Ina Garten and Jennifer Garner Credit: Instagram / @jennifer.garner
Ina Garten and Jennifer Garner Credit: Instagram / @jennifer.garner
Ina Garten and Jennifer Garner Credit: Instagram / @jennifer.garner
Ina Garten and Jennifer Garner
Credit: Instagram / @jennifer.garner
While Garner’s #PretendCookingShow often features guests such as her mom or her cat, this episode featured the woman of the hour, Ina Garten. Garner’s excitement at having Garten appear (virtually, of course!) in her kitchen is so relatable (I can only imagine how wonderful (and slightly overwhelming) it would be to cook for the Barefoot Contessa in my own kitchen!).
As Garner cooked, Garten shared helpful insights and tips for the recipe. For the chicken, Garten said, “The canola oil and butter are good together because you get the flavor of the butter and the high burning temperature of canola, which is why I very often mix the two of them.” Her second helpful tip came as Garner seared the chicken, and Garten advised her not to move the chicken because “it seals the skin.”
While Garner and Garten waited for the chicken and orzo to finish, they checked on the other new recipes Garner had made, including a Milk Chocolate Oreo Ice Cream and a Frozen Paloma. Although we don’t see the recipe for the paloma, Garten is the queen of cocktails and we trust that Garner is on to something when she noted that her freezer “will never be without one again” (P.S. check out Ina’s Pomegranate Gimlet).
Garten’s final tips came as Garner finished the dish. First, she recommended adding the lemon vinaigrette to the orzo while it’s warm so the pasta could really absorb it. Then while Garner plated the dish, Garten advised that she had two options: restaurant-style or home-style plating, although Garner opted for mom-style plating, which she described as “nothing [being] allowed to touch anything else.”
The final dish and sweet exchange between the two ladies is both wholesome and comforting, two things I definitely need right now. Now, I’m off to cook my way through Modern Comfort Food on the off chance that my dinner party with these two ladies one day becomes a reality (a girl can dream, right?).
