For fans of Ina Garten and her show, Barefoot Contessa on Food Network, having a collection of favorite recipes in one book is a real treat. While all of Ina’s books are great, her Barefoot in Paris book is filled with wonderful, French-inspired recipes. The thing that I loved about these recipes is that they truly are easy for the everyday cook. You don’t need to be a whiz in French cooking to pull them off.

There are recipes for every course of a meal, along with generous photos and even a story or two from Ina on …read more

Every midwest mom has a different variation of this patriotic dessert. I like the one pictured, using chocolate cake and white icing. The constant in all of the recipes is that a flag is created on the top of the cake using blueberries for the stars and strawberries for the stripes. For some other Flag Cake ideas, see:

Breyer’s Ice Cream Flag Cake
Flag Cake with whipped cream from Cooks.com
The Barefoot Contessa’s Flag Cake from the Food Network
Flag Cake with Jello and marshmellows from Glenda’s Attic Blog
(photo © Newscom)