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| Barefoot Contessa at Home: Everyday Recipes You'll Make Over and Over Again | 
 enlarge | Author: Ina Garten
Brand: Cookbook
Category: Book
List Price: $35.00
Buy New: $16.49
You Save: $18.51 (53%)
New (60) Used (27) Collectible (2) from $13.94
Avg. Customer Rating:  120 reviews
Sales Rank: 577
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.1
Dimensions (in): 10.1 x 7.5 x 0.9
MPN: GARTEN
ISBN: 1400054346
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.5
EAN: 9781400054343
ASIN: 1400054346
Publication Date: October 24, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New, Never Read, Mint Condition.
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 116-120 of 120 | | « PREV 1 ... | | |
 A Great Value October 27, 2006
239 out of 248 found this review helpful
As the owner of a whole 'lotta cookbooks, I sometimes have to explain my theory of cookbooks to my husband. In the case of "Barefoot Contessa at Home", the recipe for Easy Cheese Danish is a perfect example. This recipe uses 6 ingredients plus seasonings. It can be made the night before you need it. Both of which translate into making my life easier. And it can be enjoyed by our family and our holiday guests for years to come. If you break down the cost of the book as to how many times we'll use just that one recipe, you'll see what a great value it really is.
And, of course, there are many more recipes included that make it even better. Most of the recipes are a creative version of standard fare, like a coleslaw that uses blue cheese or the jalapeno cheddar cornbread or the Chicken Salad Veronique. The book includes chapters entitled soup and sandwiches; salads; dinner; vegetables; dessert; breakfast; and others.
And I like it that Ms. Garten includes a recipe for "Chicken with Goat Cheese and Basil" that can be prepared in 10 minutes when, as she puts it "I'm too tired to cook." I LOVE recipes like that.
And, what about the "frozen berries with hot white chocolate"? Looking forward to trying that.
Plus, Barefoot Contessa at Home includes menu suggestions, which are helpful if you're in a hurry or need inspiration. Each recipe is partnered by a beautiful photograph so you can see what you're making and how it should look.
I like her style, I like her recipes and I like her cookbook.
Ina changed my life! October 27, 2006
222 out of 238 found this review helpful
I cook because of Ina. Before I found her first cookbook, I cooked infrequently. I knew the basics, but I didn't have simple, great tasting recipes that I enjoyed making on a regular basis. Ina changed my life with her books, and my friends and family thank her for it!
I'm one of those people that needs to have a photo of the finished product, and Ina delivers beautiful images, encouraging you to give the recipe a try. Her recipes were easy and each one was a tasty success, I have slowly devoured my way through her books.
I am thrilled with this new one, and just with the first pass through it, I've found 14 recipes I'd like to try immediately!
I am a little surprised by comments made by one of the other reviewers, (which is why I am now writing my first review for Amazon.) They had issue with Ina's liberal use of butter and salt, the cost of the book, her crediting recipes to other people, Ina's suggestions for grocery shopping, etc. How funny!
Part of Ina's charm and fabulous tasting food results from copious amounts of butter and salt. If you have an issue with it, you probably shouldn't make those recipes. (She has plenty of recipes that don't have butter in them, but they aren't as tasty!)
Why someone would complain about the cost of the cookbook baffles me. The retail cost of the books is $35, (I pre-ordered it for $20.35) It is a wonderful book with exquisite photos, and if you say it has only 80 recipes, I'll take your word for it. Would you rather sit in front of the TV, watching her show and writing down the recipes? I feel this is the type of book that because it is so beautiful, would be a lovely gift, let alone a welcome addition to anyone's kitchen.
Each chef and their cookbooks are unique, and Ina's style fits perfectly into my kitchen. I just hope that Ina keeps producing more books so I can keep expanding my list of recipes!
