Mastering the Art of Instant Pudding

In case anyone has been wondering where we've been, a significant portion of DOH's loyal readers/contributors were, for ten wonderful days, encamped at my house for some sisterly good times. Blogging was virtually forgotten as chocolate and Victorian dramas flowed freely. Martin Chuzzlewit and Our Mutual Friend were both excellent, and we also viewed Julie & Julia and District 9,  films which will make you hungry for Boeuf Bourguignon or cat food, depending on your preference. We usually try to take in an opera for SisCon, too, but there happened to be no  free tinfoil night at the National Arts Center  performance which suited our refined tastes during this year's visit.

I enjoyed Julie and Julia. I don't know much about Julia Child, but I thought Meryl Streep's portrayal was spot on John Candy's impersonation of her. The character was thoroughly likable, and I will soon be looking for a good biography of the real person. I was more interested in the plot line that followed Julia Child's life than in the parts about Julie Powell, but Julie's excitement at receiving a comment on her blog from someone she didn't know certainly did resonate with me and Mrs. P. I don't have any delusions about DOH leading to a book/movie deal, but I firmly believe that Julia Child could hate our blog, too, if she were still alive.

Of course all of this leads to the question, "How does one turn one's obscure blog into a book/movie deal?" The answer is to come up with something totally original which will instantly grab the interest of everyone who hears about it. For this reason I give you:

The Mrs. P./Mrs. B. Project

Mrs. P., who is an admirer of Jean Pare, has toyed with the idea of cooking her way through the entire "Company's Coming" 150 Delicious Squares cookbook and then writing a blog about it. (This in turn gave another of our sisters the idea of starting a blog called "Supersquares Me" - because, after all, someone has to eat all that baking.)  I'm thinking of blogging about cooking (let's call it "bloogking") my way through one of the several high school/parish/workplace/service organization compilation cookbooks which I own. Not only are these chock full of great recipes for which you might actually have the ingredients, but it's also fun to guess at how much of those ingredients you should use when Mary Smith from Orono, Ontario submits recipes in which standard measurements are replaced with the phrase "enough for your family".

Sure, this project won't have the star power of Julia Child, but contemplate the element of human interest. What kind of character is Catholic Women's League President Mary Smith? What (besides bachelorhood) drove junior accountant Larry Sehn to develop and submit the recipe for instant pudding? What could have possibly motivated 11th grader Lisa K. and 12th grader Cory W. to jointly submit "Sex in a Pan" to their high school cookbook? And which faculty member didn't make them change their recipe's name to "Heavenly Chocolate Torte"? All these intriguing questions will be answered when I have completed my odyssey.

So, what do you say, Random House? I'll be waiting by the phone. And once the book is done, I hope we can get Justin Bieber to play Cory W.