I have been waiting for the better part of the year for the release of Ina Garten’s new cookbook, Cooking for Jeffrey.  When I found out it was going to be released ON THE ACTUAL DAY OF MY BIRTHDAY, it felt like I won the lottery.  I have historically described Ina as some combination of my culinary soulmate and my spirit animal.  Everything she makes is notorious for being done right and easy to reproduce because of her great instructions.  So far, I haven’t proven that theory wrong.

My mom anticipated the fact that I would want need this book, and she heroically pre-ordered it for me from Amazon.com.  (You too can be the proud owner of Cooking with Jeffrey!)  It arrived on the day of my birthday, and I began making plans to make new Ina meals immediately.  To be fair, it’s not like I’ve made all of her other recipes already and I needed new material that badly, but new is always more fun.   I found a recipe for beans and greens, intended to be a side dish, and I decided to make it the bulk of my dinner.

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