Want to learn how to cook but don’t know where to start? Miss the last 600 posts on Dinner: A Love Story and don’t know how to catch up? Looking for something to read while anxiously awaiting dispatches from the Supreme Court? Look no further. Herewith, a list of one hundred definitively DALSian (which is to say totally unofficial, ridiculously subjective) rules of dinner. 1. “Acid” is usually the answer when you
Read more

[Read more →]

I made this salad last night. Actually, that’s not true. Andy fried some flounder and made this salad last night. Yesterday morning, he declared, as he is wont to do, that he felt like being in charge of dinner. That was fine by me because I had a lot of email to catch up with, and figured I could work while he cooked. I flipped open my laptop at the
Read more

[Read more →]

It’s rare that we find ourselves in the position of having to execute a Saturday night dinner while the clock is ticking — as I’ve mentioned before, we like our weekend meals to be all-day affairs —  but this was the situation we found ourselves in a few nights ago. We had just spent six hours shuttling our two ballerinas back and forth to their recitals and because the girls’
Read more

[Read more →]

First time here?   Welcome to Dinner: A Love Story! I’m hoping you’ve landed here because your most trusted friend told you in the elevator at work or on the sideline of a soccer game, “Hey, I found the coolest, most inspiring website!” That is the best-case scenario because DALS is only three years old, and its popularity, at least initially, was built mostly by word of mouth, which, in
Read more

[Read more →]

Dear Jenny, What a holiday! We had fun, didn’t we? Thanks for the jumbo ice cube tray, and the Nick Lowe shirt. I could not be more pumped to go back to work this morning. Remember last year when, in the clean-slate spirit of the New Year, we wrote up a list of confessions to one another and got some stuff off our collective chests? That felt good. (And while
Read more

[Read more →]

And so the question is, what does one have for dinner the night after she swears off eating for a year? The answer: Fish in Parchment Paper. We had a ton of vegetables left over from the shoot (if anyone needs to borrow an onion, I’m your lady) so Andy sliced them up, arranged them on a cutting board, then asked the girls to top their flounder filets with whatever topping
Read more

[Read more →]

In the summer of 1996, I was walking west on East 86th Street holding a baguette that I would eat with dinner that night in my studio apartment one block north. I was wearing a black waffle fitted polo with a khaki wraparound skirt and a pair of black pointy-toed Nine West mules, which may have been the most unattractive pair of shoes any female has ever worn in history.
Read more

[Read more →]

Just cause the weather in NY is not obeying the calendar (snow on the third day of spring? Come on…) doesn’t mean dinner has to join in the rebellion. Perhaps if we all assemble my family’s favorite warm-weather sandwich, the fried fish BLT (or for Abby: Just a BLT) then we will collectively woo the Gods of spring to cooperate. Fried Fish BLT Makes 4 Sandwiches Over medium heat, fry
Read more

[Read more →]

I was thinking of adding a new category on the right over there called “Meals That Are Impossible To Photograph Because My Daughter Can’t Help But Eat The Subject.” Because don’t you think it’s saying something about the deliciousness of a meal when I have to instruct my poor, hungry, 8-year-old model “Stop eating your dinner!” as she mauls what’s in front of her — in this case a fried
Read more

[Read more →]

The Mikey Pollan Ideal meal: Heritage chicken stir-fry with kohlrabi, heirloom bell peppers, and buckwheat soba noodles. Overheard at family table: “Mom, this kale is a little more delicate than I’m used to – are you sure it isn’t Tuscan kale?” Overheard at playdate with less food-aware friend: “No, thanks. My mom says real Parmesan doesn’t come in green cans.” Life’s ambition: The purposeful beard. In 10 years, will be: A
Read more

[Read more →]

There were so many things Abby wasn’t psyched to eat when she was three. Most things, actually. Fish, for example. She threw up when we made her eat flounder. Carrots (she couldn’t chew them). Waffles (she only ate pancakes). Eggs (they smelled horrible). Green beans. Pork chops. Yellow cheese. Tomatoes. Macaroni and Cheese (for Chrissakes!). We once went four straight weeks — no joke — when Abby basically rejected all
Read more

[Read more →]

Sides and Starters Curried Carrots with Butter Rosa’s Lentil Salad Bibb Lettuce with Summer Peas Romano Bean and Tomato Salad with Preserved Lemon Potatoes with Mayo, Chives, and Preserved Lemon Guacamole Steamed Little Necks Cheater’s Naan Fennel and Apple Slaw Sauteed Chard with Horseradish Fava Bean Crostini Twice Baked Potatoes (pictured, center) Grilled Vegetables with Haloumi Roasted Spring Ramps Asparagus with Chopped Egg and Onion Quinoa Salad with Roast Tomatoes
Read more

[Read more →]

I laid down a few rules for myself before I started this website. No using that word that starts with “food” and ends in “i-e.” No going into detail about things like the interplay between quince paste and aged gouda. No fetishizing. No buying into the whole two-week ramp frenzy that takes over farmers markets and f–dies this time of year. (Aren’t there more important things to get excited about,
Read more

[Read more →]

It didn’t take us long to figure out that, when it comes to rolling out a new product at the family table, so much depends upon the marketing campaign. I doubt our kids would have gone within a mile of cauliflower had we not first introduced it to them as “white broccoli.” They wouldn’t have sniffed brussels sprouts had we not sold them relentlessly as “baby lettuces.” Same goes for
Read more

[Read more →]

Basic Everyday Fried Fish Serves 4 olive oil 1/2 cup seasoned flour, on a dinner plate for dredging 1 egg, lightly beaten, on a dinner plate for dredging 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs 2 large filets of delicate white fish such as flounder (about 1 1/4 pounds) salt and pepper to taste tartar sauce (or ketchup) for dipping lemon wedges for squeezing 1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet
Read more

[Read more →]