How do you make a food person very, very happy?

THIS. This is how you make a food person very, very happy!! Many belated thanks to the love of my life for this Christmas gift--look for fancy Thomas Keller style food porn coming soon to this blog!

(Originally posted 7/26/09)

So, I made a dangerous discovery today: a forgotten dusty old copy of 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking,' by Julia Child et al, at the back of my cookbook arsenal.

Having just finished reading 'Julie & Julia' (charming!) and looking hesitantly forward to the movie (will probably be much less so!), this is a welcome find. I had even briefly considered just going out and buying the thing until the cartoon lightbulb went off over my head this morning and I started rummaging around in the kitchen archives--only to come up with THIS! It's old and dusty and gross on the outside, but it could be almost new on the inside, it looks untouched. Since I usually prefer my cookbooks to look like veterans of the culinary wars (i.e. splashed with various sauces, meat juice, bits of chopped parsley, artfully placed egg yolk streaks, etc), I am obviously going to have to break this one in mercilessly, starting immediately. So if anyone ever feels like coming over for 'Fonds d'Artichauts Mornay' or 'Homard à l'Américaine,' just let me know.......