Pecan Squares that’ll make you say “How easy is that?”

Families can be divided for a lot of reasons – money; family secrets; sibling rivalries. Or, in my family’s case, food network star Ina Garten, aka The Barefoot Contessa.

For years, my mom, aunts and grandmother have been Ina’s number one fans: they’ve bought every new Barefoot Contessa cookbook, my mom DVR’s almost every episode, and even keeps her flour and sugar in the same glass jars and salt and pepper in the same white ramekins that Ina Does. At every family holiday, you can pretty much bank on the fact that when you bite into one of the twenty five desserts on the table, when you ask for the recipe, you’ll hear “They’re Ina’s”, as if she’s a second cousin whose sitting in the next room or something.

And then, there’s my cousin Erin: she loathes Ina. The sheer thought of her standing in her beautiful hampton’s kitchen, with a denim or black blouse on, collar popped, cooking up something for Jeffrey before he gets home from work releases the steam from Erin’s ears.

And then there’s those of us that are torn, like myself and some of my cousins. Because yes, Ina, like all Food Network stars, can make you crazy. We’re jealous of her kitchen, and her hampton’s house, and the fact that she gets to sit home and cook delicous food all day and get paid for it! WTF! But, I do think her recipes are delcious – they’re basic enough that 9 times out of 10 you’ll have most of the ingredients on hand, and can manage to put them together without burning the house down – and the woman loves her cocktails. I’ll drink to that!