Keep the Cocktails Simple, Check Your Instagram Feed, Outsource, Crash Clean Only The Rooms That Matter, Have a Few Fallback Conversation Starters Up Your Sleeve, Do Whatever You Can Ahead of Time, and (maybe most important) Remember: No One is Expecting You To Be Jackie Kennedy. For all the details, and way way more, head over to Joanna Goddard’s ridiculously addictive… Read more »
We had a few out-of-town friends over this past weekend for cocktails and snacks — for no real reason other than I hadn’t seen a bunch of them in a while and because…well, because I felt like it. There were pitchers of pre-made Manhattans (thank you Andy) and a ton of food, but the corner of the spread that I… Read more »
When I drew up a list of Pros and Cons way back when we were trying to decide to leave the city for the suburbs, the entry on the Con side, after “commute” but before “leave alllll my friends” was, naturally, hummus. As you likely know by now, we were moving from Brooklyn Heights, a neighborhood bordered on the southern… Read more »
So we turned the calendar page this week which means, among other things, that January and all its Draconian eat-better-resolving can take a back seat for a day or two. And lucky for us, The Super Bowl is here, which means we have more than a failsafe justification to do a little indulging. Herewith a few drool-worthy, game-worthy recipe ideas… Read more »
A lot of you checked in with me via instagram or email to see how we fared with our Big Blizzard Bo Ssam Dinner, and my answer is…well let’s just say I wouldn’t be too upset if the forecast called for another two feet of snow this weekend. It wasn’t our first attempt making Bo Ssam — Momofuku’s famous sweet,… Read more »
“We’re looking at a pretty dire situation here,” I texted Andy. It was about 5:30 on a Thursday and one of his coworkers was coming for dinner an hour and a half later. The situation in question was the dinner itself. Ever since reading about Diana Kennedy’s famous Carnitas in Genius Recipes, I’d been meaning to try out the recipe,… Read more »
What we’re reading and eating this week: I made Diane Kochilas’ pasta with yogurt and caramelized onions (above) the other night and was reminded why it’s held up as a go-to winner for almost fifteen years now. Elegant enough for company, easy enough for a weeknight, and so F%@#ING MINDBLOWINGLY DELICIOUS! I’ve only ever cooked the version with sheep’s milk… Read more »
I know this is going to sound funny, but the whole idea of book clubs confused me until relatively recently. Six years ago, when my friend Bonnie invited me to join hers, I was wary, and had lots of questions. What was up with women and book clubs? Wasn’t it easier to just read on your own? Wasn’t it a… Read more »
Since I write about food, it should probably come as no surprise to you that publishers send me cookbooks from time to time (ok, all the time) in case I find them interesting enough to write about. In addition to receiving emails with subjects like “Celebrate National Beef Jerky Day!,” I find this to be one of the more glamorous… Read more »
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See the coffee table in this picture? We’ve had it for fifteen years. We bought it before we had kids, when we were rushing to furnish our first real apartment and we went to some big Crate and Barrel sale and bought a bunch of stuff that looked like the kind of thing that grown-ups would have in their first… Read more »
You know when you go to someone’s house for dinner and you walk out of the house three hours later thinking, We might have some room for improvement, parenting-wise? That’s what happened last summer when we went to visit our friends, Will and Alaina, and their excellent kids, Eli and Bee. Will is a freshly-retired 20 year veteran of the… Read more »
We entertain a lot. For us, it’s the best way to combine two things that we love to do: See friends and cook food. Hardly a weekend goes by when we don’t have someone over, whether its our parents (grilled yogurt-marinated chicken), our daughter’s piano teacher and her husband (grilled fish tacos with pineapple salsa), or our favorite babysitter (Korean… Read more »
We have been entertaining machines lately — I think partly because it’s June (so many things to celebrate), but mostly because we bought some new furniture for the patio, and we are looking for any excuse to sit outside with one of these in hand, and hang with friends. Dinners have been your typical DALS summer standbys (grilled fish, baby… Read more »
There are many reasons why I love going to Naria’s and Peter’s house for dinner. For starters, they live in my town, and I don’t think I’m the only one who feels that one of the great pleasures in life is having neighbors cook for you. This is especially true when those neighbors really know how to bring it in… Read more »
There are four cartons of eggs in my refrigerator right now, which might sound strange considering my childrens’ well-chronicled antipathy towards all things orb-shaped and yolk-filled, but as far as I’m concerned, it might not be nearly enough. The first carton, our standard Trader Joe’s Large Brown Organic, is almost depleted so that hardly counts. The second is one I… Read more »
In my next book — which you’ll be hearing about shortly — there’s a whole section on recipes I call “Keep the Spark Alive” dinners. These meals are the opposite of what we make on, say, a Tuesday night, when efficiency and convenience are the most important ingredients. In some ways, they are the opposite of the DALS mission in… Read more »
Do you ever wonder what your dinner guests say about you when they walk out your door? Do they marvel at your hosting abilities and wonder when they’ll get invited back? Do they praise the food but slag the company? Do they praise the company but slag the food? Do they judge your glassware? Do they climb into their car, sit for… Read more »
Welcome! I’m Jenny, author of Dinner: A Love Story and Dinner: The Playbook More
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