What: Barefoot Contessa Family Style
Who: Ina Garten

Ina is like an old friend. Her cookbooks, especially the Barefoot Contessa series, are just stellar. She’s tried and true though and through. And, very importantly, you can trust her with your holidays. The pages of my volume of Family Style are wrinkled with splatters of stove-top moments gone by, and the margins are marked up with my fevered kitchen-scratch attempting to file the tricks (while the fire’s hot and the water’s boiling!) for posterity before they’re forgotten. This cookbook has seen much use.

You know a cookbook is good when the recipes sail right past family favorites into traditions; when it has the food you want to make for the big family moments, the dishes your people cry out for and say “You’re making this for Easter, right?” Much of the food we want for Easter is in this book, so it’s Barefoot Contessa Family Style for April.

For Easter:

Parmesan Roasted Asparagus, p.46
String Beans with Shallots, p.115
Herb-Roasted Lamb, p.74
Raspberry Orange Trifle, p.144 (made with her Orange Pound Cake, p.142 and Orange Cream, p.146)
Chive Biscuits, p.193 (with honey butter)

(Ina has a wonderful mashed potato and gravy recipe, but the natives typically cry out for my caramelized onion potato au gratin…perhaps I’ll post the recipe.)

For all the other days this month:

Roasted Vegetable Soup, p.33
Curried Chicken Salad, p.61
Oven Fried Chicken, p.81
Parmesan Chicken, p.82
Tequila Lime Chicken, p.85
Chicken Stew with Biscuits, p.90 (which has become my Chicken Pot Pie in a Pumpkin filling)
Scott’s Short Ribs, p.94
Real Meatballs & Spaghetti, p.103
Roasted Winter Vegetables, p.110 (leftovers make the Roasted Vegetable Soup)
Mashed Yellow Turnips with Crispy Shallots, p.112
Mashed Butternut Squash, p.127
Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins, p.174