Ina Garten Reveals the Most ‘Surprising’ Dishes Found on Her Thanksgiving Table

Even Ina Garten admits to taking shortcuts on Thanksgiving cooking.

When the culinary star appeared on the latest episode of Good Hang with Amy Poehler, released Tuesday, Nov. 25, the pair discussed their enthusiasm for Turkey Day.

“It’s like the best holiday,” Garten said. “Because it’s traditional things. You can make them better. And I love Thanksgiving.”

The Parks and Recreation alum then wanted to know what the Barefoot Contessa makes for the occasion that “people would be surprised” is at her table.

“Well, you know, a couple of years ago, The New York Times asked me to do a store-bought Thanksgiving,” Garten recalled. “And I thought, ‘Who could ever do that?’ So I said, ‘I don’t think so.’ And then I started thinking about it and I realized that if you could take a store-bought ingredient from the store and make it easier, wouldn’t that be fabulous?” 

“So I went and got Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix and I made a bread pudding out of it, which was so good, it was crazy,” she continued. “So I have a lot of Thanksgiving things now to get, like you can actually get good mashed potatoes. But then I add sour cream and Parmesan cheese and garlic, and it’s just delicious, and you have no idea that there’s a store-bought ingredient in there.”

When the Times story “Ina Garten’s Store-Bought Thanksgiving” ran in November 2022, Garten told the outlet she embraced the challenge because of the exhaustion home cooks cope with during the holiday season.

“I think just for Thanksgiving, all bets are off,” she said at the time. “Whatever you need to do to get Thanksgiving dinner on the table is OK.”

The same year, Garten appeared on Today, where she shared hosting advice to make the day less stressful.

“The other day I got an apple tart from Trader Joe’s,” Garten confessed to Savannah Guthrie. “I put it in the oven and it was absolutely delicious.”

“Hosting is about the people. It’s not about the food,” Garten advised during her visit to the morning show. “You want the food to be good, but you can just go out and get like apple cider and put it on the stove and have cookies.”

The following year, Garten revealed she and husband Jeffrey, who’ve been married since 1968, would be enjoying a low-key celebration at their East Hampton, N.Y., home.

“For the first time this year, Jeffrey and I decided to have a very quiet Thanksgiving,” she said in a video on Today’s TikTok account. “We’re going to make it a holiday, and I’m cooking, and we’re watching old movies, and we’re reading our books and going for walks in the leaves.”