Ina Garten is my Homegirl

Cooking for my man’s parents… the pressure is on… who to turn to? Who can I trust?

There’s only one answer to this: my number one girl- Ina Garten, that’s who!

Okay, so I love Ina Garten. She just has the most wonderful recipes and everything I make of hers turn out phenomenally.  My good friend Talya (who also loves to cook) introduced me to the magic that is Ina Garten. Not only would she make me recipes from Ina’s cookbooks, we also used to sit for hours and just read through them…while her show was also playing in front of us on the TV…weird?

Anyhoo, my man and I cooked for his parents a couple of weeks ago and I was finally able to try out her much raved about “Company Pot Roast” (recipe here).  The recipe calls for a 4-5 pound roast that cooks for 2 ½ hours in a beautiful sauce consisting of red wine, chicken stock, vegetables, fresh herbs and other wonderful things that make life taste good. The sauce is then half pureed and the end result is an extremely flavourful, slightly chunky sauce that you not only want to pour all over the meat but also all over everything else on your plate. 

I served the roast with Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes from the blog How Sweet It Is (recipe here), green beans sautéed with mushrooms and almond slices and a big salad. For dessert: lemon squares with a raspberry coulis. Let’s just say we were all prettaayyy full by the end. Cheers!

The beautiful ROAST, ready to be carved

The Roast served with Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes and Green Beans

Green Beans sauteed with Mushrooms and Sliced Almonds

Arugula and Endive Salad with Orange segments, Pomegranate seeds and shaved Parmigiana

Lemon Squares (from Canadian Living Cookbook) with Martha Stewart's Raspberry Coulis Sauce, what a combo!!

Everyone enjoying dinner (well maybe everyone but Shane....)