• Ina Garten and husband Jeffrey are celebrating their 57th wedding anniversary.
• Their love story began when she visited her brother at Dartmouth College in 1963.
• After Jeffrey spotted her from the campus library window, he began writing her love letters.

Few celebrity love stories are as sweet as that of Ina Garten and her husband, Jeffrey.

The pair met while Ina was visiting her brother at Dartmouth College, where Jeffrey was a junior. After Jeffrey spotted her from the campus library window, he began writing her love letters — not before long, the pair were engaged and eventually married.

Ina and Jeffrey have been together ever since, despite being apart from one another due to Jeffrey’s work and service in the Army, as well as a brief separation during the early years of their marriage.

“I think how crazy that was and how dangerous it was, but we wouldn’t have the relationship we have now if I hadn’t done it,” Garten wrote in her memoir, “Be Ready When the Luck Happens.”

Here’s a timeline of their timeless relationship.

1963: Ina Rosenberg met Jeffrey Garten when she was 15 years old and visiting her brother at Dartmouth College.

Their romance began to blossom after Jeffrey spotted Ina on campus from the library window.

“Look at that girl, isn’t she beautiful?” Jeffrey told his roommate at the time, Food Network reported. As it happened, Garten’s roommate knew precisely who she was: Ina Rosenberg, the younger sister of a friend he had planned to go on a date with that night. 

After the date didn’t lead anywhere, Jeffrey sent her a letter with his photo in it. The future cookbook author was immediately interested.

“He saw me on the street and then sent me a letter with a photograph of himself in it,” she told People in 2018. “I just remember running through the house and going, ‘Mom, Mom, you’ve got to see this picture of this guy. He’s so cute!'”

1963: Months later, a young Jeffrey and Ina went on their first date, but it was far from smooth sailing.

After Jeffrey picked up Ina, who was still in high school at the time, he drove them over to a bar in Port Chester, New York, where the legal drinking age was 18.

“It was a disaster,” she told Food Network. “I had never been to a bar in my life! The guy at the door says, ‘Where’s your ID?’ and I thought, ‘What ID?'”

They ended up going to a coffee shop instead, where they had a “perfectly good time,” according to Jeffrey.

1968: Ina, 20, and Jeffrey Garten, 22, wed at Ina’s parents’ house in Stamford, Connecticut.

After they were married, Ina and Jeffrey Garten settled in North Carolina after Jeffrey enlisted in the Army. With no plans to continue her studies at Syracuse University, Ina focused on cooking for her husband.

However, Jeffrey pushed her to pursue her passions for business and cooking, and she ended up getting her pilot’s certificate on the side.

“We were part of the first generation where there was a fork in the road for a lot of women, whether to pursue their careers or stay at home,” Jeffrey told People in 2018. “Ina was a cross between the two. She would send me brownies in a shoebox when I was in college and make me sweaters, but it never crossed my mind that she wouldn’t also do something really interesting professionally.”

1969: They were separated by thousands of miles during Jeffrey’s service in the Army and a long-term work trip to Tokyo, but their love letters kept them strong.

“I wrote to Ina every single day,” he told People in 2018 of his time stationed in Thailand. “During the whole year, I was only able to call her once.”

Ina saved all the letters and has spoken about reflecting on them 50 years after the pair tied the knot. One of Jeffrey’s letters mentioned how he’d love to take her to Paris, despite not having enough money for a hotel.

Paris still holds a special place in the couple’s hearts and is where they’ve spent their anniversary every year.

1971: It wasn’t until the pair took a trip to Paris on a shoestring budget that Ina truly explored her talents in the kitchen.

Using all the ingredients France had to offer, Ina prepared all their meals on a small gas camping stove.

“I had always thought about French food as ‘cuisine’ with complicated preparations and slowly simmered sauces,” Garten wrote in her cookbook “Cooking for Jeffrey,” according to Bon Appétit. “I discovered French street markets and simple, seasonal food that was based on incredibly good ingredients.” 

“It was the first formative period in her cooking,” Jeffrey told Food Network. “All those little shops in Europe — the boulangeries — Ina would walk through them and just glow.”

When they returned home, Ina began working her way through Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” in order to hone her skills. 

