Well, after many years and much deliberation, I’ve decided what I want to be when I grow up. I know this is a slightly different career path than I’ve ever pictured myself as having, but I’ve carefully considered this and come to the conclusion that…
I want to be one of Barefoot Contessa’s neighbors.
I mean seriously. If you’ve never watched Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics on the Food Network, let me fill you in.
Ina Garten, she is one of the few women that both my husband Jimmy and I have serious crushes on. Ina is the sweeter, softer version of Martha that I hope I’ll be in about 20 years. She does everything right but makes it seem like it’s no big deal, and it’s really all too easy to mess up anyway. Not to mention, she is always so thoughtful. And here is where I make my case for today’s post. This woman is always hooking up her friends. Here’s how a typical episode will play out:
Ina on camera, driving in the car:
“My friends Frank and Steven have been in vacation in England for a month. They’ve done so much traveling, and now they have to take the long flight back to New York City. Then they have a whole two hour drive before they get to their Hamptons estate. How exhausting is that? I think I’ll make them some delicious comfort food and have it waiting on them when they get home.”
Meanwhile, she stops at the perfectly adorable local farm stand and buys tomatoes, visits the cheesemonger and buys four types of cheese, visits the baker and buys crusty bread…
Ina back in the car:
“After a long flight and drive back from vacation, there’s nothing better than comfort food waiting for you. Well, almost nothing, except comfort food and a fire in the fireplace of your gigantic Hamptons estate. I think I’ll call my friend Michael from the flower shop and see if he wants to help me welcome the boys home.”
Meanwhile Michael creates an absolutely stunning floral arrangement in like 15 seconds flat, and gets a roaring fire going in the fireplace.
Twenty minutes later, Frank and Steven have homemade truffle mac and cheese and some delicious looking lemon curd tart waiting for them with a handwritten note from Ina herself. Not to mention the fresh flowers and roaring fire.
Let’s back up here.
It’s not as if these two have been doing some sort of backbreaking, exhausting work like toiling to rid the Amazon of mosquitoes or building mud huts for needy children in some third world country. They’ve been on a month long vacation. To England.
So the reward for all that exhausting work? Homemade comfort food from the goddess herself. Plus the satisfaction of knowing that an immensely talented, rich celebrity thinks so much of you that she takes up a whole Saturday afternoon – and if Saturday afternoons are as valuable to me as a stack of cash money, I can only imagine how valuable they are to someone more important than myself – to cook and deliver food to your home.
Whatever I have to do to get there – I want in on this life. Anybody feeling me on this one?
comes out next month and so the next few weeks will be a whirlwind trying to get him moved to a new, more reliable web host, making the site look purty, making the navigation more intuitive, and integrating some fun new stuff. Keep an eye out! I’m excited!
