Prime Video offers the best in entertainment. The end of the world continues with Fallout 2. A global phenomenon, inbegred by Prime. I heard you about what to do in this situation. Look at the epic end of the unwritten story of The Witches of Oz. Buy or buy? Wicked for good now. I'm taking you to see The Wizard. There's no going back. So what you also look, Prime Video. Here you look at everything. Prime is advised, especially to buy or buy. Inhoud can be advertised 18+. All the rules are used to be used. I'm Ina Garten. I love to invite interesting people to my house for good food, great conversation, and lots of fun. The amazing award-winning actress Christine Baranski is joining me for a wonderful day at the barn. She loves breakfast pastries, so I'm welcoming her with my maple oatmeal scones. The best scone I've ever had. And then I'm showing her weeknight bolognese and roasted broccolini. Broccolini, broccolini, broccolini. One of my favorite Italian meals. Dream guest. Dream hostess. I can't wait to meet Christine. I understand she likes baked goods for breakfast, so I thought I'm going to make her my maple oatmeal scones. They're so good. I think she'll love them. So that's three and a half cups of all-purpose flour. I'm putting in a cup of whole wheat flour just to give it a little flavor and some quick cooking oats. Give it a little texture. It's going to be great. And then two tablespoons of baking powder. two tablespoons of sugar, just a little bit of sweetness, and two teaspoons of salt. Really brings out all the flavors. Okay, I'm going to stir this together. And then I'm going to add butter, a lot of butter. Makes really good scones. So I've got one pound of butter, and I've diced it about a quarter of an inch to a half an inch. I want to be sure the butter is very cold so it doesn't mix in totally. So while that mixes, I'm going to do the wet ingredients. So I have four eggs. I'm going to add half a cup of buttermilk to the eggs. And then I want to taste like maple, so I'm going to add half a cup of maple syrup. I'm just going to combine them all together. Okay, let's see how these are doing. Perfect. Now, while I pour the wet ingredients in, let me tell you about my fabulous guest. Christine Baranski is an incredible, multi-award-winning star of stage, screen, and TV. She can sing, she can dance, she can play witty, funny, or deadly serious. Now that's talented. She grew up in a Polish-American family in Buffalo, New York, raised by a single mom after her father tragically died when she was just eight. She started acting in high school and won a scholarship to Juilliard, where she later received an honorary doctorate. Her big break came in the Broadway hit The Real Thing, directed by Mike Nichols, winning her first of two Tony Awards, which was followed by a run of theater smashes. Christine then won an Emmy for her first big TV show, the comedy Sybil. Since then, she's had leading TV roles in shows from the period drama The Gilded Age. Do people like that bring their daughters out? I thought they just sold them to the highest bidder. To the hit series The Good Wife and The Good Fight. plus the mystery thriller Nine Perfect Strangers. She also won acclaim for her iconic movies like Chicago, The Birdcage, Into the Woods, Mamma Mia, and so many more. Christine was happily married for more than 30 years to the late actor Matthew Coles. She has two lovely daughters and four grandsons who she absolutely adores. Isn't Christine amazing? I can't wait to meet her. Okay, the dough's done. Ready for the next steps. First is rolling out the dough. So I'll flour the board, dump out the dough, then sprinkle on a little flour, and just pat it out, working quickly to keep the butter cold. Next, I'll roll out the dough to three-quarters of an inch to one inch thick. Then the next step is cutting the scones with a three-inch fluted cutter. I'll put the 12 scones on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Then the final step is to brush the tops with egg wash that will make the scones deliciously golden. Okay, into the oven, 400 degrees for 20 minutes. These are going to smell so good when Christine gets here. So the scones are nearly done. I'm just going to make a quick maple glaze for them. So I have one and a quarter cups of confectioner's sugar, half a cup of maple syrup. You just want to be sure to use good maple syrup. This isn't a time for imitation anything. And then just a teaspoon of vanilla. and what that does is just bring down the sweetness and adds another flavor. Okay, glaze is ready. You just want it pourable. Mmm, so good. Ugh, you smell so