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I measure everything, because I always think that if I've spent so much time making sure this recipe was exactly the way I want it, why would I want to throw things into a pot?

Ina Garten

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Ina Garten
Age: 76
Born: 1948
Born: February 2
Author
Chef
Writer
Brooklyn
New York
Ina Rosenberg Garten
Would
Exactly
Time
Sure
Think
Making
Recipe
Thinking
Everything
Recipes
Much
Pot
Way
Measure
Always
Throw
Things
Spent

More quotes by Ina Garten

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You can get bogged down in a recipe that's got a lot of steps and a million ingredients, and it takes all day to make. And then you realize, you've just got one dish. For Thanksgiving, you want an abundance of choices, and so you want dishes that you can put together really quickly, but that doesn't mean less flavor.
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I always like to have flowers on the table. I think they make it look special.
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In the summer you want fresh, light and sort of quick things in winter you want things that are comforting, so your body really tells you you want to go towards potatoes, apples, fennel, things that are warm and comforting. And loin of pork.
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I've lived in the Hamptons since 1978, when I first bought my store Barefoot Contessa.
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The most overrated tool: a pasta maker. Why make it when you can buy it? It's a lot of work!
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The planning is everything. Deciding which dishes you're going to prepare can turn into the make-or-break decision five days later, when you actually serve the meal.
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The thing about all my food is that everything is a remembered flavor. Maybe it's something I had as a child or maybe it's something I had in Milan, but I want it to taste better than you ever thought.
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When I thought my professional career was over, it hadn't even started yet.
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Grilled cheese and tomato soup is the ultimate comfort meal.
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The dirty little secret is that I grew up in a household where there were no carbohydrates allowed, ever. No cookies, no bread, no potatoes, no rice. My mother was very extreme in terms of what she served. Since I left home more than 40 years ago, I've been making it right for myself.
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My favorite fall or winter lunch is big steaming bowls of soup. I usually invite people for around 12:30 and have two hearty soups like shrimp corn chowder and lentil sausage soup, which can be made a day or two ahead.
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You don't have to do everything from scratch. Nobody wants to make puff pastry!
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I use other cookbooks for inspiration. I must say I tend to cook from my own cookbooks for parties.
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One of the great gifts that you can give people is to cook for them.
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Instead of going out to dinner, buy good food. Cooking at home shows such affection. In a bad economy, it's more important to make yourself feel good.
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My mother would never let me in the kitchen. I always wanted to cook, but I was never allowed to. Her view of the world was, Cooking is my job, and studying is your job. I think, in retrospect, she didn't like the chaos. She was very orderly. It had to be her way.
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Food is not about impressing people. It's about making them feel comfortable.
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If it's a cocktail party, I generally make five or six different things, and I try to choose recipes that feel like a meal: a chicken thing, a fish or shrimp thing, maybe two vegetable things, and I think it's fun to end the cocktail party with a sweet thing.
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They say that gardens look better when they are created by loving gardeners rather than by landscapers, because the garden is more tended to and cared for. The same thing goes for cooking. I only cook for people I love.
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Take one flower that you like and get lots of them. And don't try to 'arrange' them. It's surprisingly hard to do a flower arrangement the way a florist does one. Instead, bunch them all together or put them in a series of small vases all down the table.
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