The season is rolling along and we have our favorite summer recipes on repeat. Ina Garten’s Summer Garden Pasta is a summer staple – when you have fresh, local tomatoes at your disposal you look for every tomato recipe available! And this year, I finally made Ina’s Panzanella. This recipe gets rave reviews but I never made it myself. Now that I’ve made it, I may never stop.
We are having a great summer, but we are busy. Traveling, camp, sports - lots of proverbial balls in the air and unfortunately, cooking a legit family dinner doesn't take top priority. Earlier this year I came across a list of ways to help simplify family routines and address the 'what’s for dinner' conundrum. Through that article, I found some recipes for easy sheet pan dinners – one pan, minimal ingredients and a healthy tasty dinner for my family. Perfect for a busy summer. This lemon garlic shrimp and asparagus was the first one I tried and it’s been a hit, so I decided to share. I’m on the hunt for more sheet pan dinner winners – so please leave us your thoughts and suggestions!
Chili isn’t usually one of my spring meals, but it hasn’t felt much like spring around here (we still have piles of snow from our latest snow storm). I always like to blog about what we are actually cooking and eating now, and now we are making Ina’s Chicken Chili. This chili is a crowd pleaser and the added bonus is how good my house smells from cooking the onions and garlic. It’s also a great occasion to use my favorite Pillivuyt White Soup Bowls - they're the perfect size.
In 2017 I made a little deal with myself, I wanted to make all of my family’s birthday cakes (thanks, Ina Garten and Barefoot Contessa for the inspiration). I enjoy baking with my kids and thought that letting them help with their own cakes would create some great memories and foster their love for cooking and baking. The birthday cakes weren’t perfect works of art, but they were prepared with love - so they tasted even better!
Does anything warm the soul quite like soup? With all of the crazy cold and snowy weather we’ve been having, I can’t think of another meal more comforting than tomato soup and grilled cheese. Simple and satisfying. Ina Garten’s Easy Tomato Soup & Grilled Cheese Croutons puts a special twist on the classic with a bit of cream in the soup and grilled Gruyère cheese for the croutons. I know I say this about a lot of Ina’s dishes but THIS could be my most favorite. I highly recommend committing this recipe to memory and making it often!
Sneaking in one more post with Trent from @StoreBoughtIsFine before the end of the year. He's got a lot of friends and a lot of great gift ideas. After reading this blog, you'll wish you were on his 'nice' list. Happy Holidays and Happy Gifting..
There are lots of things I love about summer in NYC: long days of sunlight, fresh peaches, playing "identify that smell" on the streets...but the thing I don't love is my inability to entertain in my apartment. I can't imagine torturing my friends by using the oven or stovetop, creating a sauna in our sixth-floor apartment. So when the weather cools, I immediately plan the meals I've been thinking about for months...
No one can set a table for entertaining quite like Ina Garten. She’s a master at making the table both elegant and comfortable. Sophisticated, yet welcoming you to sit, eat, and stay a while. With some of our favorite food-centered holiday celebrations coming up, we thought it was time for a quick ‘Get The Look’ with an autumn table setting.
Fall is finally in the air!! School and sports are in full swing, so we’re usually home on weekend for the kids’ soccer games, cross-country meets, birthday parties (you get the idea). Lucky for us most of our friends are in the same boat, so we decided to throw together a ‘little’ weekend dinner party. What started small ended up as a party for 16, complete with corn hole (it’s a bean bag toss game) and of course, some of Ina Garten’s great appetizers and side dishes!
The famous Ina Garten Flag Cake. I would bet that if you’ve lived in America for any amount of time or even happened to visit in the summer months, you’ve seen some version of the Flag Cake. This time of year, the fruity stars and stripes are all over checkout aisle magazine covers and cooking shows. It’s so festive and fun - even Taylor Swift and her famous friends are fans of Ina’s Flag Cake.
One of my favorite traditions in our house is the Birthday Meal. The birthday gal (or guy) gets to pick what they want to eat for dinner on their birthday. And, of course, they get the cake of their choice. For the past few years, my daughters have been really into Trifle cake. Thankfully, this year my daughter Lexi wanted a change so, together, we invented Melted Chocolate Ice Cream Cake. I promise, it’s better than the name suggests and you’ve probably had it before – just never gave it a name!
