Monthly Archives: August 2012

Away We Go

This picture was taken in Shek O, off the southeastern coast of Hong Kong Island where we’ve been visiting Andy’s brother and family for the past seven days. That’s Phoebe, jumping — after much prodding and negotiation — off the roof of a junk, and plunging into the South China Sea. A good reminder of how big and beautiful this… Read more »

Mr. All-Around

I’m going to keep this simple. Because I made it twenty minutes ago, and Jenny and I both said, “Why haven’t we written about this on DALS yet? It’s so easy.” So here it is, a good five-minute sauce that goes with just about anything. It’s awesome with grilled stuff, from fish (we had it last weekend with striped bass)… Read more »

The Ultimate Kitchen Throwdown

OK, you guys thought the DALS pasta sauce taste test was fun? Wait til you see what the BA team is up to. I’ve been working with their editors and test kitchen staff on the road test of all road tests. Bon Appetit is spending the next few months testing and tasting 50 of the pantry staples you use every… Read more »

That Chicken You’re All Asking About

A lot of you have been asking about Mark Bittman’s cornmeal-crusted chicken with soy-lime sauce that I mentioned in the “You Make it, You Own it” section of my book. That chapter, as most of you know, was all about the practically signed-in-blood rule of law in our kitchen, wherein if one person in the couple cooks something new and… Read more »

Bringing it All Back Home

Every time we visit my parents, my mom begs me to go through the boxes of my old junk that are cluttering up her (immaculate) basement. She’s entering that phase of life, I guess, when things are cast off and simplified, when you have to get a little brutal about all your stuff — what’s essential and what’s not. “What am I going… Read more »

Note to Self

Dear Jenny, You know that feeling you carried around with you all day yesterday? As you shepherded one kid back and forth to the doctor, the other to camp, then back to the library to accomplish ten hours of work in a very crunched three, then back to camp? You know how all day long you felt like you had… Read more »

From the Mailbox

   Page 118: I think I’ll make page 220 next week, too. Thanks Kariane…and all Dinner: A Love Story readers and emailers. You guys make me laugh. Have a great weekend, Jenny

San Francisco: My 10 Favorite Food Moments

You know how everyone says San Francisco is so low-key and relaxed? How you people out there are all about the lifestyle? Well, I think I might have shown up in the wrong city when we headed there last week for a few work-related events — including that visit to Pixar and a Dinner: A Love Story reading at Omnivore…. Read more »