So you’ve decided to become a weekday vegetarian: Congratulations! But the rest of your family is just…not onboard yet. How do you stay the course without becoming a short-order cook on overdrive? The answer: Meet Them Where They Are. Dialing back on meat is a process, and if the goal here is reducing as opposed to eliminating, then wear that hat when you… Read more »
We’ve been vacationing in Kiawah Island, South Carolina forever, and it doesn’t matter how long the drive has been, or how tired we are of being in the car (or the plane) we always stop at our favorite open-air market on the way to the island. No matter what we are in the mood for, no matter what time of year it is, this… Read more »
I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to tell you about these beans. Maybe it’s because it’s one of those recipes that’s not really a recipe, which is, of course, the best kind of recipe. Every time I make them, I text someone a photo saying, you have to make these beans. Then I follow up with the “recipe,”… Read more »
Good morning! I hadn’t meant to take a whole week off but I hope everyone had a nice Fourth of July, however (or if) you celebrated. In summation: We did a round-trip drive to northern Virginia to check in on Andy’s parents, had some friends over on Saturday night for socially-distant Negronis, watched Hamilton like the rest of the world,… Read more »
Good morning and welcome to Thursday. Yesterday I wrote recipe headnotes for a chapter of my book. (Headnotes are the little descriptions that introduce the recipe, or tell a story, or give some context and instruction); I went for a long walk; I started a novel I was assigned to review. Lastly, the unsettling news from Minneapolis and Central Park… Read more »
Like most of you, we are trying to go as long as possible without going food shopping, and part of that is getting a regular delivery from Baldor every 10 days or so. Once we get to Days 9 and 10, which is where we are right now, it becomes all about stretching out what we have and cooking down… Read more »
Hi everyone, I hope your weekend was ok. Highlights from mine: I changed all the sheets on our beds; had Zoom cocktails with some friends and Andy’s brother’s family; and my newly permitted 16-year-old, who was only driving in the train station parking lot a week ago, drove us 12 miles across the county to visit my parents and sister’s… Read more »
Last week, I broke my No Weeknight Drinking rule for reasons I probably don’t have to explain, but as of Sunday, I’m back to my old routine — my FaceTime wine date last night was postponed — and it reminded me about how much better I sleep when I haven’t had a cocktail or a glass of Chardonnay. When I… Read more »
I’m writing this on a Friday around lunch having just made two bowls of what you’re looking at above, one for me and one for Andy, who is working from home. I made it for him because he was like Remember the green beans and egg thing you made last time I was working from home? Damn that was good. And… Read more »
When my first book, Dinner: A Love Story, came out, I will never forget my agent calling me to discuss publishing the book in England. “There’s an agent over there who wants to buy the rights for it,” she told me, “but he’s concerned about all the Trader Joe’s talk and ground turkey recipes.” The Trader Joe’s thing I understood,… Read more »
Happy New Year Everyone. Hope you’re still at your resolutions. (By my clock, we all have another few hours before we abandon them completely.) Me? I grabbed 2015 by the horns – I think by noon on January 1, the tree had been disrobed and curbed; the basement, organized; the contents of Phoebe’s Fibber-McGee-and-Molly closet sorted into three boxes –… Read more »
The first time we made this was in January 2007 — I remember that not only because, um, it’s written in my dinner diary, but because it was one of the keepers that came out of the original “30 Days, 30 Dinners” experiment (the prequel to Seven Days, Seven Meals that I hope you guys are still reaping rewards from). I… Read more »
Full disclosure: What you are looking at was supposed to be what I’ve been calling in my head “Highbrow Franks & Beans.” A few weeks ago, when I asked Andy what we should have simmering on the self-serve stovetop for Halloween night, he said, “Remember you made those baked beans one year while we carved pumpkins? Why don’t you do… Read more »
Moving was stressful — lists upon lists upon lists upon lists — but I’ll tell you one part of it that was downright therapeutic: Cooking down the fridge. It’s that magical combination of creativity and frugality that feels almost like a competitive sport to me. (Me against…the trash can?) Not to brag, but I’d definitely make varsity. There were ice… Read more »
I confess this was actually last week in grilled chicken, and also that it will most likely be next week in grilled chicken and possibly the week after that, too, because the dinner is that good — so fresh and flavorful and just plain beautiful — and I should probably try to control myself before I overdo it. (Longtime readers may recognize the dinner as a new… Read more »
I know you’re not going to believe me, but I didn’t even realize these tacos were vegan until maybe the fourth or fifth time we made them. To give you an idea of how easy and thrifty the meal is, Andy scraped them together on one of those end-of-the-week nights when it felt like we had no food in the… Read more »
Greetings Dinner: A Love Story readers, old and new. I’m pleased to present the DALS 2022 Holiday Gift Guide, which, as tradition dictates, attempts to keep your family’s and friend’s eating and reading pleasures in mind. (Because, really, who wouldn’t be ok with that kind of gift.) With few exceptions, all of them are all under $50. Happy shopping and… Read more »
[First posted 2016; Updated July 2022] Forgive me broader readership, I’m going super local today. Many of you probably know that I live in Westchester County, which borders New York City to the north and is flanked by the sailboat-dotted Long Island Sound to the East and the mighty Hudson River to the West. With the exception of college in… Read more »
Welcome! I’m Jenny, author of Dinner: A Love Story and The Weekday Vegetarians More
