Barefoot in the Kitchen…
/Hello Fellow Travelers!
Now that I am unpacking my kitchen, the time finally come to open the hundredth unmarked box to finally find my cookbooks!
Tucked away in these pages are years of memories of meals, parties, and experimenting in the kitchen. The pages are dog eared, stained, and paper clipped, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
The desire has been so overwhelming to get back in this kitchen, that I literally have dreams of cooking once again. While I have a sizeable collection of books, this photo (and the recipes I include in this week’s post) will finally give away my celebrity chef “crush” – Ina Garten, better known as the Barefoot Contessa.
“Ina’s story in the food world really started in 1978. She had a great job working in the White House Office of Management and Budget, but she dreamed of doing something more creative and fun. Then it happened…She came across an ad in the New York Times for a specialty food store for sale in the Hamptons. Intrigued, Ina and her husband Jeffrey drove to Long Island the next day to see the store and it was love at first sight. She had no experience in the food business, but she knew that this was exactly what she wanted to do. She made the owner of the store an offer and the very next day the owner called her and accepted her offer.”
“In 1996, Ina decided that it was time for a new challenge so she sold the store to the manager and the chef. At that point, with nothing to do, she built herself an office over the store and tried her hand at writing a cookbook. The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook came out in 1999 and turned out to be the most rewarding thing she has ever done professionally. Happily, that first cookbook was a surprise best-seller. By 2002, she had published two more cookbooks and started filming a show for Food Network, also called Barefoot Contessa.”
My wife loved to cook and she loved to entertain. Finding these books during the holiday season, inspired me to look up two of my favorites from Ina’s Barefoot Contessa Cookbooks and share these recipes with you. I hope that your friends and family will enjoy these as much as ours did!
Baked Fontina – Is as simple as it sounds, and yet one of the tastiest (and quickest) appetizers that I have ever tried! Cooking Notes: Instead of using the Italian Fontina Val d’Aosta, I used a simple Danish Fontina (It is readily available in my marketplace). I served this with an old world style Rosemary Bread….Simply amazing!
While this next recipe may not include any cheese…It IS a perfect accompaniment on any cheese board. Slightly sweet, and yet slightly spicy, these Rosemary Roasted Cashews are a crowd favorite and yet so simple!!
Enjoy this beautiful holiday season with good friends and good food!
Until next week…
Trevor
