Julia Child and her Buerre Blanc sauce

This story happened last Saturday.....

"The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. 

In cooking you've got to have a what-the-hell attitude." 

  - Julia Child

Oh dear, this is definitely not me. Learning to cook like Julia is probably going to cost me a lot of therapy sessions. After tonights debacle with the simple Buerre Blanc Sauce I think I'm in serious trouble.

For dinner I bought some fresh halibut, asparagus and sweet cherry tomatoes. My grand plan was to grill the fish and asparagus and serve it with the Buerre Blanc sauce, then I would top it all with the chopped cherry tomatoes.

I turned on the grill and started the sauce.

The sauce was looking really good. I found a site that had Julia's recipe. I was following it (I thought) when all of a sudden my gorgeous sauce (which is supposed to look like Hollandaise sauce) went from perfect to melted butter. WHAT THE HAY?  Well, I scrolled down the recipe and it says something like, make sure you melt the butter on low heat - or your sauce will turn into melted butter. DOPE! Obviously I didn't read it all.  

Ya know, recipes should have little astericks for important information like this. Because I made melted butter!!!!!!  Not Buerre Blanc sauce. This was not my plan. I'm not going to make it again tonight. So we're eating it as is.

I went to check on the fish and nothing was happening. HUH?!  "Don!!! The grill isn't working!" I shout. "I think it's out of gas. Didn't you check?" he says. "FFFFFF" I say. Plan B. Throw the fish in a pan and nuke the asparagus cuz the sauce is ready!

I went from feeling high as a kite to feeling like the dog ate my cake.

We ate dinner in silence.  Sort of. I was just so bummed I didn't feel like talking. Of course everything tasted just fine. I mean come on, what doesn't taste good with melted butter poured all over it.

So here's a link to the recipe. If you decide to make it please read every written word before you get started.

Julia Child's Buerre Blanc Sauce

We drank a really yummy '05 French Chablis that was  recommended by the wine expert at Bryans Fine Foods where we bought the fish. I had just bought wine at BevMo! so I wasn't really planning on buying any wine. But he approached another customer right before me who blew him off. And he looked sad. (I'm a sucker.)

I couldn't blow him off, so I waited to see what wine he would recommend to pair with the halibut I was buying. He brought over the Chablis shown here. He went into such great detail that I couldn't blow him off. It was $19. Not THAT much. And it was Saturday night. So we bought it. He was thrilled. And the wine tasted delish with the fish.

At least the wine brought a smile to my face.

I have to tell you. I can't imagine the task of making EVERY recipe in Julia Child's cookbook. I'm not sure I could follow through. I have so much respect for Julie Powell. That was a monumental task. Good job, Julia.