A Barefoot Contessa dinner party!
My mom loves Ina Garten (aka the Barefoot Contessa), her recipes, her shows, her cookbooks, only…my mom doesn’t cook. She sees these things and tells me to to make them. “Yeah, yeah” I always say. So for her birthday, I made an entire dinner, appetizer to dessert, all of Ina Garten’s recipes. And I didn’t even change an ingredient, a rarity for me as I love to make things my own way!
I used two books of hers that I love, Barefoot Contessa Family Style
One thing about Ina Garten, you can never go wrong with her recipes, they will always give you perfect results. I started off with some cheddar biscuits, which were even better the second day. Then a smoked salmon spread dip. My mom loves smoked salmon, I won’t touch the stuff, but hey, it’s not my birthday.
Then I made a roast loin of pork. My mom doesn’t necessarily love pork, but since the entire family was coming over, and they are all carnivores, it was an easy choice. I followed that with some sides, green beans with shallots, mashed potatoes, and for the first time ever, I made homemade gravy. All these years that was my mom’s job, so it was weird to have to do it myself. This recipe was the best way to start, easy and flavorful.
What my mom really wanted and had asked me for before, was Ina’s Baked Shrimp Scampi. This was really easy andso tasty I think it was the most popular thing on the table.
For dessert I changed it up a bit and took the birthday sheet cake recipe and made cupcakes instead!
I chose all of these recipes because they could be prepped in advance. Perfect for a dinner party. While I followed the recipes to a T...this time, there are many, many things that I’d change if I made them again. I’m still digesting all the butter and sour cream I had to put in those dishes. Yikes. Being the Barefoot Contessa ain’t easy on the heart or the hips. Oof.
