One Tasty Way Ina Garten Keeps Cooking Fun

Cooking can be stressful. After a long day at work, getting the dog to the vet, and playing Uber driver for your kids and their friends, the last thing you want to do is have to worry about what gourmet dish you are making to grace the dinner table. Even when you have all the essential ingredients for your pantry and you've made a dinner menu for the week, sometimes, it takes some real motivation to stick to it.

But don't feel too bad if you can relate. You are not alone. Even when you are a celebrity chef, cooking can be a difficult task. Ina Garten, also known as the Barefoot Contessa, revealed to The New Yorker Radio Hour, "Cooking's hard for me. I do it a lot, but it's really hard. I just love having the space to concentrate on what I'm doing, so I make sure it comes out well." Amen.

But even though cooking can be a love-hate relationship fraught with stressors, it might surprise you to learn, per Southern Living, that cooking can also be therapeutic. The magazine cites a study that found cooking cannot only connect you with your loved ones, but it can be a time of meditation, reflection, and even fun. 

How does Garten make her cooking fun?

Ina Garten brings joy to her cooking process by sipping on her favorite glass of wine or a tasty cocktail, per Southern Living. As seen on "Good Morning America," Garten knows how to whip-up a ginormous Cosmopolitan like no other. Demonstrating how to make one of those beautiful, albeit oversized, rubies, Garten humorously posted on Instagram, "It's always cocktail hour in a crisis!" She can also stir up a pretty wicked grapefruit paloma, according to "60 Minutes," and for her Academy Award viewing party, Garten made Raspberry Royales, "Champagne with just a splash of raspberry liqueur."

Of course, if you aren't a fan of alcoholic beverages, that's OK. You can always create a mocktail. According to PureWow, Garten shares you can still get that bitter taste that is associated with a cocktail without feeling like you are drinking a Capri Sun. To do so, she suggests simply adding a little citrus to your concoction. Garten recommends lemon or lime to accomplish this. But regardless if you choose a mocktail or cocktail, it will keep cooking tasty and fun.

"I just think — if you're not having fun what's the point, really?" Garten asks "60 Minutes."