good. I'm on my way to Ina's house. It's going to be an incredible day. Okay, I'm here. This is it. Oh, my God. It's like being in an enchanted kingdom. Christine, you're here. I'm so happy to see you. Welcome. What a pleasure to meet you and to be part of your beautiful world here. My God, look at this kitchen. I understand you like scones. I hope I'm right. It's my favorite breakfast. Unless I'm in Paris and then, of course, I have croissant. So I made maple oatmeal scones. Are you going to help me glaze them? Oh, I would love to. Okay, so I'll do some and you do some. It'll be competition. It's okay to be a little messy here. It's required to be messy. That's the point. I hate things that are perfect. You know, I have four grandsons. Can you imagine what they would do with this? Gone in two minutes, right? So I understand you've been in the Hamptons before. This is really a sentimental journey for me. There's a theater here in East Hampton, and I worked at that theater in 1975. Wow. When I was just out of Juilliard. I did a Noel Coward play called Tonight at 8.30, directed by John Lithgow. I just met him. I literally just met him. He's a doll. Isn't that great? I mean, imagine. And that's how you started. Yep. I was right out of school. So happy memories of East Hampton. And look where I am now, making scones with Ina Gardner. This is the pinnacle of your career. It is. So the next thing I do is just put some oats on, since they're maple oatmeal scones. So it's a little bit of a crunch. but it also tells you what it is. Oh my gosh. Now, if I wanted to make these scones for my grandsons, I have four of them. They could eat all of these, right? I wonder how far in advance I'd have to get up in the morning or how do I do this? You know what I would do is I'd make them before, the night before. Oh, put them in the fridge? Put them in the fridge. Do you roll it out in advance though? Yeah, everything. You just roll them out, cut them out, and put it in the fridge and then just throw it in the oven. For how long? 20, 25 minutes. And the house smells great and they're hot and they do the glaze. You can have the kids do the glaze, right? You know what they do? They take this spoon and they'd be doing that. We'd be dealing with a massive sugar high. But they'd be so happy, right? Oh my gosh, I live to make them happy. They're the most wonderful kids. Can I give you scones? Oh, please. Which is your favorite? The tops to me are the best I known to eat just the tops of muffins How about you help yourself Oh wonderful How that Thank God Oh is it still warm Yeah it still warm Oh, God, these are great. Thank you. I'm not acting. The best scone I've ever had. Thank you. So I have so much to talk to you about. You've had the most incredible life. We're going to run out of time. We're going to need a sequel. Cheers. Cheers. Nostrovia, as they say in home. I'm here with Christine Baranski, the most amazing actor, and we have so much to talk about. I can't wait to talk to you. I know. Take me back to Buffalo, where you grew up. Yeah, I was raised in a suburb of Buffalo, and it was a Polish-American community. I went to all-girl Polish Catholic high school. I lived with my paternal grandmother. It was her house, and we lived there. and I shared a bedroom with my nana, and she was an actress in the Polish theater. Really? And my grandfather was, they were actors in the Polish theater in Buffalo. It was wonderful, and my mother was an impeccable cook. She just was queen in the kitchen, but unfortunately, she really didn't pass it on to me. If anything, my mother intimidated me. She made me feel like, you don't know how to do this, let me do it. Well, that I can relate to, because I was never allowed in the kitchen. So no matter what I'm making, I'm always sure it's going to come out wrong. So I totally get how stressful that is. Yeah. And you had a mother and father who were quite judgmental. Very judgmental. My mother was very hard. I always felt she was going to judge me critically or be angry at me. I mean, I love her. Years later, I think I have great love for her because she had a hard life. She grew up in the Depression. She said she ate nothing but jelly sandwiches. And you can imagine walking to school for miles in the winter in Buffalo, New York. And they had newspapers in their shoes. I mean, the Depression was really hard. And then when that was over, she fell in love with my father. But they couldn't marry because of the war. He went off to World War II. Then he came back and they started a family. but my father died suddenly of an aortic aneurysm, and I was eight and my