got on her blog that day. Not, that I can’t cherish the wants and thoughts of readers or commenteers of blogs.

Because I do. I really, really, really do.

Overall, I’d recommend this movie if you like biographies, cooking, watching food being made or can appreciate the joy of what other people find joy in.

For Julia Child, it was butter.

UPDATE: As we were in the theater, Kate leans over and tells me that Julia Child and her husband BOTH were spies in what was called the OSS, a precursor I found out to the CIA. NO WONDER SHE WAS GOOD WITH KNIVES!!! I find this extra piece of trivia over the top, amazing and fascinating. I wonder if Julia Child ever had to kill a man with her bare hands. She was tall! She could have!