Posts Categorized: Uncategorized

Friday Round-up

Five no-cook summer dinners. How soon can I get me some of that up there? (Photo by Romulo Yanes.) Marion Nestle + Cartoons + Food = A Book I Just Pre-Ordered. Forget dinner and a movie — Abby and I just had our 2nd annual documentary-and-a-shackburger lunch date. We chose (and loved) 20 Feet from Stardom* playing at Lincoln Center, followed… Read more »

Best of Summer Awards (aka The Dollys!)

If you asked our family what summer means, you’d get a few different answers. The girls would say tomato sandwiches, no school, and ice cream. (Seriously, it’s a physical impossibility not to eat a Flav-R-Ice or a scoop of mint cookie every day.) If you asked Andy, it would be tomato sandwiches and road-trips where you’re driving down some county… Read more »

Friday Reading

June 21 has been circled in the girls’ calendars since last fall. You know where my Pixarheads are going to be as soon as their parents figure out a way to get them there. I am about  as sick of the “Keep Calm and Carry On” parodies as the next person, but this one, printed on cocktail napkins really made me… Read more »

Teacher Gifts

. In a few days it will be Memorial Day, two words that are, of course, code for: white pants, grilling, and holy-sh*t-there’s-so-much-to-do-before-school-ends! If you’re like me, one of the things that inevitably falls through the cracks until the very last minute is teacher gift ordering.  Not this year! To pre-empt the angst, I’m figuring it all out now. Or at… Read more »

You Say Potato, I Say Greek Potato

When Jenny and I were in our mid-twenties, we both had jobs in publishing – she at Real Simple, me at Esquire – and worked a few blocks apart, in midtown Manhattan. Sounds pretty glamorous, doesn’t it? It wasn’t, not really. But it was fun. For Jenny, who had spent two decidedly unfulfilling years, post-college, at a financial consulting firm… Read more »

Cook Dinner, Save the World

If you weren’t already convinced that cooking dinner might just save you and your family, here’s an even better argument: Dinner might just save the world. From Michael Pollan’s Cooked: To cook or not to cook thus becomes a consequential question. Though I realize that is putting the matter a bit too bluntly. Cooking means different things at different times… Read more »

Can I Ask You a Few Questions?

Here’s something hard to wrap my head around — this little entry you are reading marks Dinner: A Love Story’s 600th (!) post. I know! Hard to believe –seems like only yesterday we were turning 500. We plan on celebrating with a big ol’ pot of Grandma Turano’s meatballs and hope you’ll do the same from your own dinner table —… Read more »

My New Favorite Salad

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… Read more »

Friday Round-Up

What’s happening in Family Dinner-Ville this week: *Have you read Lean In yet? What do you think? I found myself skimming over all the studies reminding me of what I already know (women make less money than men; women do more housework even when they work full-time; leaving your kids to go to work is harder for moms than kids, etc.) and… Read more »

Bro-Down

Two weeks ago, I flew down to Fort Myers, Florida to spend a couple of days with five college friends, some of whom I hadn’t seen in a decade, maybe more. It hurts my heart to type this, but it’d been nineteen years since we’d graduated. Nineteen years since we’d borrowed each other’s toothpaste on the way to the bathroom… Read more »

How to Read a Label

If you’ve picked up a newspaper in the past decade, you might be aware of a few basic strategies for shopping smarter in the grocery store. Most of us, for instance, likely know that: ♦ It’s wise to stick to the perimeter of the store — produce, dairy, meat — where the fresh products are sold. (Interior aisles are filled, floor-to-ceiling,… Read more »

Let’s Talk About Bullying

I first met with Emily Bazelon to discuss the idea that became her book, Sticks and Stones, two and a half years ago, when my kids were six and eight. As we sat in a conference room and talked, I remember two things going through my mind: (a) Wow, this person is way more smarter than I am, so please… Read more »

The Process

I’m gonna come right out and say something pretty crazy right now. Please don’t think less of me, OK? Ready? Here we go: I really don’t like coming home to a dinner that’s already made. Or one that just needs to be reheated in the oven at 350°F for 20 minutes. Or ladled out of a crockpot. Right about now… Read more »

Friday Round-up

For me, it’s not Ravens vs. 49ers. It’s Queso Fundido (above) vs. Chips with homemade liquid Nacho Cheese Sauce. In-restaurant Childcare? Now there’s an idea. In honor of Schoolhouse Rock turning 40, I watched this 17 times yesterday. (“He even has the nerve to tax our cup of tea; To put it kindly, King, we really don’t agree” was the lyric on a continual loop in my… Read more »

How to Blog: My Rules

I hear from a lot of you that what you like the most about our site is that you never know what you’re going to find from one post to the next. I love getting this note — because it confirms that a) you guys are paying attention, and b) because it allows me to write inside-baseball posts like this… Read more »