brother was 10. So my mother, who really wanted to be a housewife and to cook for us and to bake, suddenly she didn't even know how to drive and she had to find work, so our life changed. So my mother always said she regretted not being able to be a mom who cooked. who was home when you got home from school. Yes, exactly. I understand when you were little, you used to like to sing and dance to musical records. My mother and grandmother and aunt would go off to bingo, and I'd go up to my grandma's room, and she had all of these LPs, and one of them was South Pacific, and I would do every part in South Pacific. Every part. And her record player was on this side of the room, and on the other side of the room was a statue of the Blessed Mother. And I just remember dancing and singing to the Virgin Mary, basically. There is nothing like a dame! That was the beginning of my showbiz career, was dancing and imagining myself being fabulous. And? You know, it worked. So then you came to New York. Well, I read about the opening of the acting division of the Juilliard School. And I put that article, taped it to my wall and said, that's my dream is to go to Juilliard. And I did get in. And you had a scholarship to Juilliard. I got a scholarship. But at the end of my first year, they gave a $1,000 scholarship to a hardworking student who also needed money. But you know what I did with it? What did you do with it? I went to Europe alone for two months. Wow. I went from London, arrived in Paris, stayed at one of the cheapest hotels in Paris, went from Paris by train into Switzerland, into Italy. I was in heaven, and my mother was so against it. She said, you can't go alone. What are you doing? And I remember arriving back at the airport, calling my mother, and she said, I'm so proud of you. Isn't that lovely? You know? So she came around. Yeah. Isn't that great? That's great. I love that. What was your first big break on Broadway? Oh, gosh. And it was a big break. It was a play called The Real Thing by Tom Stoppard, directed by Mike Nichols. And I played Jeremy Irons' wife. I went to it. It was huge. I got married in October, went into rehearsal late October. By December, I was pregnant. won a Tony in June, had a baby in September. So within one year, all of this magic happened in my life. That was quite a year. It was a great year. It's hard to talk that year. Tell me about your late husband, Matthew. This is a story. I had this feeling that it would be time for me to get married. And I even went to this little grotto where there's a statue of the Virgin Mary. And I remember saying a prayer, please let me meet someone. It's time. And I, within a day or two of that prayer, I got a call from a man named Bill Gardner, who said, I want you to do this play Ghost. There's a wonderful actor named Matthew Coles, and you'll love working with him. It was like an answered prayer, because then I did this play with Matthew, and he was such a captivating personality. One night he asked me if I wanted to ride home on his BMW motorcycle. I did, and we went over the Williamsburg Bridge, holding on, and I said, I'm scared, Matthew. And he said, so am I. Anyway, we fell in love rather quickly. Within a year, we were married and had these beautiful children, and we lived in his childhood home. Oh, fabulous. But he was a wonderfully generous, imaginative, funny guy. He was far more famous than I was because he created a character named Billy Clyde Tuggle on All My Children. On All My Children. Anyway, he would walk down the street and people would recognize him, but I didn't have any real TV notoriety then. And by the time I did my first TV show, I was already in my 40s. It was, you know, we'd already been living in Connecticut for quite a while, but it was a wonderful place to raise daughters. Have you had to make really hard choices in your career? When my kids were small and my career was ascending and I was working, but I was leaving them. You know, the commuting to make a relationship or the sacrifices you have to make to leave your spouse, to leave your family. And I felt so tortured. But I was blessed to have a husband who, he had such a, like Jeffrey, such a big heart and such a respect for my talent that he recognized the opportunities that I couldn't say no to. Absolutely. I mean I know you always say you were so lucky but you also did the hard work You know I was unafraid to try different characters and to you know play old play young play funny play tragic But I've been lucky to, I mean, my God, I've, you know, 13 years on The Good Wife and The Good Fight. 