How Ina Garten Wooed Her Future Husband With More Than Her Engagement Roast Chicken

If you're a fan of Ina Garten, then you're probably also a fan of her love story with her husband, Jeffrey, to whom she has been married since 1968. When it comes to the early days of their relationship, you may have assumed what won him over was Ina's engagement roast chicken — which is a different dish from "marry me" chicken, by the way — but it was actually a different, sweeter dish that played a part in their courtship. The dish in question? Brownies.

Ina revealed in an interview with the Today Show that she would fill a shoe box full of brownies — and she wasn't sure why she used a shoe box, specifically — and send the treat to Jeffrey at college, while she was still in high school. The sweet (literally) gesture even made Ina come to an understanding about how one can show their love.

She explained, "I just realized that he just loved them, and so I kept sending more. It was the first time I understood that when you give someone something delicious, it's just an expression of how you feel about them. It's not just about nurturing them. It's about making them feel good."

Ina and Jeffrey Garten have been happily married for decades — and they even got through a one-time separation that shocked fans. So, it only makes sense if you want to follow in her footsteps and show your loved one how you feel about them through your cooking in the hopes that it leads to a happy and long-lasting relationship, like the one that Ina has with Jeffrey. What better dish to start with than brownies, just like Ina?

To make your homemade brownies extra special, you can take a page from Ina's book and integrate coffee and walnuts (as well as plenty of extra chocolate chips) in your batch, like she does with her "outrageous brownies." To make this happen, you could try adding walnuts to our recipe for leftover coffee chocolate brownies. Or, if your loved one prefers their brownies super gooey inside, Ina is also known for her brownie pudding — which is the recently viral recipe featuring one boozy key ingredient. Either way, you will certainly impress your significant other with your delicious, chocolatey baked good.

While you're at it, you may as well start the night with Ina's recipe for an engagement roast chicken. It's a luxurious-feeling recipe that most home cooks should be able to take on (it's listed as "intermediate" on the Food Network website) — but the sauce is irresistibly easy, so if anything, you can add that sauce to a roast chicken recipe that you're more familiar with.