at dinner. You don’t want to look at your plate and go, ‘Oh, what is that?’ You want to look at your plate and go, ‘Oh, that looks delicious,’ and it is.” Thanksgiving is Garten’s favorite holiday, when she transforms familiar fixings into “comfort food, with a twist.” Instead of cranberry sauce from a can, she serves cranberry fruit conserve with nuts and raisins. Instead of place cards, she sets out sugar cookies with guests’ names on them. And instead of topping mashed sweet potatoes with marshmallows, she opts for sautéed apples. She also goes easy on the turkey: “We’ve


all had dry turkeys that went into the oven at 4 o’clock in the morning. It takes two and a half hours to make a turkey. It doesn’t have to cook for 12 hours!” To make the holiday extra special, Garten


cooks double portions of everything, then packs a second dinner in plastic for her guests to take home. “Everybody likes to have left- over turkey sandwiches,” she explains. “That’s the fun of Thanksgiving.” Her guests this year, as usual, are her best


friends, Barbara and Bobby Liberman and their family. She’ll serve them in “the barn”— the spacious structure across the garden that she built as the set of her TV kitchen. It’s as fashionable and functional as her home, with an 18-foot granite island parallel to the trestle table where she hosts larger crowds. Shelves in the library hold Garten’s collection of nearly 700 cook- books, from Fannie Farmer to Bobby Flay. She says she consults them all. But Garten taught herself the most valuable lesson of all: eliminate the angst. “I think people are really surprised when they walk into the kitchen and there’s a legal pad on my counter with a list of exactly what I need to do at every minute,” she says. “I’m not saying I don’t get stressed,” she confesses, smiling. “There’s


always a moment when I say to Jeffrey, ‘Don’t talk to me now.’” “What moment is that?” “The last 15 minutes before guests arrive and I haven’t gotten dressed


yet! But once I open the door, nobody knows that happened.” The Barefoot Contessa pulls it off with style, and sharing the secrets is the secret to her success. “It’s not that I’m handing somebody some- thing,” she explains. “I’m giving them the tools to do it themselves. If they cook, everybody shows up. So I’m creating a community for them, and that makes them feel good.” Really, how easy is that?


Award-winning broadcast journalist and Parade contributing writer Lynn Sherr is also an occasional cook and best-selling author. Her latest book is Sally Ride: America’s First Woman in Space.


OCTOBER 26, 2014 | 11


Look for recipes from Ina Garten’s new cookbook, Make It Ahead, in the November issue of our sister magazine, Dash, or at parade.com/ina (after November 5).


Do you or a loved one STRUGGLE on the stairs?


We have the AFFORDABLE solution! LIMITED TIME OFFER!


PURCHASE OF A NEW STAIRLIFT! EXPIRES February 28, 2015


$250 OFF*


The WORLD LEADER in stairlifts


The MOST TRUSTED name in the industry


BUY DIRECT from the manufacturer and SAVE


Works on ALL TYPES of staircases


CALL NOW FOR YOUR FREE INFORMATION KIT AND DVD!


1-877-397-6983


The only stairlift to earn the Ease-of-Use commendation from the Arthritis Foundation.


AcornStairlifts.com/parade


*Not valid on previous purchases. Not valid with any other offers or discounts. Not valid on refurbished models. Only valid towards purchase of a NEW Acorn Stairlift directly from the manufacturer. $250 discount will be applied to new orders placed before February 28, 2015. Please mention this ad when calling.


© PARADE Publications 2014. All rights reserved


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16