Meryl Streep as Julia Child? Could there be any filmic thing more calculated to set a foodie's heart beating like a butter paddle? The movie is "Julie & Julia," opening Aug. 7, about the famed TV chef who introduced American home cooks to French cooking and a bored and life-stuck cubicle worker, Julie Powell (Amy Adams), who set out to prepare all 524 recipes in Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" in a year's time. Powell lived to write about it. Then screenwriter/director Nora Ephron took over to meld the two stories for the Sony Pictures release. The clever motto: "Do you have what it takes? Passion. Ambition. Butter." Check out the trailer at http://sonypictures.com/movies/julieandjulia/site.

BUTTER, OLIVE OIL NOW COME PRE-MIXED

How often does a recipe suggest melting butter together with olive oil for sautéeing garlic, onions, shallots, mushrooms or some other ingredient? In my kitchen, which leans toward the Mediterranean as sharply as the tower at Pisa, almost every day! Now Land O'Lakes has come out with a new butter-with-olive oil mixture, sold in 7-ounce plastic tubs.

— Wanda A. Adams

TASTY TIDBITS ONLINE

Visit our Taste and Dining Out mini-site on www.honoluluadvertiser.com for Wanda Adams’ blog, a searchable recipe database, videos and picture galleries and an archive of Simplicio Paragas’ “The Inside Scoop” and other dining-out features:

www.honoluluadvertiser.com/taste
www.honoluluadvertiser.com/diningout