13 years. And then The Gilded Age. I mean, I can't write this any better. I've had a really charmed career. And we're so glad you have. Oh, well, here I am eating your scones. I must have done something right. So how much fun is it doing a period drama? I love doing a period drama, particularly this period, because, of course, it was the Gilded Age, which means you get to wear tons of beautiful fabric. And my character is so funny. She's grumpy. And in some ways, I'm playing my mother. So it comes easily to me. But even though, you know, we're often in a corset for 14 hours, somehow it's still an enchanted place to be. You've been directed by two of my dear friends, James the Pine and Rob Marshall. How was that? Gosh, I have such happy memories of working with both those people. James was in the mid-80s, my first play in New York where I made an impression, I think, of playing Helena in Midsummer Night's Dream. I won an Obie Award, and it remains my favorite piece of theater that I've ever done, but I was never more enchanted than being on a stage doing that play. And then, of course, Rob Marshall and I did a workshop of a musical called The Petrified Prince. I think we instantly had a crush on each other, but, you know, Rob is, you fall in love with Rob. He's like butter and sugar, right? And so that led to my doing Chicago with Rob, which won an Oscar. I just love that role that you played. Oh, my God, Mary Sunshine. You kind of have a Mary Sunshine look, actually, yeah. So, yeah, they're two people very dear to my heart. And me too. What's the most fun of being an actress? Oh, there's so many fun things about it. But the older I get, the more I love the communality of it. I could wake up kind of groggy or in a bad mood or, oh, the news is so bad. And then I show up on a set or in a rehearsal and you're bumping into vibrant, talented human beings. And you get energy from them. And like the Gilded Age is just a cast filled with... Nathan Lane. magnificent theater actors and we've all worked together and oh that workshop and this off-Broadway playman it's it's the communality of it and the and the joy you get from being together that I I now value that more than anything it's less about just me being fabulous you know but just like all of us creating something it's it's rather like you know putting a meal together It's interesting because what I loved about Running Barefoot Contessa is in the kitchen. Yes. When it was good, it was like a great ballet. Yes. Everybody pulling together to do the same thing together that you couldn't do on your own. And that was the communality of it. And I also come to, especially on film sets, I so appreciate the people who are in the crew. You know, every day you show up and you rehearse and then the actors get way too much attention. We're like overbred dogs. You know, honestly, people fuss over us. But you see a cameraman or a sound person, boom person, they don't get to take breaks the way the actors do. They're there for sometimes 12, 14-hour days, long days. But what really moves me is professionalism on that everybody coming together, that's very special. So what's the hardest thing about acting? When you ask me that, I would say the most challenging part, certainly in film and television, is staying fresh, staying alive. And that is true on stage, too. But I think people don't realize how hard that is. It's so hard. But at the end of the day, when you've done it, you feel really good. So when you take the pearls off and you're Christine Varansky at home, what do you like? You have sweatpants on. What do you love to do? I'm really loving reading, just quietly reading. Love to read, love to listen to music, and I love to be quiet. I just took a poetry, an online poetry course on William Wordsworth. I've done one on Dante. I did Wordsworth, and now I'm doing Baudelaire. And it's just for an hour and a half, one day a week. But it introduces you to the poet. Isn't that gorgeous? It is. I love that you do that. How fabulous. So what do you like to cook? Well, I make a wonderful curried squash bisque soup. I like soups and I like stews. I can't believe you like soup. I love soup. I would like to make soup for everybody. I just think it's satisfying. It is. It's good for you. I love soup. I'm not someone who likes fussy-fussy. I hate fussy food. And I actually think that if there are more than three flavors in something, your brain can't figure out what it is. Right. It drives me crazy. I like really simple food. So you taste the intrinsic flavor of each thing. Really, the simpler the better. I was traveling in Europe recently, and one of the benefits of doing this six-month