1972: Ina and Jeffrey relocated to Washington, DC, where weekly dinner parties became a tradition.

While in DC, Ina Garten spent her days earning her degree from Georgetown University and later working at the White House Office of Management and Budget. Jeffrey, meanwhile, worked in the State Department. At night, the Gartens entertained their throngs of friends at weekly dinner parties.

“People still talk about her parties,” Jeffrey told Food Network. “They were legendary.”

Garten worked under both Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, helping to write the nuclear energy budget.

Ina Garten and Jeffrey decided early on in their relationship not to have children.

“It was a choice I made very early,” Garten said during an appearance on Katie Couric’s podcast in 2017. “We decided not to have children. I really appreciate that other people do and we will always have friends that have children that we are close to…” Garten explained. “I really felt, I feel, that I would have never been able to have the life I’ve had. So it’s a choice and that was the choice I made.”

“We don’t have any children. I’m her family,” Jeffrey told Johns Hopkins Magazine in 2016.

1978: Shortly after her 30th birthday, Garten quit her government position and bought the small Barefoot Contessa shop in East Hampton, New York.

“When I told [Jeffrey] I wanted to move to New York and open a food store, he said, ‘Let’s move to New York!'” Garten told People in 2018. “That he would not object to moving to a different state for my career was so unusual, particularly 40 years ago.”

It became her new passion project and would be the key to launching her to superstardom. 

“Jeffrey said, ‘If you love it, you’ll be really good at it,'” Garten told the New York Times’ Sam Sifton during a virtual chat for the release of “Modern Comfort Food.” “And that’s the best advice anybody ever gave me.” 

Jeffrey also kept busy and worked his way to becoming the managing director at Lehman Brothers.

Late 1970s: After purchasing the Barefoot Contessa store, Ina and Jeffrey briefly separated.

The pair briefly separated in the late 1970s as they navigated the pressures of Garten’s new business venture.

During that period, Jeffrey was working in Washington, DC, while Ina was building her own professional path with the Barefoot Contessa store.

“When I bought Barefoot Contessa, I shattered our traditional roles —­ took a baseball bat to them and left them in pieces,” Garten wrote in her memoir, People reported. “While I was still cooking, cleaning, shopping, managing at the store, I was doing it as a businesswoman, not a wife. My responsibilities made it impossible for me to even think about anything else.”

She asked Jeffrey for a temporary separation while she figured out how to balance being both a businesswoman and a wife, and he came to terms with the fact that Garten had a flourishing career that would limit her time spent at home.

The separation was short-lived, and the couple ultimately reconciled.

1995: After Jeffrey took a job as the dean of Yale’s School of Management, Ina got to work decorating his commuter home to be just like their one in New York City.

While Jeffrey was on business for Lehman Brothers in Tokyo, Garten did the same thing for his apartment there, even going so far as to hire a Japanese artist to replicate his desk chair.

Their Southport, Connecticut, home looks almost identical to how it did over 20 years ago, except for a few personal touches courtesy of Jeffrey.

“Ina doesn’t like any evidence of her public life,” he told Food Network, “so I collect all the newspaper and magazine articles. The walls are covered with pictures of Ina.”

1999: Ina ran the small specialty grocery store for over 20 years before publishing “The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook.”

As a first-time author, Garten was new to the publishing business and wasn’t sure the book would be successful. However, her husband was always supportive.

“She has natural talent, but it’s backed by so much effort and so much focus,” he said. “When she had the store, she’d work until midnight all the time. The discipline of her recipe testing and how seriously she takes it — she doesn’t settle for anything but the best. She’s like a runner who collapses at the finish line even though she was ahead the whole race.”

Her hard work paid off — the first initial 5,000 copies of “The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook,” plus an extra 15,000 the publisher ordered in advance because of strong press engagement, sold out almost immediately.

2000s: Jeffrey continued to commute to Connecticut multiple days a week from their home in East Hampton.

“We’re always texting each other and calling,” she told People. “But I have to say I really look forward to Thursday or Friday when he comes home and the weekends are sacrosanct.”

“When we’re not together, I’ll send her five or six texts per day,” Jeffrey said. “I love looking at her schedule. I can envision where she is and what she’s doing, and it doesn’t feel like we’re apart. If I could be with her seven days a week, 24 hours a day, that would be my ideal.”

