My mother and I love her.

I spent all Monday-Friday working and traveling and took the train to DC from NY on Wednesday morning. My only free time for the whole week ended up being Thursday morning, so I got my work stuff together, packed them into my Christmas briefcase, and walked to the Museum of American History at the Smithsonian. The volunteer at the information desk showed me a floor map and asked if there was anything in particular I wanted to see. Eh, like, duh.



In the Meberg house, we were taught that making your own sandwich at home is just better than eating food made with convenience in mind. At first, I thought this was because we were poor. Then, I started seeing a pattern. We never stocked Little Debbies, but we always had fresh-baked cookies or bars on hand. We rarely ordered in pizza in and never got frozen pies, but we feasted on sun-raised crust for our Italian Deli Rolls. Taco Bell Mild Sauce? Get real. Mom canned a mountain of fresh salsa every summer, and we always finished it before April. Eventually, I realized that the canned green beans from the garden were better than an aluminum can of french style (cut super tiny) green beans.

But would the Mebergs have past this taste for good food on to their children if it had not been for the wonderful and slightly campy Julia Child? After all the frozen food and processed TV dinners of the 50s, Julia decided that the American people deserved better. Thank god. I still remember the first time I watched one of her shows with my mom: she was sauteeing something with oil in a frying pan and said "now, some of you may be concerned about the oil in this dish. So if you're worried about your calories and want to substitute something a bit healthier than oil...use butter." Heh.

Since then, I've pretty much used butter whenever possible.

The Smithsonian displays Julia's kitchen from several different viewpoints. When Julia and Paul moved into their house (they originally bought it and then rented it back to the owners for two years), they heightened the counters by two inches to account for Julia's 6'2" frame. They covered a wall of windows with pegboard and then traced around the pots with a marker, so she would know where each one went. Knives belonged on the wall, not the drawer, where they would shift and get dull. Julia also liked cats (!) and had a bunch of paintings on the walls and figurines displayed on top of her refrigerator. Her table and chairs were from Norway, where she and Paul had stayed for a bit after her schooling. The big knife on display was her "Fright Knife," which she used for comical relief on her show. Also on display were Julia's many cookbooks, including her 23-page recipe for french bread.



This was such an amazing thing to see. Although I knew very little about Julia Child before, and having always thought she was English due to her warbly voice, it was quite an inspiration to see someone dedicate their whole life to helping people enjoy the food we put inside our bodies. It was grounding to see that while she had A LOT of kitchen gadgets and counter space, it was still just a kitchen, not a science lab or gourmet restaurant.

I type this as I am snacking on a gigantic bag of Belly Flops, irregular Jelly Belly beans. Hm.