job was that I was based in Munich, and I got to take trains all over. So I was in Vienna, Salzburg, Budapest, and then I made it to Krakow. So I'm in Budapest. Oh, Hungarian goulash, wonderful. We wind up at this restaurant, and it turns out it was one of those restaurants with tasting menus, and like five different things came on your plate, and the portions are about that big. These little dots on your plate with about four people come to the table and explain to you what's in it. And I'm just sitting there thinking, I just am hungry. Don't you have any Hungarian goulash? So you have a house in Tuscany. I do. And I thought if we're going to cook something together, it has to be Italian. I thought maybe I'd show you how to make weeknight bolognese with a side of roasted broccolini, which both of them are so easy. Oh, that would be perfect. An all-purpose bolognese would be so great. I mean, I can do the bolognese on a capellini, on a linguine, or a lasagna. We've already cooked the ground sirloin in a little bit of olive oil. So it's nice and brown. It's sirloin. And then I'm going to put in some garlic. Right. Lots of garlic. You're cooking this in olive oil, not butter. Exactly. Right. And you're talking to a real basic, you know. Well, this is basic. Start from scratch, girl. So the next thing is oregano. And I just put it in my hands and I grind it like that. And you get all the flavor. So it releases the flavor by doing that? By doing that. Isn't that great? Okay, a little red pepper. You like a little heat? Yes. Okay. Just a little, not too much. Just like that. You're doing an excellent job of stirring. And then we need wine. I mean, it's Italian cooking after all, right? Of course we need wine. Okay. So I always like to cook with something you want to drink. So how about a cup of wine? So you can use really good wine in your cooking not just some old thing that been around for months I hate the old stuff And you going to open a bottle you might as well drink the rest of it right It an excuse to drink the rest of it Absolutely And one thing that the wine does is it scrapes up all those brown bits in the bottom of the pan. So it brings all the flavor into the sauce, which is really great. This is a lot of wine. Well, it's going to all evaporate and it's just going to cook into the meat. So Italy. Italy. Why did you choose Italy? I fell in love with Italy when I was 19, and I went there for the first time. I've gone back many times, and I find it really stimulating. I'm learning cooking. People really, they live in their senses, and they enjoy life. And appreciate it. And appreciate each other's company around a dining room table. So that's the quality of life I would like to have now. And you're invited. You don't have to ask me twice. But you have to cook a little bit. You have to sing for yourself. Okay, next I have just a whole can of crushed tomatoes. Pour the whole thing in. And tomato paste to just give it even more flavor. And then we need salt and pepper. Is this really as easy as it seems? It's it. It's it. Oh, my gosh. So this is going to simmer for 10 minutes. And in the meantime, we're going to make broccolini. Roasted broccolini. Broccolini. Broccolini. Broccolini. Broccolini. Broccolini. Broccolini. Okay, ready to go. I love her. That was great. Okay, so you're not going to believe how easy this is. Okay, sheet pan. So broccolini. I'm going to cut off the ends, about a third of the bottoms. Put them on the sheet pan. This is the easiest vegetable you've ever made. And I have to say, it goes with everything. I make it all the time. Just olive oil on top. Salt and pepper. Do I just stick your hand in? Stick my hand in? Yeah. You can just stick your hand in. Lots of salt. That's perfect. Hey. Pepper. clean hands are a cook's best tools. They're never in the drawer. They're never in the dishwasher. They're always with you. Oh, my gosh. And that's it. No. I'm serious. It's unbelievable that it's that easy. Okay, into the oven, 375 for 10 to 15 minutes, and it'll be so good. Oh, my God. Broccolini. Okay, we're nearly there. We've got the sauce. We have to cook the pasta, and the broccolini is in the oven. I would say this is the beginning of a beautiful cooking friendship. Oh, my gosh. If you welcome me in your kitchen, I will be there. Thank you. How fun is this? Christine and I are just finishing the weeknight bolognese. I'm stirring sauce, and you're doing the pasta. That's why I'm here. What kind of pasta is this? It's orchiete, which is little ears. Isn't that sweet? I love it. I'm stirring little ears. You can use really any kind and lots of