A Make-Ahead Vegetarian Dinner Party from Ina Garten — Menus from The Kitchn

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When it comes to dinner parties, Ina Garten is the queen. And this week Ina is helping you throw your next dinner party with a menu that is designed to be made ahead. Because making it ahead is the key to everything that Ina says makes a great party: you’ll be relaxed, and you’ll have more fun.

Today we have everything you need to put this menu together from start to finish — whether it’s for a dinner party or simply a Friday night in with your family.

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What’s Cooking This Weekend, Jenni and Mike? — Weekend of April 25-26

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This week Jayme introduced us to Jenni Lyons and Mike Burns of Happy Leaf Kombucha, a small-batch kombucha maker out of Denver. We learned how they turned their hobby into a business, what to expect the first time you try kombucha, how to pair kombucha with food, and what a giant, industrial-sized scoby looks like. (It’s kind of scary — not gonna lie.)

Now the only question left to ask is: What’s cooking this weekend, Jenni and Mike?

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Recipe: Ina Garten’s Chocolate Banana Crumb Cake — Dessert Recipes from The Kitchn

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For our dinner party menu from Ina Garten’s new book, Make It Ahead, we knew we needed a classic Ina dessert — something easy and relaxed, but totally showstopping. When we flipped to the page with this chocolate banana cake, we knew we’d found it.

And when Faith talked to Ina, she also got an ingenious tip for not only making this cake ahead, but making even more moist a day later.

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5 Things Writing a Cookbook Taught Me About Cooking — Life in the Kitchen

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What’s it like to write a cookbook? I’ve written three, so I get asked this a lot. My friends have made me laugh at times with the perceptions they have about writing cookbooks. It looks so glamorous! (It’s not.) Now you’re famous! (Errr, no.) Can you quit your day job now? (Ha, no.)

Perhaps the biggest misperception, however, about cookbooks is that they are always executed by people who know what they are doing from beginning to end. To the contrary, every time I’ve written a cookbook it has taught me something new about cooking. Here are some of the things I’ve learned along the way, plus even more learning moments from friends and Kitchn contributors who have also given us delicious and hard-won cookbooks.

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