January 17, 2018 - Julia Child’s cat

         In my rat pack of papers, I have a copy of page 266 from Julia Child’s autobiography, My Life in France.  It is a wonderful paragraph about Julia’s cat, Minimouche, who brought in a live field mouse and battered it around the kitchen floor.  I feel my cat, Jasmine is a relative somehow.

         She cites Thérèse Asche:

“Une maison sans chat, c’est la vie sans soleil!”

(“A house without a cat is like life without sunshine!”)

         What a wonderful phrase and my cat, Jasmine fits the bill for it.  We take our dog, Jack, out for his walk.  Who sits looking out the door like a fat pear with pointy ears waiting for our return - none other than Jasmine.  I am out running errands and as soon as my car turns on the street where I live, she recognizes my car engine and sits up tall on the couch and stares out the window looking for me to pull into the drive then races to the door waiting for me. 

Or, if a stink bug flies in with us as we enter the house, she acts like a pointer dog fixedly staring at it until we take action and catch the stink bug and toss it outside.  Often she runs up and down the hall for no reason at all and sometimes she will even flop on the floor and waits in ambush ‘til you walk by and then she jumps at your ankles. 

She doesn’t like to be picked up, but often wants to jump up on my lap when I am reading the paper.  When she smells or hears a mouse, she camps out close by waiting for a chance to capture and taunt it.

         Re-reading the exploits of Minimouche and the ensuing drama unfolding on that page, I found it amusing and kept a copy.  It is nice to know that famous Julia Child had an ordinary cat, just like mine and she enjoyed it much.

         If you need a good book to curl up with this winter, I recommend the book, My life in France, [compiled by Julia Child and Alex Prud’homme, her husband’s grandnephew, published in 2006, and is probably available in your local library] as it gives one a pleasant perspective of Julia Child being ordinary and extraordinary at the same time.

         Verifying the publishing date of this book, I noticed another one, entitled: Minette’s feast:  The delicious story of Julia Child and her cat by Susanna Reich and illustrated by Amy Bates. [Published in 2012.] I picked a copy up a couple days ago from the library.  What a sweet read. 

It is targeted at grade level 5, I believe, but when I handed it to my husband, he liked the cover and then quietly and slowly read the whole thing and smiled.  See, you don’t even need to have grandchildren in the house to have an excuse to get a book out of the “easy read” section of the library.

         But, if you do have grandchildren, or if you are looking for something informative and fresh to read to your own child or children, I highly recommend it.

         I love the graphics, the Afterward and the Notes and Sources, as well.  But, wait, there is also a pronunciation guide for the French words.  It would make a nice start if French heritage runs in your family.

         I will share one little page with you.  It made me stop and re-read a couple of times.  I found it perfection.

         “As the months passed, Julia became quite the gourmet cook.

            She baked and blanched,

blended and boiled, drained

and dried, dusted and fried.

She floured and flipped,

pitted and plucked, rinsed and

roasted, sizzled and skimmed.

And when she wasn’t trimming, toasting, or topping, she

was washing, whipping and whisking!”

        

I now have it on good authority, that poussiequette (poo-see-KET) [is not a real French word] it is pussycat in English.

I need to read this book to my pussycat, Jasmine, and see what she thinks.