salt. And you don't put olive oil in here. I don't because as long as the water's boiling and it's moving around, it won't stick. And that's what the olive oil is for. And I think the olive oil coats the pasta so the sauce doesn't get into it. The things I'm learning. Thank you. I'm so glad. I've been doing everything wrong for years. And you know what? I used to too. I've learned this over the years. Okay, a few more things to do with a weeknight bolognese sauce. So I'm going to add a little cream. It just gives it a little richness. Right into the bolognese. Just a quarter of a cup. A little nutmeg, which is, it's kind of like, gives it a really earthy flavor. Just a pinch of nutmeg. Lots of fresh basil, because of course it's Italy. You have to have basil, right? And Parmesan cheese. A lot of Parmesan cheese. Half a cup. And then the last thing I put in, it's really unusual. There's red wine in it, but I just put some red wine in at the end, like a quarter of a cup, and there's still going to be enough in here for us to drink. Just like that. Oh, that's not just a little bit. Well, that's what I call a little bit. Yes, that's a little bit. So what's a perfect day for you? Oh, getting up and having a homemade scone with your recipe, clearly. And then, because I have a home in Connecticut that's directly on the lake, I love to end my day with a glass of rosé, and then once it gets dark, I take off all my clothes. My favorite thing. Is it skinny dipping? Skinny dipping. And I invite my friends to do the same, and you're more than welcome. Oh, no. Okay, let's see how the broccolini's doing. It's perfect. How's that? Oh, my God. Is that the easiest vegetable you've ever seen? It's so pretty, too. It looks so fresh. Thank you. Okay, I'm just going to take it and put it on the platter. How's that? It's looking fantastic. This goes with everything. I mean, it goes with lamb and pork and pasta. You could have it for breakfast with an omelet, couldn't you? You could. You really could. Or frittata. Do you make frittatas? It's very Italian. I do make frittatas, and I'm curiously okay with cooking eggs. I'm good at omelets, scrambled cheese eggs, frittatas. I love to saute some vegetables. You just, you know, put a little salt and olive oil in there. I do that with eggs. So this was incredibly easy. Are most vegetables that easy to cook to retain the flavor? Because that's my problem with vegetables is they cook and then you can't taste them enough. You know, I think one of the things is I think we got to undercooking vegetables and they just taste like raw vegetables. Right. So I like vegetables that are cooked through, but just barely. Like this is just, it's kind of crisp, tender. You can do asparagus. You can do almost any vegetable, aricot ver, just olive oil, salt and pepper into the oven. And I think the oil brings out the sweetness in the vegetables. So I think they taste better. How's this? Okay, let's see how the pasta is doing. So we want to cook it just maybe a minute less than the box says because it's going to cook in the sauce. Right. So instead of draining it, I'm going to put it in the sauce. So you're not afraid of the water going in there? Actually, I want the water because the water is starchy and it's going to thicken the pasta sauce. Oh, my gosh. I mean, 20 years ago, I used to dump the sauce on top of the pasta like all Americans did. That's what I've been doing. And what a difference this is, right? Absolutely. You know what I love? I love that the orchietta, those little ears, catch the sauce. I know. So it's particularly good for that. And they hold on to the meat and everything, yeah. Okay, I think it's done. You know what I love sometimes to do? It's just put the whole pot on the buffet table. So we're making a buffet table here. Okay. Okay, I've got two bowls. One for you. Oh, my God. How's this? Pasta bolognese. It may not be Tuscan, but it's Italian, right? Got it. That's for you. Thank you. But don't try it yet because I still have more to go. Hold on. And I always like to garnish it with something that's in it. So we have a little Parmesan cheese. A little Parmesan cheese and fresh basil. Oh, yeah. Don't look pretty? Maybe a little broccolini on the side. Oh, my God. Look at this. A little chianti. What do they say in Italy? Salute. Salute. Sounds so good. Well, I hope it's good. Not bad. Feels like I'm in Italy. Does it? Oh, good. Has this been the best day? Like the best day ever. It's the best. Thank you so much. You can come out and visit me anytime. Oh, welcome to my life. And I hope you do. Basta, pasta. Basta, pasta. And broccolini. Ecco.