2020: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Garten said one good outcome was that she got to spend more time with Jeffrey.

“I feel like I prepared my whole life to be quarantined, or working towards a place where we could be quarantined,” the Barefoot Contessa told People in September 2020. “Jeffrey writes and he teaches remotely, and I think [he] is going to look back on these days as the good old days. I make him lunch, I make him dinner and he’s home all the time.”

“He would always leave on Monday and come back on Friday and I stayed in one place,” Ina said. “I always wondered what it was going to be like when he retired. And when this happened, I thought, oh, I guess that’s what it’s going to be like … I have to say, it’s great.”

In February 2021, Garten revealed how she and Jeffrey found pockets of joy during lockdown.

“Lunch date! Jeffrey and I make PB&Js, drive down to the beach, sit in the car, and listen to the podcast The Daily,” Ina Garten captioned an Instagram post of her and Jeffrey’s lunch.

October 2021: Ina Garten wished her husband a happy 75th birthday in a sweet Instagram post.

“Happy Birthday to the love of my life! I’ve loved you for more than 50 years, and I’m just getting started,” she captioned a series of photos of the couple.

December 22, 2025: Ina and Jeffrey celebrated their 57th wedding anniversary.

“Happy anniversary, babe. Marrying someone smart, funny, and adorable is always a good idea,” Garten captioned a series of photos of the pair in an Instagram post.

• Taylor Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl” has spent 10 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
• It surpasses “Folklore” as her third-longest reign atop the chart.
• “The Tortured Poets Department” holds the record in Swift’s catalog with 17 weeks at No. 1.

Taylor Swift gave us fair warning in her newest album: “I’m married to the hustle.”

Swift’s 12th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” not only broke the record for the biggest sales week ever, but it also continued to amass sales and streams in the US for over two months after its release.

After seven consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, “Showgirl” returned for another three weeks atop the all-genre album chart.

The impressive tally comes just one year after Swift set a personal-best chart record with “The Tortured Poets Department.” Keep reading for a ranking of her 16 studio albums (including both originals and rerecords) based on their Billboard 200 performances.

10. “Taylor Swift”

Billboard 200 peak: No. 5

Swift’s self-titled debut is the only studio album in her catalog that hasn’t reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

“Taylor Swift” debuted at No. 19 and scaled the chart for more than a year, peaking at No. 5 in 2008.

9 (tie). “Lover”

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 for one week

Swift’s seventh studio album was the first one that she owned outright, thanks to her new label contract with UMG.

“Lover” was promoted by several singles, including “You Need to Calm Down,” “The Archer,” and “The Man.”

Four years later, after Swift kicked off the Eras Tour with “Cruel Summer” near the top of the set list, the fan-favorite song climbed to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remained there for four weeks, becoming the album’s biggest hit.

9 (tie). “Red (Taylor’s Version)”

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 for one week

The extended tracklist for “Red (Taylor’s Version)” included the storied extended cut of “All Too Well,” a longtime fan-favorite song in Swift’s catalog.

“All Too Well (10 Minute Version)” was released alongside a short film directed by Swift and promoted by a convention-breaking performance on “Saturday Night Live.” It became the longest song to reach No. 1 in the history of the Hot 100.

8 (tie). “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)”

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 for two weeks

“Fearless” was the first rerecorded album that Swift ever released.

The “Taylor’s Version” series was inspired by the sale of Swift’s masters to Scooter Braun in 2019, which she described as her “worst case scenario” in a passionate open letter. Swift decided to remake and rerelease her first six albums in a bid to reclaim ownership of her life’s work. (Braun later sold Swift’s masters to a private-equity company.)

In addition to faithfully recreating each tracklist, Swift decided to add never-before-heard songs “from the vault” that were written during the album’s original creative process but cut from the final product.

“I’ve spoken a lot about why I’m remaking my first six albums, but the way I’ve chosen to do this will hopefully help illuminate where I’m coming from,” Swift explained. “Artists should own their own work for so many reasons, but the most screamingly obvious one is that the artist is the only one who really knows that body of work.”

