Channeling Ina Garten

I'm a big fan of the Food Network, cooking and searching for great recipes or just creating my own. Luckily, I married someone that enjoys my cooking and all my "experiments". Some of the shows I enjoy watching are of course Barefoot Contessa (Ina Garten), Paula Deen, Bobby Flay and Tyler Florence.

But back to Ina...one of the first Barefoot Contessa shows I watched totally had me mesmerized! She was preparing a dish and she needed to pull an appliance from her pantry and she walks into this huge amazing room that had tons of shelving for all her appliances/pantry items/etc. I remember thinking WOW that's awesome and also thinking someday I want a pantry/storage room like that!

One of the things that sold me on our house when we were shopping around was the pantry. Yes, the pantry! I remember walking into the pantry and thinking this is kind of like Ina's! I had dreamed of a pantry similar to this for so long. A place where we could put all of our appliances on shelves and actually see what we have versus digging for them a cabinet. Here's a picture of part of our pantry.

It's not just her kitchen storage that I love about Ina - it's her wonderful recipes and her simple but elegant approach. Her cookbooks are wonderful! I guess I should mention that I also collect cookbooks. When we travel I usually try to get a cookbook from the area. Last year when we visited Charleston, SC for our anniversary I drug Jason around town tracking down the Charleston Receipts cookbook - it's the oldest Junior League cookbook still in print in the country. Yes, we found it!

Back to Ina again...early in our relationship Jason mentioned to me that one of his favorite desserts was one he had in his elementary cafeteria - chocolate cake with peanut butter icing. I searched all over for a good peanut butter icing recipe, even trying to create my own with no success. In the first Ina cookbook I purchased, Barefoot Contessa at Home, I found the perfect peanut butter icing recipe! Thanks Ina! Below is the recipe for her wonderful peanut butter icing.

Peanut Butter Icing


1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter (she uses Skippy)
5 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cup heavy cream

Place the confectioners sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-low speed until creamy, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work. Add the cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth.