"inagarten" news and stories

I wouldn't have guessed that Ina Garten was a cake-mix kind of gal, but I suppose that once you have your own line of boxed mixes, your perspective probably changes somewhat. Ina's Barefoot Contessa mix line includes brownie and cake mixes, frostings, fillings and even a pie crust mix. The mixes aren't entirely new, but this is the first time that I've seen so many of them, so perhaps their original distribution was limited to a few specialty stores.

The appeal of Ina's recipes is that she manages to make them look better, as well as more indulgent, than anything you could get at a bakery. The fact that her famous coconut cupcakes are now in a box... makes them lose a little something, especially since they claim to come with a cream cheese frosting mix, to which you have to add cream cheese.

Products like sauces and preserves make sense, since even if Ina isn't in the kitchen making them by hand, you can feel confident that it is her recipe. But to convert one of her cakes into a mix really looses the homemade appeal, which is what made Ina a success in the first place.

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Much more attention gets paid to Rachael Ray and Paul Deen, but Ina Garten is another Food Network favorite that also has a new cookbook out. The Barefoot Contessa at Home: Everyday Recipes You'll Make Over and Over Again is her compilation of recipes that are short, easy are perfect when you want something tasty but don't really want to cook something elaborate. It's the Hamptons take on the same old theme of quick-fix meals, with some menu suggestions and grocery shopping tops thrown in. As always, Ina pays special attention to getting the best ingredients you can, which would certainly improve the quality of any quick-fix meal, though it doesn't make them quite as easy on the budget as some.

The important thing to consider about this particular book is whether you like Ina Garten or not. Her demeanor carries from the screen onto each page so if you are rubbed the wrong way, as a number of people are, by her on-screen personality, you might not enjoy the book quite as much. But if you like her upscale-casual manner, very generous use of butter and cream and the ever-present consideration for others that Ina always has, you'll probably enjoy it, from the Easy Cheese Danishes to Avocado BLTs and Chicken Pot Pie.

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