“For example, only I know which songs I wrote that almost made the ‘Fearless’ album,” she continued. “Songs I absolutely adored, but were held back for different reasons.”

Many were skeptical that the “Taylor’s Version” project would be embraced by fans, let alone achieve commercial success.

Those skeptics were forced to eat their words when “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” began to outpace the original on streaming platforms. According to Billboard, “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” earned more equivalent album sales in its first week of release than “Fearless” earned over the entire next year.

Four years later, in May 2025, Swift announced that she bought back her masters from Shamrock Capital, giving her complete control over her musical catalog and rendering her “Taylor’s Version” project moot.

8 (tie). “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)”

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 for two weeks

The rerecorded version of Swift’s third album featured six songs from the vault, including two duets with Fall Out Boy and Hayley Williams.

7 (tie). “Reputation”

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 for four weeks

“Reputation” arrived after an extended period of silence. Swift’s longtime feud with Ye (then known as Kanye West) and Kim Kardashian had reached a fever pitch; in response to a massive social media hate campaign, Swift decamped to London and withdrew from the public eye.

She returned with a new snake-infested aesthetic and “Look What You Made Me Do,” a cheeky lead single that poked fun at her own persona — and quickly shot to No. 1 on the Hot 100.

Swift also declined to participate in interviews or media appearances while promoting her sixth album. Instead, she relied on a simple tagline: “There will be no further explanation. There will just be reputation.”

7 (tie). “Evermore”

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 for four weeks

“Evermore” was surprise-released just five months after Swift’s previous album, “Folklore.” The two were billed as “sister albums,” created under near-identical conditions with the same team of collaborators.

“To put it plainly, we just couldn’t stop writing songs,” Swift explained on social media.

“Evermore” was nominated for album of the year at the 2022 Grammys, but lost to Jon Batiste’s “We Are.”

6 (tie). “Speak Now”

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 for six weeks

Swift’s third album had a lot to live up to, following the blockbuster success of “Fearless.”

In response to skeptics — who questioned whether the teen phenom was relying too heavily on her collaborators — Swift decided to write “Speak Now” entirely by herself. She is the only songwriter credited on the standard tracklist.

6 (tie). “Midnights”

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 for six weeks

Swift’s 10th studio album sold over 1 million copies in its debut week, the first to cross that seven-figure threshold since Swift’s own “Reputation.” (She has now achieved the feat on eight different occasions.)

“Midnights” also won album of the year at the Grammys, joining “Fearless,” “1989,” and “Folklore” in the prestigious group of victors. Swift is the only artist in history to win album of the year four times.

6 (tie). “1989 (Taylor’s Version)”

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 for six weeks

The rerecorded version of “1989” was released nine years after the original. Swift added five vault songs to the tracklist, including the fan-favorite closer “Is It Over Now?“

5. “Red”

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 for seven weeks

“Red” is Swift’s fourth studio album. It featured a mishmash of Max Martin-produced pop bangers (“We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” “I Knew You Were Trouble”) and country-rock breakup anthems (“State of Grace,” “Holy Ground”).

4. “Folklore”

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 for eight weeks

“Folklore” marked a sonic departure for Swift, stripping down her favored synth-pop production to reveal introspective reflections and intricate narratives.

The pandemic-era album was co-produced by Swift, Jack Antonoff, and Aaron Dessner of The National. It received rave reviews from critics and is widely considered her best work to date.

3. “The Life of a Showgirl”

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 for 10 weeks

Cowritten and co-produced with Max Martin and Shellback, “The Life of a Showgirl” was described by Swift as a snapshot of “everything that was going on behind the curtain” during the Eras Tour.

The album’s double-digit reign at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 brought Swift’s total sum atop the chart to 96, extending her record among solo artists.

Since the Billboard 200 was launched in 1956, only The Beatles have logged more weeks at No. 1 than Swift.

2 (tie). “Fearless”

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 for 11 weeks

Swift’s sophomore effort had the longest run at No. 1 of any album in the 2000s. “Fearless” has since been certified diamond by the RIAA.

2 (tie). “1989”

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 for 11 weeks

Swift’s fifth album marked her official pivot from country to pop music, a move that Swift said she had to “really fight — and I mean aggressively fight — to have happen.”

