I cooked a Thanksgiving feast using only Ina Garten's recipes, and it cost me $132.
I made turkey, green beans, stuffing, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pie.
I spent 10 hours cooking but the meal was beautiful and filled with delicious highlights.
When I first became interested in food and cooking, I spent a lot of time watching Ina Garten on Food Network and pouring over her cookbooks and recipes.
Garten is one of the greats, so when I recently decided to cook an early Thanksgiving dinner for friends, it was a no-brainer that I'd put together a menu full of "Barefoot Contessa" recipes.
Like Garten, I kept things simple and elegant, choosing classics like roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, and green beans. Although I've been cooking Thanksgiving dinner for my family for more than 15 years, I learned new tricks and found recipes I would definitely make again.
Here's what it was like to cook a full-on Ina-giving.
The ingredients were surprisingly easy to find.First, I went grocery shopping.
Terri Peters
Fresh green beans, elbow macaroni, and goat cheese were on the ingredient list, which felt fresh, simple, and easy to acquire.
Still, since I was following recipes from a pro, I thought I'd probably have to go to five different stores to gather up all of the ingredients.
I started cooking the day before and knocked out the apple pie first.I used premade pie crust instead of making it from scratch.
Terri Peters
Garten's deep-dish apple pie was to be our dessert, so I made it a day in advance to save time on the big day.
The recipe called for a lot of citrus zest, but it was simple to get the amount I needed from oranges and lemons using my microplane grater.
I am pretty die-hard about following recipes, but I cheated a little on this one by using a store-bought pie crust rather than making my own. I was glad I did, as the meal was still plenty of work.
Next up was the cranberry sauce.Ina Garten's cranberry sauce has apples in it.
I've made cranberry sauce from scratch before, but I prefer the canned variety, so I was curious how Garten's would stack up.
The recipe called for tart Granny Smith apples and lots of citrus zest, which required a lot of grating and chopping.
The stuffing was also easy to make in advance.I'm not a huge fan of stuffing but I kept an open mind about Ina Garten's recipe.
Terri Peters
Garten's sausage-and-herb stuffing was next on my to-do list. I prepped this a day ahead of time as well.
It was easy to brown sausage, cook down ingredients such as apples and onions, and mix everything in a pan with toasted bread pieces. Using the straightforward, simple recipe, the stuffing came together easily and was a breeze to make.
Garten puts goat cheese in her mashed potatoes, which I'd never done before.I used a hand mixer to whip up the mashed potatoes.
Since the mashed-potato recipe was full of creamy butter and milk, adding goat cheese seemed odd to me, but who am I to argue with Ina?
I prepped the entire recipe in advance, whipping my potatoes with a hand mixer. Then, I loaded the cheesy mixture into a baking pan and topped it with butter and Parmesan cheese.
The tomato-topped mac and cheese also felt unique.Making breadcrumb topping was easier than anticipated.
Terri Peters
My kids would riot if mac and cheese was not part of our Thanksgiving meal, so I chose a recipe that involved a fresh tomato topping to mix up our normal side.
I'd never made fresh breadcrumbs before, but I quickly learned it's easy. I just put slices of bread into a food processor and pulsed.
With day one of prep work complete, I enlisted the help of a favorite Thanksgiving hack.I felt good going into the big Thanksgiving feast.
Terri Peters
One of my favorite ways to keep things organized while cooking a big dinner such as Thanksgiving is to cover each pre-assembled dish with aluminum foil and write the cooking time and temperature on top with a permanent marker.
That way, when it's time to cook, I can easily see what needs to go into the oven at which time and I won't be searching for the recipes again to find the information.
On the big day, I started with green beans.This green-bean side was much lighter than my usual casserole.
Terri Peters
Garten's green-beans gremolata recipe is a big jump from my normal casserole, but I was excited to try a fresher, less creamy approach to the vegetable side.
Like a lot of Garten's Thanksgiving recipes, the gremolata required lots of citrus zest, along with pine nuts, fresh herbs, and Parmesan.
After blanching the green beans and tossing them into an ice bath, I set them aside for when they'd be sautéed and tossed with the gremolata before serving.
The last item to prep was the bird itself.I haven't cooked a whole turkey without spatchcocking it in a long time.
Terri Peters
In recent years, my husband and I have spatchcocked our turkey, a technique where you open the bird up, remove the backbone, and lay it flat for cooking.
