The Barefoot Contessa Drinking Game

For Thanksgiving survivalists.

In my family, there is only one cooking show: The Barefoot Contessa. We refer to the show’s host, Ina Garten lovingly and often, usually only as “Ina”, as though we just got off the phone with her.

On the brink of sanity one Thanksgiving, my sister and I were deep in the throes of a Barefoot binge-a-thon. I opened a bottle of Veuve, and we started sipping every time Ina slipped into one of her old tropes. Thus, The Barefoot Contessa drinking game was born.

The combination of Ina’s dulcet tone, the show’s bucolic Hamptons backdrop, and of course, the presence of boozy bubbles makes for a soothing (and amusing) holiday respite.

It is dead-simple to play — and guaranteed to take the edge off any case of frayed nerves.

Recommended with “good” champagne, of course. But whatever you have will do.

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Preparation: loads of Barefoot Contessa queued up on DVR (I have mine set to record her on weekday mornings so I can watch it weekend mornings). Lots of "good" champagne, served in tasteful glass flutes.

ONE SIP

• Ina says "fabulous"

• Ina asks a rhetorical question, ex.: "How easy is that?" "How bad can that be?"

• Ina specifies an ingredient as "good,” Ex.: "Use good olive oil" or "good vanilla extract"

• Jeffrey cameo, but 2 sips if it's related to chicken

• Ina throws a party

• Ina says "cocktails"

TWO SIPS

• Ina’s collar is popped

• Ina picks herbs or flowers from her sprawling garden

• Ina says she's going to "turn up the volume" on something

• Ina giggles diabolically

• Hydrangeas are pictured

• Ina visits a specialty food store or Amber Waves farm

• Ina drives a BMW or Mercedes

THREE SIPS

• Stephen Drucker makes a cameo

• Ina reminds you to add instant coffee to a chocolate recipe

• A famous Hamptons resident makes a cameo (Alec Baldwin, Marishka Hargitay, etc.)

• Ina mentions Lidey

• Ina reminds you to garnish a dish in a way that indicates its ingredients

• Ina mentions France, Paris or calls something "provencal"

• Ina flirts with T.R. or Tyler Florence

• Ina leaves the Hamptons (Napa, Brooklyn, etc.)

BONUS POINTS

• Stream our Nancy Meyers Kitchen playlist, and follow the game with a viewing of the director’s seminal film Something’s Gotta Give, which features scenes in Ina Garten’s original Hamptons shop.