Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa herself, recently graced the world with an extremely hilarious cocktail recipe. And now the gift keeps on giving, as a photo of her drinking from her comically large martini glass has spun into a perfect meme for our troubled times.
Garten's cosmopolitan recipe — which she dropped on Instagram at the crack of dawn on April 1 — quickly went viral and has been a source of both inspiration and laughs as we do our best to cope with social distancing, anxiety, and the pain that has spread across the planet.
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The cosmo for one, which doesn't call for many ingredients but does use an entire bottle of vodka, feels like the panacea for which we're all clamoring; a fountain of light in dark times; a reminder that we're not alone in this.
Some are clinging to Garten and her giant cosmo as a sort of mirror to which we can generously compare ourselves.
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Others have taken one of the final frames of the video, where Garten sips from her large vessel, nurturing herself with the refreshing fruits of her labor, and see themselves as Garten partaking in a variety of actions, thoughts, and feelings related to our hyperpresent state.
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Some of us, in an attempt to remove ourselves momentarily from our current situations, even if just on the surface level, have fully embodied Garten and her magnificent morning cocktail, paying tribute to the venerable chef through mimicry.
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In this moment in time, rules and suggestions of how to live are thrown out the window, tossed into the empty streets and left to wander until normalcy, or whatever will constitute the new normal, returns.
"During a crisis, you know, cocktail hour can be almost any hour," Garten said in her video.
Embrace what joy you can. Be inspired by this. Be like Garten.
