Before I was a mother, I remember being completely tongue-tied when my colleagues would bring their kids to work and swing by my office for an introduction. How do I engage a toddler? I always wondered. What do I say to a kindergartener? Is it sending the wrong message to tell a six-year-old that I like the head-to-toe hot pink… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Kitchenlightenment
My How We’ve Grown!
Related posts: Pork Ragu; George Saunders Kid Book Picks; Andy’s First Cocktail Post; School Lunch-Packing Contract (our first post to go viral), Salmon Teriyaki, Quinoa, NY Times Puts DALS on the Map. And if you are looking for a way to say Happy Birthday, a pre-order would definitely do the trick. Have a good weekend.
Kicking the Dessert Habit
You want to know what’s fun about being an editor? You get to live vicariously through people who are smarter, better traveled, and more interesting than you. Charles Duhigg is one of those people. Charles is an investigative reporter at The New York Times — if you haven’t been following his series on Apple, it’s really worth your time —… Read more »
Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I Started Cooking
I wasn’t sure I heard her right. “Excuse me?” I asked. “What’s up with the flat bags?” I heard her right. The question came from the photographer’s assistant during the DALS Book photo shoot a few weeks ago. She was in her twenties, hailed from Williamsburg. I didn’t get a peek at her iPod, but I feel certain it would be loaded… Read more »
Kitchen Inspiration
I stumbled upon an inspiring photo in Elle Decor a few years ago when we were in the process of renovating our kitchen. It was just the corner of a room, but unlike a lot of the spaces featured in shelter magazines, it looked like someone lived there. There was childrens’ artwork on the refrigerator (tastefully arranged), some raffia wallpaper… Read more »
Paris with Kids: Our List
I’d like to begin by saying that is by no means a definitive list of everything one should do with one’s kids in Paris, nor is it a comprehensive one. You will not, for example, find any museum here. That’s because a) you don’t need me to tell you about the Louvre or the Musée D’Orsay and b) because the day… Read more »
Exactly
Psssst. Don’t tell my bosses, but I was doing a little pleasure reading at my desk today. More specifically, I was reading an old piece from GQ* by the food writer Alan Richman. Here is a sentence from that story, which I was going to try to build a whole dessert post around, but then gave up when I realized… Read more »
Kid Book Picks from Pseudonymous Bosch
“Ask me a question.” Every Saturday afternoon, I go for a long run, and Phoebe bikes alongside me, and this is what she says to me the minute we hit the trail. “Ask me a question.” Which is really her way of saying: Ask me a question about a book I am currently reading, and I will summarize the plot for… Read more »
Summer Reading List: Daniel Handler
You should have seen the look on Phoebe’s face when I told her that Daniel Handler was going to contribute a Summer Reading List for DALS. It’s how I imagine my own face would have looked if, back in 1981, my dad had walked through the door and said, “Hi everyone, yeah, long day at work. I’m just gonna go… Read more »
The Reading List: George Saunders
I remember exactly where I was when I read the short story, “Pastoralia,” by George Saunders: I was finishing lunch at my desk, back when I had hair and worked at Esquire magazine on 55th Street. As soon as I finished, I copied it and – this was 2000, remember – faxed it to a couple of the writers I worked… Read more »
Forget the Wine, This is What Your Host Wants
Almost always, when we have friends for dinner, there comes a point when Andy turns to me or vice versa and says “Should we check on her?” And by that we mean, should we try to lure back whatever guest has walked in our front door only to be whisked upstairs to Abby’s lair for a “tour” of her room…. Read more »
Tonight’s Dinner Table Topic: Osama bin Laden
“Who?” Phoebe asked when she heard her parents talking (rather animatedly) about the death of Osama bin Laden. “Osama bin Laden,” Andy said. “You know? The guy who made those two buildings come down? He’s dead.” To hear Andy oversimplify the most harrowing day in both of our lives like that made me think that maybe by now we should’ve… Read more »
Road Tripping
Now that the girls are getting older and relatively self-sufficient (minus the shoe-tying! Kills me!) it’s easy for me to romanticize the early years. I got a little teary the other day when Andy erased all 3,000 Backyardigans episodes on the DVR to make room for iCarly and American Idol. And carrying Phoebe’s little art table and chairs to the… Read more »
Roald Dahl, Deep Tracks
I am so sick of Roald Dahl. It’s not that he isn’t great, or that the depth of his imagination isn’t enough to shame 99% of other novelists that have walked the earth, or that he’s not a first-ballot, absolute lock of a Kid Author Hall of Famer. But enough is enough. For much of the past two years, Abby… Read more »
If You Cook it, They Will Come
I’d like to interrupt the relentless roll-out of pizzas and stews for an important — maybe even obvious — message. A few nights ago I was reading yet another article regurgitating what we probably all know by now about family dinner. This just in: All kinds of great things will happen if you just sit down with your kids to… Read more »
Only the Good Stuff
You’ve heard me mention Momfilter on DALS before, but now I want to officially mention it because as of last week, the site, a lifestyle resource for parents created by two Cookie mag founders Yolanda Edwards and Pilar Guzman, is officially live. I know, I know. There are a lot of websites out there for moms so, why, you ask,… Read more »
The First Annual Dolly Awards
In case you haven’t noticed — it’s awards season! I’d like to thank the Academy for reminding me how remiss I’ve been at following my #1 Get-Fired Resolution. (“See more matinees.”) And to the folks who handed out Michelin stars in France earlier this week — thank you! I can now afford to dream about all the cafes in the… Read more »
There Goes the College Fund
I can’t remember ever making this Official Family Policy, but Jenny and I are completely powerless against a kid — our kid — who asks us to buy her a book instead of check it out at the library. (Full disclosure: We love books and are happy to encourage as much reading as possible in our house, but if we’re… Read more »