Julia Child is always right.

So we had a three day reprieve from sickness before C came down with croup.  Seeing my child gasping for air, choking, coughing, and crying all at once is the most terrifying experience I've had as a parent. Thankfully the four day steroid treatment helped tremendously. And we made it through without any toddler roid-rage. She's 100% now. Whew. 

Oh and I didn't post last week  because I thought I was going to have my gallbladder removed. Weeeee!  I had intense upper abdominal pain for three days but thankfully my gallbladder was not the culprit. So now I'm on a temporary bland diet, cut out acidic food and beverages (no coffee..le sigh) and I'm on meds until my stomach heals. Thankfully I have a back log of photos. I don't think anyone would want to see pictures of the gruel I'm currently eating...steamed vegetables anyone? nom. nom.

So the good news is we're all finally healthy. The even better and actually, what I consider FANTASTIC news, is that I made MAYONNAISE yesterday. Yes! Finally, I. MADE. MAYO.

Why is this such a big deal? It's because I have tried no less then six times to make mayonnaise. And every. damn. time. it splits. Most people would have just given up. But, I'm a special kind of crazy. I took not being able to make mayo personally. I've never not been able to make something in my kitchen. So I couldn't let the mayo thing go. After the last attempt, I went online and read everything I could find about making mayo. I watched a couple YouTube videos. And all that did was further piss me the eff off because by all counts, I was doing everything right!

Then it dawned on me. What would Julia Child do? I don't know why this didn't occur to me sooner. I think my obsession was clouding my mind. Of course Julia would have a method/recipe! Duh!  And does she ever. She has not one, but four pages dedicated to making mayonnaise.

So yesterday I took out two eggs and brought them to room temperature. Two eggs because I was convinced my first batch would split, and I wanted an second attempt.  I followed her method and my god, I nailed it on the first batch! I tried again with my second egg and sweet mother I nailed it again! Turns out I could make mayonnaise all along, I just needed the correct method. And oh does it taste so good. I'm never buying store mayonnaise again.

Blender Mayonnaise
Adapted from Joy of Cooking



Ingredients


1 large egg, at room temperature
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup light tasting olive oil
3 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar (or lemon juice)


Method

1. Put egg, mustard, salt and 1/4 olive oil in blender. Cover and blend on high until combined.
2. With the blender still running, slowly add 1/2 cup olive oil (think thinnest drizzle).
3.  Then slowly add vinegar.
4. Again, slowly add the remaining 1/2 cup olive oil and blend until thick and creamy.
   
   Notes: I lowered my blender speed before starting step 2. I was nervous from my previous attempts, but Julia keeps it on high for the whole process. Also, you may need to stop and start the blender to scape down the sides. I didn't (again, afraid to stop because I was scarred from previous attempts).