I’m always suspicious of skinny chefs.  How great to see Ina Garten, who looks like she eats what she cooks, as she appears on the cover of her new book, with a doubled scarf to hide her chins and holding a tray of gooey whipped cream topped parfaits – smiling.

Everything is easy – easy ingredients (no glace de viande here), easy shortcuts (canned stock but there is a recipe for making your own), easy techinques (why stand over a stove making French toast when you can bake it), and easy (road-tested) recipes.

With no table of contents and sloppy organization, the book starts with French toast bread pudding and morphs into watermelon mojitos.  Garten provides 68 tips for making life easier – with large pictures – 17 sprinkled throughout, with the remaining tacked on at the end of the book – nothing earth shattering (have bowl of lemons and limes handy).

So why bother?  The pictures of food are wonderful – mouth-watering, full-page spreads – and Ina Garten is a good cook (Food Network star).  Added bonus – the recipes really are easy.

garlic-roasted cauliflower

My faves:  garlic-roasted cauliflower and every single dessert.  (The garlic cancels out the sugar, of course).

Recipes from the Book

http://www.lhj.com/recipes/holidays/thanksgiving/ina-gartens-fabulous-thanksgiving/?page=2