"Outside a dog a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it is too dark to read!" -Groucho Marx========="The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen========="I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book."-JK Rowling========"I spend a lot of time reading." -Bill Gates=========“Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.” -Jacqueline Kelly=========

Thursday, June 26, 2025

Review: BE READY WHEN THE LUCK COMES



Title: BE READY WHEN THE LUCK COMES: A MEMOIR by Ina Garten

Book Beginnings quote:
"There has to be something more fun than this," I said to myself , probably for the millionth time, as I sat at my desk drafting nuclear energy policy at the White House.
Friday56 quote:
What did I do? Besides going to college, there was dinner to prepare every night -- we certainly couldn't afford to go to a restaurant -- which meant coming up with a menu, shopping on the base, and then teaching myself how to cook. I had to learn everything. My bible at the time was Craig Claiborne's' New Your Times Cookbook, and I immediately started making his recipes.
Summary: A memoir by Ina Garten -- aka the Barefoot Contessa, author of thirteen cookbooks, a Food Network personality, and a cultural icon -- shares her personal story from a difficult childhood to meeting Jeffrey and marrying him while still in college; from a boring job in Washington, D.C. to ownership of a specialty food store and becoming the Barefoot Contessa, and her journey to get to where she is today.


Review: It seemed like everyone was reading this book last year and I wanted to be one of those people. I really enjoyed learning about Ina Garten's backstory, how she was ready to spring at several opportunities that led to her success first as a business owner and then as a Food Network chef and cookbook creator. As Garten described the creation of several of her famous recipes, I was reminded I have a copy of her cookbook, Cooking for Jeffrey. I decided to pull it out and make several recipe from it. We especially liked two entrees: Rigatoni with sausage and fennel and Skillet-roasted lemon chicken, and a dessert: Raspberry rhubarb crostata (I used strawberries as they are in season right now.) As I read through these and other recipes, it occured to me I should read the whole book. A first for me, reading through a whole cookbook. I actually learned some really helpful tips, too. Have you ever read a cookbook all the way through? Clearly I need to read my other cookbooks for ideas and tips, not just go to the same recipes over and over.

My rating of the memoir: 4 stars and the cookbook: 5 stars. Makes sense, doesn't it?


-Anne
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