Love Ina - Wonderful Book! October 26, 2006
18 out of 23 found this review helpful
I love the Barefoot Contessa - this book is one of my favorites. I am a really picky eater and not so great cook - this book has fantastic recipes and almost all of them I would make (unlike many cookbooks that I get that are too fancy and I don't like the food). I love the illustrations - they are beautiful! She also has some great helpful hints througout. I also love that she shares brand names to help the recipe when necessary. For those reviewers who are complaining - don't listen to them Ina - don't change a thing! I love that your recipes are easy and down to earth - you have a cookbook that people will actually use - I can't tell you how many cookbooks I have purchased that are never used - they don't have photos, they have strange ingredients, they are too gourmet and not realistic. I love that you are a true cook that makes people truly feel at home. Love love love Ina!
 More Ina, just as easy and delicious and pricy as before. October 25, 2006
25 out of 45 found this review helpful
`barefoot contessa at home' is Ina Garten's fifth cookbook and her second since her `barefoot contessa' show started on the Food Network in, I believe, 2003. I confess that Ina's show is one of my `guilty pleasures' as I enjoy it more than most other current Food Network programming, including shows by faves such as Giada DeLaurentiis, Paula Deen, and Rachael Ray. And, I like Ina's books for the same reason, as they express the great pleasure Ina derives from her life with husband Jeffrey and her cast of regular friends and visitors (shades of Mr. Roger's neighborhood). She doesn't even have a dog or cat with which to share the tranquillity of these two, living in a big house, set in a huge garden, near the shores of the Atlantic on Long Island, in the very trendy `Hamptons'.
On top of all this `bon hommine', Ina also has a knack of doing relatively easy recipes without all the Rachelesque hype about being fast. Ina will actually bake a loaf of bread, either yeasty white bread or the more rustic Irish Soda Bread (although I suspect there is not a drop of Irish blood in her very body). While this book advertises itself as a collection of recipes to make at home, there is no great difference between the recipes in this book from the ones in each of her earlier volumes. There are plenty here which come from either her earlier life as the owner / manager of the catering and retail operation named `barefoot contessa' or from other food vendors in the Hamptons. Reflecting her grounding in this little piece of heaven, she borrows a conceit from her Paris book and gives us a list of interesting culinary retailers in the Hamptons at the end of her book. She also gives a lot of pitch in the direction of Eli Zabar, whose venue is Manhattan and not Long Island. Oddly, her former company `barefoot contessa' is not among them.
After having gone through five books with Ina, many of her recipes are starting to look pretty familiar. Even without checking back, I'm certain that she has done other versions of tomato, chicken, shrimp, potato, and cabbage (cole slaw) salads in her earlier books. And, her drill with using certain ingredients has become pretty familiar as well. Every recipe using cooked chicken starts with baking chicken breasts in a 375-degree Fahrenheit oven for about 40 minutes. This is not a bad thing, as the more recipes you can build on some basic techniques, the easier your cooking will be and the closer you will be to being able to cook without a recipe. This brings up my first criticism of the book. So many of these recipes look very familiar, and are very close to what a reasonably experienced amateur cook can do for themselves. This fact does not sit well with the rather high list price of $35. These recipes are simply not as new or interesting compared to recipes we get from Tyler Florence or Sara Moulton in their $35 volumes and Food Network colleagues Giada, Paula, and Rachael very commonly have their books listed at well below the $35 standard for good 120 - 200 recipe books. Even Emeril's books are typically listed at below $30, with excellent renditions of his restaurant recipes.
Ina's selection of recipes does a good job of keeping with her theme, especially in her coverage of sandwiches and breakfasts, subjects which often get little or no treatment in the tracts on `haute cuisine'. The odd thing about the book, however, is that virtually all the chapter introductory material is about entertaining. While it is certainly about entertaining at home with small groups, I sense an uncertainty about how to theme and title this volume. While the subtitle insists that these are `everyday' recipes, there is a certain fanciness (read `expensive') to some of the recipes, requiring a fair share of things such as shrimp, lobster, tenderloin and tuna; however nothing is uncommon or bizarre. Miss Ina even avoids cilantro, as, quoting Sara Moulton, she seems to have the cilantro aversion gene.
All of these things boil down to the fact that if you like Ina's show (or if you like the old `In Martha's Kitchen' type of show) and you don't have a lot of other cookbooks, you will really like this cookbook. On the other hand, Miss Ina brings to her recipe writing all the little tics she demonstrates on her show. Just as Rachael annoys us to tears with her `EVOO' and other abbreviations, Ina constantly instructs us to use `good' mayonnaise and `good' chocolate and `good' olive oil and so on and so forth. Well Jeez Ina, do you think we are going to spend big bucks on your book and then get Dollar Store remainders!
Unlike mentor Martha, Ina doesn't include quite as much instruction in basic technique, but I thing that's a plus, as Ina's recipes simply don't need much fancy technique. This is just as well, because her weakest recipes are her renditions of some kitchen standards such as the recipes for chicken stock and white bread. Her stock recipe seems to have come from her catering business, as it requires a 16 to 20-quart stockpot and four chickens, while most kitchens are lucky to have a 6 or 8 quart pot. Whatever happened to all those carcasses we see Miss Ina salting away in her freezer for making stocks? On the other hand, her recipe for seafood stock is very sensible, in that it only needs shrimp shells and a small pot.
All in all, I expect I will use this cookbook as much or more than I do the tracts from kitchen gods such as Keller, Tramonto, Rippert, and Vongerichten, and if easy but impressive is important to you, Ina's books may be the only ones you need. But, if you relish new and challenging things, stay with Julia Child.
Someone's In The Kitchen With Ina October 24, 2006
37 out of 67 found this review helpful
"Throughout the years that she has lived and worked in East Hampton, Ina Garten has catered and attended countless parties and dinners. She will be the first to tell you, though, that nothing beats a cozy dinner, surrounded by the people you love most, in the comfort that only your own home can provide. In Barefoot Contessa at Home, Ina shares her life in East Hampton, the recipes she loves, and her secrets to making guests feel welcome and comfortable" Ina Garten Cookbook PR
I first came to know Ina Garten via her TV cooking show on foodnetwork.com. She was filming from her home in the Hamptons, and the food looked so delicious. I bought a cookbook, made every recipe, to wow reviews from family and friends. I now have every cookbook Ina has written. Every recipe is delicious and fairly easy to make.
This new cookbook is dedicated to us. Those of us who cook everyday for our families and want to prepare and serve delicious, nutritious food.
I have tried several of these recipes and the chicken pot pie is the best I have ever had. One of Ina's simpler methods is to keep the chicken moist by baking it in the oven first. Sprinkle with olive oil and salt and pepper and bake for 40mins. You use bone in chicken breasts. The flaky crust is very easy to make in your food processor, or by hand if you don't have a processor. Yum yum- Another favorite is her coconut macaroons- so simple but so good :-) And her coconut cupcakes are so delicious that many people asked if that recipe could be converted into a cake. Ina made a few adjustments with the recipe and voila. Coconut cake is the most requested birthday cake, and Ina's looks lucious. From homemade honey white bread, to blue cheese coleslaw to maple baked beans, all the recipes you need to help make the family happy. The photographs are just beautiful in this new cookbook. I go to Ina's cookbooks time and again. A recipe for every occasion. We are looking for simpler times and these recipes provide us with food we serve everyday. A little more upscale than a tuna casserole, but home cooked fare we are proud to serve. I watch Ina every week on her TV cooking show. Ina's laugh is so infectious, and she has such a good time cooking that everyone enjoys her and her food.
And, besides the recipes Ina discusses how she made her house a home and gives us her ideas. Each recipe also comes with a little story of how the recipe came to be. As a collector of cookbooks, I love to read them, and this is a great read.
"Garten had no formal training, and instead taught herself culinary techniques with the aid of French and New England cookbooks. Later, she relied on intuition and feedback from customers and friends to refine her recipes. She was mentored chiefly by Eli Zabar, of Eli's Manhattan and Eli's Breads fame, and domestic maven Stewart. Among her hallmark dishes are caeur a la creme, celery root remoulade, pear clafouti, and a simplified version of baeuf bourguignon. Her culinary fame began with her gourmet food store, Barefoot Contessa; Garten parlayed this success into a string of best-selling cookbooks, magazine columns, self-branded convenience foods, and a popular Food Network television show. Wikipedia
One of the best cookbooks for any cook, from the newbie to the more experienced cook. We are all looking for new recipes and Ina brings us the best. Highly, highly recommended. prisrob 10-24-06
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