In addition to its double-digit streak atop the Billboard 200, “1989” yielded several hit singles on the Hot 100, including “Shake It Off,” “Blank Space,” and “Bad Blood.”

1. “The Tortured Poets Department”

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 for 17 weeks

Swift’s 11th studio album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” did not leave the No. 1 slot for 12 straight weeks after its debut in April 2024, fending off new releases from stars like Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish, and Zach Bryan.

The uninterrupted reign of “Poets” was rare for a streaming-era release. It became the first album ever by a female artist to spend its first 12 weeks atop the chart, surpassing a record previously held by Whitney Houston’s 1987 blockbuster “Whitney.” (The all-time record for a consecutive streak among women is held by Carole King’s “Tapestry,” which spent 15 weeks at No. 1 in 1971.)

Swift briefly yielded the top spot to Eminem and Stray Kids before “Poets” notched 13th, 14th, and 15th consecutive weeks atop the chart.

The album eventually fell to lower positions, but then in December of that same year, it returned for two more weeks at No. 1 after Swift released physical versions of the album’s deluxe version, “The Anthology,” for Black Friday.

• I learned to embrace non-traditional holidays with my pilot husband’s unpredictable schedule.
• My childhood was filled with consistent Christmas traditions, unlike my adult family life.
• Creating unique holiday memories taught my kids and me that special moments can happen anytime.

There is so much pressure on women to make the holidays perfect for everyone. I had to accept the fact that I was unable to provide the consistent traditions that I enjoyed as a child. Instead, I learned to create memories while my pilot husband flew during the holidays.

With my husband’s flight schedule, holidays never looked traditional or perfectly planned. There were tears, and some years were harder than others. As hard as some of those years were, they became the memories we still talk about and cherish today.

Being married to a pilot meant not knowing if he’d be home

I grew up with consistent holiday traditions. My grandparents visited on Christmas Eve. We ate together, opened gifts, and my great-grandmother played the piano. I would struggle to sleep, but I would wake up to gifts with my parents and my brother. After the chaos of gift opening, we would take a drive to see my other grandparents and eat, and then open presents. Like clockwork, I knew what to expect every year.

I knew my husband would work holidays when we married. Living with that reality was more difficult than I expected. I missed the comfort of my childhood traditions. I felt sad that my kids wouldn’t share those same experiences. My dream of creating consistent family traditions was not going to happen. I could fight it and cry, or I could find ways to make the holidays fun and meaningful, no matter the date on the calendar.

Non-traditional doesn’t mean not fun

One Christmas, while he was flying, the kids and I spent Christmas morning at a Denny’s coloring. We colored pages for my grandmother, who was living in an assisted living facility. We packed our artwork and picked up some holiday treats from home. Then, we drove over for a surprise visit on Christmas morning. We had already opened gifts with her, but this was a special visit. My grandfather had passed, and she was alone. Her memory was fading, and she spent a lot of time in her little apartment. Her face lit up when we walked into the room. We spent the morning looking through old photos. She hung up the pictures the kids had brought over, and we walked around the facility saying hi to the residents. Spending Christmas morning with her is a memory that I’ll cherish forever.

That Christmas morning at Denny’s, I saw it for the first time. This wasn’t about loss or compromise. Every year, my kids experienced something new and special. This was different from my traditional upbringing. That one Christmas morning with my grandmother, I saw the opportunity. The opportunity to provide my kids with something different and unique every year.

The following year, his schedule was even worse. He was flying over Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and even a few days after Christmas. That year was tough to prepare for. We decided to celebrate Christmas on the 28th. This was tough. Kids count down to a specific date all year, only to hear that they have to wait even longer. By a stroke of luck, he had a schedule change and was able to drive home, and we woke the kids up at midnight. We opened gifts, laughed, ate treats, and went back to bed. The next morning, he drove back to the airport for his Christmas Day flight.

As the kids got older, we would anxiously wait for his schedule so that we could plan our Christmas. One year, we took a last-minute cruise, came home to open gifts, and then saw him off for his Christmas Day flights.

One year, his overnight was close enough that we were able to load up some presents and drive to his hotel. We spent the day as a family. We saw a movie, ate at a restaurant, opened presents, and then the kids and I drove home.