We were a bit hesitant to try Garten's oven-roast turkey, as it was a way more traditional approach. After prepping the bird and stuffing it with garlic, herbs, onion, and lemon, we popped it into our oven and hoped for the best.
When everything was cooked and ready, I was really proud of the meal I'd created.The meal looked like it had been worth the 10 hours of effort I'd put into it.
Terri Peters
Although Garten's Thanksgiving dinner didn't look like my normal one, it was stunning when everything came out of the oven and was laid out on my kitchen island.
Everything looked delicious and elegant. I immediately thought it was one of the most beautiful meals I'd made in my life.
I spent about 10 hours in the kitchen in total prepping our Thanksgiving menu, and when I saw everything put together, I knew the time was well worth it.
The turkey turned out beautifully, but I'd probably stick with spatchcocking.The turkey looked incredible and had a nice flavor.
Terri Peters
Garten's oven-roast turkey was beautiful and looked like something out of a Thanksgiving movie.
Still, I find the spatchcocking method allows for better planning when it comes to cooking time. With the bird laid flat, I think it's easier to predict how long it'll take to reach the correct internal temperature.
The cranberry sauce was a little fancy for my taste.Homemade cranberry sauce isn't worth the effort for me.
Terri Peters
I'm a canned cranberry sauce girl through and through.
Garten's recipe was the most involved cranberry sauce I've ever made from scratch with its citrus zest and chopped apples. It took a lot of work and I don't feel it was worth it.
It was a bit tart, and in the future, I'd stick with canned cranberry sauce.
Although I'll keep cooking my casserole for Thanksgiving, I'd make Garten's green beans again.Ina Garten's green beans tasted fresh.
Terri Peters
I'm a big fan of traditional green-bean casserole made with cream-of-mushroom soup and crispy onions.
Garten's green-beans gremolata was a different dish entirely — fresh and citrusy instead of creamy and full of umami. Still, it was delicious.
I'd definitely make the side again, just not on Thanksgiving.
Garten's tomato-topped mac and cheese reminded us of grilled cheese and tomato soup.Tomato helped brighten the mac and cheese.
Terri Peters
I wasn't sure about topping mac and cheese with fresh tomatoes, but it worked.
The homemade breadcrumbs and elbow macaroni provided enough carbs that, when combined with cheese and tomato, it gave everyone at my dinner table grilled-cheese-and-tomato-soup vibes.
The goat cheese in the mashed potatoes changed the flavors of a classic.I wouldn't make the mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving again.
Terri Peters
I loved Garten's mashed potatoes, but adding an ingredient as creamy and tangy as goat cheese definitely changed the flavor profile.
These were not your classic mashed potatoes. Instead, they were a more creamy mash with pungent notes from the goat cheese.
Although they didn't scream "Thanksgiving" to me, I would make them again as a side dish for a different meal.
Garten's stuffing converted me into a stuffing girl.Ina Garten's stuffing recipe was incredible.
Terri Peters
I've never been into stuffing, as it's always seemed to lack flavor and take up valuable real estate in my stomach — which I'd rather fill with the aforementioned green-bean casserole.
The savoriness of the sausage and herbs combined with the tartness of the apples was perfection and I loved the freshly-made toasted cubes of bread we'd prepped the day before.
The deep-dish apple pie was a hit with my guests.Ina Garten's apple pie recipe is a keeper.
Terri Peters
Everyone thoroughly enjoyed Garten's deep-dish apple pie, so much so that it was the only menu item we didn't have leftovers of.
Made with tart Granny Smith apples, the pie was the perfect balance of sweet and tangy, combined with a crispy crust. We served each slice with a scoop of vanilla-bean ice cream, the perfect accompaniment.
I'm still proud of the meal I created.I found that Ina Garten's Thanksgiving feast was cheaper than my usual Thanksgiving meal.
Terri Peters
Going on a 10-hour adventure through some of Garten's most iconic recipes was a lot of fun. Looking back, I'm still proud of my hard work and the beautiful menu I served my guests as a result.
I spent $132.77 on ingredients, which felt like a solid deal considering I was able to feed a dozen people, with leftovers. My usual Thanksgiving meals typically cost me more to prepare.
It was a lot of work, but there are some great recipes I plan to make again throughout the year or for our next holiday feast.
This story was originally published on November 9, 2023, and most recently updated on November 25, 2024.
