The other day, Abby came barging through the front door, shedding backpack and winter layers in big thwunks on the floor as she made her way to the kitchen, and asked what was for dinner. “Some kind of chicken and and some kind of broccoli,” I told her. “Oh mom, can it be the kind of broccoli that is super… Read more »
What can I do? We’ve all heard ourselves asking this when friends are struggling with illness (their own or their aging parents’ or their kids’) and we’ve all probably come back around to a similar answer: Food. For better (normalcy) or for worse (one more thing to be exhausted by), people still need to eat. In my mind — this… Read more »
Lest I miss out on all of the Year-in-Review fun that everyone seems to be having as we wrap up yet another one, I thought I’d try something a little radical: Present all the dinners I cooked in 2016, as recorded in my Dinner Diary. I know: Super exciting! But the headlines this year were so boring and business-as-usual, so what… Read more »
I have a lot of favorite moments in Katherine Wilson’s hilarious memoir, Only in Naples, but my most favorite is when she describes her Neapolitan mother-in-law, Raffaella, staring at a ring of measuring spoons in Wilson’s American kitchen “as if they were an archaeological find.” Cooking in Naples is a feel-as-you-go expression of love, not an exercise in precision, just as… Read more »
I don’t know about your neck of the woods, but here in New York, the magnolia trees and forsythia are in full force, baseball has taken over my 1010 WINS sports report, and the market is slowly but surely becoming more plentiful in the asparagus department. In honor of that, I thought you might like a pizza recipe that takes… Read more »
Last Tuesday night, the week of Thanksgiving, we ate French Bread pizzas for dinner. I had a baguette that was about to go stale, a half jar of Rao’s marinara in the fridge, a ball of mozzarella, and very little desire to spend more than two minutes on dinner. I didn’t even feel like expending energy on a vegetable, instead… Read more »
When I say 10 things, what I really mean to say is, Choose two or three things from this list of ten so you can trick yourself into feeling a little bit more in control of things. I woke up this morning in a panic. For the first time ever, I ordered a pasture-raised turkey from a local farm, but… Read more »
This would be the best dinner if only: a) My kids ate it b) My husband ate it The photo you’re looking at up there is from last fall, snapped just before it was greeted at the table by: a) “So where’s the rest of dinner?” b) general guttural groaning I’ve held on to the photo and recipe all year,… Read more »
There was a point a month or two ago when I heard or read the word “Einkorn“ about five times in the course of 24 hours. Never heard of it? Neither had I! This, in spite of the fact that the grain is 12,000 years old (shame on us) and, according to The New York Times “pleasingly chewy,” “nutty in flavor,” and suddenly… 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 »
I always hear people say “If you can read, you can cook” or “As long as you are organized, you can get dinner together.” I believe both of these maxims to a certain point, but the older I get and the more I hear from parents struggling to get dinner on the table every night, the more I feel like… Read more »
Ever since my friend Liz Egan told me about this lunchbox ritual a few months ago, I’ve been dying to have her write about it for you. Please welcome longtime magazine editor (currently on the books beat at Glamour), newly minted novelist (look for her first book, A Window Opens, spring 2016) and one of the more lovable “insane moms” I know. Thanks Liz!… Read more »
We don’t even know where to start with this one. We have just returned from a two-week vacation in Alaska, and the prospect of adequately capturing the magic of the experience seems about as overwhelming as the state itself. You know that feeling you get when you’re on vacation, the one where you just keep looking around and thinking “How… Read more »
There was a time, when the girls were two and three, that we dreamed of the day when they’d be 10 and 11, able to sit at the table and place food in their own mouths while filling us in on their days. Now that we’re finally here—avert your eyes, new parents—we realize that our dream was a mirage, that… Read more »
Two Thursdays ago, my friend Sonya emailed me: Hey! You guys around this weekend? We have the urge to make a big pot of stew and drink wine with someone. Please say yes!!! I could not have replied fast enough. Yes! Yes! Yes! Is tomorrow too soon? Or how about now? Can I come over right now? It was another… Read more »
For a lot of people, the phrase “Apres Ski” conjures a certain image — a group of ruddy-faced J. Crew models wearing Uggs and sipping red wine around a rough-hewn coffee table; a cold beer soothing burning muscles in front of a roaring fire; and (for Phoebe) reading a comic book under a blanket in her pajamas. For me, it means… Read more »
The night: Friday The scene: Two friends, ages 9 and 11, coming over for dinner and a movie. The movie: Forrest Gump The issue: Very little in the fridge — except the most beautiful CSA Tuscan kale and peak-season tomatoes — but not ordering in and not going shopping again, no way, no how. The other issue: Is it point-blank unfair to… Read more »
Something momentous has happened in the past month and I haven’t even let you in on it. Not because I’ve been keeping it a secret, but because I just didn’t know how to tell you. And also, I wasn’t exactly sure how to deal with it myself. In truth, the story begins a little over a year ago, on my… Read more »
Welcome! I’m Jenny, author of Dinner: A Love Story and The Weekday Vegetarians More