This holiday season will be the last with my husband flying, as he retires next year. Even though he will now be home, we will always have a unique way of celebrating.

Whether it’s local bakeries or big chocolatiers, there’s a version of Dubai chocolate just about everywhere. So how did this dessert become a viral sensation, and how are businesses around the world cashing in on the trend?

• Broccoli-cheese casserole, made with just four ingredients, is a holiday favorite and crowd-pleaser.
• The easy recipe uses frozen broccoli, cream of mushroom soup, Cheez Whiz, and stuffing mix.
• This make-ahead casserole is budget-friendly, adaptable, and always the first dish to disappear.

Years ago, when I was flipping through a magazine, a cheesy recipe caught my eye. It was simple, quick, and cheap — the busy mom’s culinary trifecta. Plus, the glossy picture featured a vegetable both kids would eat: broccoli.

I remember tearing the page out and thinking it might save me on a hectic weeknight, when late afternoons were a scramble between homework, carpools, and hours on a baseball field.

At the time, I didn’t really know how to cook and was trying to build a small rotation of easy meals that everyone in the family would eat.

I forgot about it until the holidays rolled around and we needed a side dish to bring to a potluck party. The broccoli-cheese duo was a big hit — the first casserole to disappear — and people even asked me for the recipe.

As someone who didn’t enjoy being in the kitchen, I knew it was a keeper.

The steps are easy

Most every cookbook on my shelf at the time had long, confusing ingredient lists. This one, however, had no chopping, sauteeing or complicated steps—just four ingredients mixed together.

Depending on whether you buy store-brand or name-brand labels, the total cost of ingredients ranges from $5 to $10, with the most expensive ingredient being the Cheese Whiz. It takes about 10 minutes to assemble and can be made a day or more in advance. As a lifelong fan of anything make-ahead, this was a great selling point for me.

Here are the ingredients you will need:

• 1 package (20 oz.) frozen broccoli florets, thawed and drained
• 1 can (10¾ oz.) condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 1 cup Cheez Whiz Cheese Dip
• 1 box (6 oz.) Stove Top Stuffing Mix for Chicken

I also like to have about five tablespoons of butter on hand to melt and mix with the stuffing.

Preheat the oven to 350°. Next, spray a 2-quart casserole dish with Cooking Spray and set it aside. That’s the size I reach for most often because it gives you a thicker casserole with all the cheesy goodness tucked in.

I have some secrets

But here’s a pro tip I’ve learned after years of bringing this dish to get-togethers: if you’re feeding a crowd or know people will be coming back for seconds, grab a three-quart dish instead. Using the larger pan lets the casserole spread out a bit, so it serves more people without losing any of its flavor. It’s a small adjustment that has saved me more than once when extra kids or family members showed up around the holidays.

Mix the first three ingredients (broccoli, cheese, and soup) in the baking dish. If you are saving it to cook for another day, this is the point where you’d cover it with foil and store it in the fridge or freezer. The Stove Top stuffing mix should only be added just before baking, so it stays crisp.

One tweak I’ve made to the original recipe is to not cook the stuffing mix, but to use it dry, so that the breadcrumbs remain crunchy for the topping. Also, more butter makes it better. The original recipe called for three tablespoons, but I upped it to five. Trust me on this.

For the perfect crispy top, pour the stuffing mix into a bowl. Melt five tablespoons of butter in the microwave and drizzle it over the crumbs. Give it a good stir so everything gets nicely coated, and then spread it evenly over the top of your casserole.

Pop it into the oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until the topping begins to turn golden brown. It makes eight servings of ¾ cup each.

It goes well with any food

Besides being economical, it pairs with just about anything: roast chicken, baked ham, grilled pork chops, even a big green salad—and it’s surprisingly tasty the next day. It’s also endlessly adaptable. If you’re not a broccoli fan, you can swap in cauliflower, green beans, or even a mix of whatever frozen vegetables you have on hand.

Since that original potluck party, I’ve made this casserole numerous times. For a holiday work party one year, we were each asked to bring something to share. Many of my co-workers had special diets or allergies, a few were vegetarian, and my deskmate admittedly had the palate of a finicky child.

