"InaGarten" news and stories

Oh, Ina, we knew you'd do the right thing. After a week of getting hammered online for her apparent refusal to meet with a six-year-old leukemia patient, Barefoot Contessa Ina Garten has agreed to grant the boy's Make-A-Wish request.

Last week, TMZ reported that Garten denied Enzo Pereda's requests due to scheduling conflicts, but Garten said she only learned of his requests this past weeekend. (Her spokesman says she gets "100 requests a month to support charitable causes" and can't answer them all.)

If she really wants Enzo to forgive her, she should pull out all the stops and bake up her gooey brownie pudding cake.

Get the whole story at The Huffington Post.

Anyone who says the bacon craze is over clearly doesn't love bacon as much as we do or is, at the very least, unaware of all the ways bacon enhances our culinary world. And it's impossible to imagine any omnivore in his or her right mind hating on bacon when staring down at this bowl of cheddar corn chowder topped off with what blogger Ezra Pound Cake calls "God's confetti."

While the "hearty, creamy, comforting soup brimming with potatoes, corn, onions and sharp white-cheddar cheese" is enough to make anyone's mouth water, it's really the bacon on top that makes this Ina Garten recipe even more enticing.

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Many of vegetables, that they are at their very best when they're fresh, new, young and crisp. But oftentimes, we can't get to our veggies before they've lost some of the glowing exuberance that comes from being just off the vine or plant. And so we look for ways to make those bunches of broccoli and heads of cabbage delicious, despite their imperfections.

In the last few days, bloggers all across the internet have been posting recipes for ways to take these fall and winter veggies and make them heart-stoppingly delicious.

The Amateur Gourmet tries out Ina Garten's recipe for roasted broccoli and announces that it's the Best Broccoli of his life. Over at Grub Street, they're featuring the Broccoli and Cheetos dish that Chef Craig Koketsu makes at his New York restaurant, Park Avenue Autumn. Molly of Orangette is making a gratin out of Savoy cabbage and Ree the Pioneer Woman is using her trusty cast iron skillet to prepare a turnip gratin that would be perfect for Thanksgiving. I can't remember the last time vegetables have been quite so tasty!

I first spotted Ina Garten's recipe for Outrageous Brownies on Smitten Kitchen. In the past, I haven't been much of a brownie baker, so I read Deb's post and moved on. But then I saw Ina make them on the Barefoot Contessa and they looked amazing and delicious. The recipe made an impression on me, so much so that I looked it up online and bookmarked it. I nearly made them on New Year's Eve but instead opted for a recipe from the Gourmet Cookbook. Those brownies were mediocre the first night and increasingly better each subsequent evening (and we did eat them until they were all gone).

Sunday afternoon, my friend Johnny called to say that he was putting together an impromptu dinner for that evening. When I accepted the invitation, he asked if I wouldn't be willing to bring dessert. I said of course and started plotting. I briefly considered making a fruit tart before deciding that brownies would be best. Luckily, I just happened to have all the ingredients necessary for these brownies and so started measuring, melting and mixing. They came together quickly and baked up in just under half an hour. I was a little concerned when I first cut into them, because they seemed a little greasy (they do call for a full pound of butter), but as they cooled completely, they firmed up and developed the ability to hold all that butter with aplomb.

These are excellent brownies. They are deeply fattening, but they are totally delicious. I took the leftovers to my cousin's house tonight for dinner and we ended up standing around the plastic container in which they were stored, eating them in broken pieces as a pre-dinner dessert course. If you want a really indulgent, fool-proof, amazing brownie recipe, look no further. Thanks Ina, for the fabulous recipe.

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Deb from Smitten Kitchen says that these Pecan Squares are the most fattening thing she has ever made. I don't doubt her for a second because, although it looks like she made a fairly large batch, she also used almost 9 sticks of butter in the recipe. That's 1,017 grams, 4 1/2 cups and 72 tablespoons of butter for those of you not familiar with the notion of it in stick form. Of course, the recipe comes from Ina Garten and because she is known to use at least as butter as the lovely Paula Deen, this isn't all that surprising. Ina doesn't say how many servings this makes, but if we assume that you can cut it into 54 bars (2-in. squares), you're looking at around 17 grams of fat per bar - and more if you take Ina's suggestion to dip them in chocolate!

The squares are essentially a caramel pecan pie filling that is baked on top of a buttery shortbread base. It is baked in an unusually large pan (18 by 12 by 1-in., as opposed to the more standard home baking size of 9 by 13-in.), but that does give it the advantage of being a convenient, decadent and delicious treat to bake for a big holiday party. Just don't tell anyone the nutritional stats before serving them.

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