After stressing about what to bring, I ended up making my broccoli cheese casserole. Hoping one or two people might have a bite, I planned to bring the leftovers home for my family. Once again, it disappeared quickly, and my picky office mate told me I should bring two the next time.

This simple side dish remains a hall-of-famer in my small repertoire. Even now, with grown kids, it’s still a favorite in our house. Not bad for a 10-minute recipe.

• My daughter wanted to invite her favorite local shop owner to her birthday party.
• I decided to support her wish, since we try to value community, so we invited him.
• He showed up at the end of the party and helped pass out cake to all of the other guests.

I was about to round up a dozen kids for cake when my daughter asked, “Can we wait a few more minutes? He’s not here yet.”

She was talking about the owner of our favorite local shop — the one with handmade cards, chocolate chip cookies, and an ink stamp at the checkout counter she was allowed to use. My child had insisted on inviting him to her seventh birthday party.

We waited, and a few minutes later, when I had almost given up, he showed up. He sang with the other guests and enjoyed a piece of cake. It was just what my daughter wanted, and I’m glad I made it happen.

An unexpected guest

I’ll admit, I laughed the first time she mentioned inviting a grown adult to her birthday party. We were walking back from refilling olive oil and picking up dried fruit from The Ditty Bag, Jason’s store, when she asked, “Do you have Jason’s phone number? I want to invite him to my birthday party.”

It was at least six months before her birthday party. I said yes, I knew how to get in touch with Jason, thinking she wasn’t really serious. That she would likely forget all about it when her birthday approached. She didn’t forget.

As the months passed and my kid narrowed down her wishes: a backyard party, potion making (which would only happen if it was nice enough to be outside, I insisted), with witch-themed cake and food, leaning into the fact that her birthday falls near Halloween, she never wavered in wanting to invite Jason.

She reminded me several times over the months that I said I could contact him. When it finally came time to sit down and make her birthday guest list, his name appeared right next to those of her friends, grandparents, aunt, and uncle.

As her mom, I wanted her to be happy

I was aware this invite was a somewhat unusual request, and I knew I was going to feel a little awkward inviting him. I was worried that he might also feel strange being invited to a kid’s party.

I could have said no at this point, told my child it was inappropriate. Was it? My daughter, though, had finished writing out her birthday invite by saying, “and mom, you can invite some of your friends too, they don’t need to bring me a present.” It occurred to me that her desire to invite Jason was a consequence of my own parenting and focus.

Over the last few years, I’ve been trying — sometimes awkwardly, but always intentionally — to center community in my daughter’s life.

We live in a time when connection can feel scarce. Many of our friendships are maintained through group texts. Sometimes I wonder and worry if we are forgetting what it means to live in a society. I don’t want my daughter’s sense of community to come only from screens or scheduled playdates. I want her to see community as something built in small, daily interactions, such as saying hello to the mail carrier, remembering the name of the woman who is always sitting out on her porch on our walk to the school bus stop, dropping off an extra bag of coffee for the neighbors, and chatting with the man who runs the corner shop.

There’s a scaffolding in these interactions I’m also trying to build for her. As more research emerges about the consequences of replacing children’s free time and free play with near-constant adult supervision, the importance of community is becoming even clearer to me. I am trying to create a mini world for my kid where she will one day be able to walk to the corner store by herself, knowing that there are other adults along the way who she knows can ask for help if she needs it. And I want her to be able to do the same for others. Communities are their own form of wealth, but they don’t just happen.

I realized that my daughter’s invitation was her own small act of community-building. She didn’t care that the shop owner was an adult or that they’d never shared a playground. What mattered was that this person was silly like her, remembered her name, and always asked about her latest project.

She got what she wanted

In the end, I sent out the Evite. Knowing that the party started an hour before his shop closed, I suggested to Jason that he didn’t have to stay long, but that my child would be thrilled if he stopped by after he closed for a slice of cake.

I looked at my daughter, cheeks flushed from running around the backyard with friends, and told her, “Sure, we could wait a little longer.” Jason arrived just as I was about to give up and was herding everyone to the table. He stayed long enough to help pass out cake and talk with the kids. He seemed genuinely happy to be there.

Later that night, my daughter said, “I’m so glad Jason came.”

“I’m glad you wanted to invite him,” I replied.