There are two things I’ve picked up from following blogger Sarah Hart on instagram (@homeiswherethehartis) and elsewhere: #1 Exposed shelves are definitely the way to go in a family kitchen (I’m obsessed.) And #2 The woman knows how to capture a moment. I mean that visually speaking, of course (her photography is gorgeous), but mostly I mean it philosophically. You realize… Read more »
In his Bon Appetit column this month, dessert guru and Superiority Burger founder, Brooks Headley coined a phrase that I can’t stop thinking about: Good Anxiety. “The impermanence of seasonal produce is one of the joys of cooking,” he wrote. “It gets the blood pumping. It triggers the good anxiety.” It’s exactly the sentiment I experience when I wander the… Read more »
What we’re reading and eating this week: Everything you need for Memorial Day Grilling. “You might think running would wear you out and down, but it rejuvenates me and fills my tank. On the hardest, most trying days, a great run gives me the right mindset to take any and all of it on. On a day off, it brings me… Read more »
Eric Ripert’s accomplishments are endless and impressive: Michelin-starred chef at New York’s Le Bernardin. Longtime TV host of PBS’s “Avec Eric.” Author of several award-winning cookbooks, and, just this month, author of a riveting coming-of-age memoir, 32 Yolks. (Subtitle: From My Mother’s Table to Working the Line) But for our purposes today, he’s a father, and like a lot of parents… Read more »
Meet Pablo. He’s lived in our house for so long that I forget most of you probably know him already as the beloved bow-tied ringleader of The Backyardigans. When Phoebe was little, she and her sister were obsessed with the show, about five friends seeking out imaginary adventures in their backyard, breaking into song and dance routines as they do… Read more »
I made a vow to myself last fall: No whining on the blog about the weather this winter. Besides the fact that it’s, uh, whining, professionally speaking it’s just lazy — certainly there are more interesting angles for writing about beef stew than Baby it’s Cold Outside. (Though I have to say, that was a pretty good post…and a pretty… Read more »
Am I the only one who finds it really irritating that New Year’s and all its attendant cayenne-spiked-lemon-water dieting resolutions happen to fall right in the dead of winter…precisely when the weather is demanding you soothe yourself every night with stewy braised meats over creamy polentas or potatoes? Polished off with the brownies that your kids made earlier that afternoon… 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 »
Have you guys watched the documentary series A Chef’s Table? It’s a series of profiles about the world’s greatest chefs, from the director of Jiro Dreams of Sushi. (Which is all I need to hear to put it on the binge-watch list, but check out the trailer above if you need more convincing.) This will make a working mom feel pretty… Read more »
As our kids head into their last week of school, teacher thank-you notes in tow, it got us thinking: What about our teachers in the kitchen? What about all the little voices that instruct us as we whip our cream, brown our chops… and overcook our dry-aged ribeyes? I’m not only talking about the Marcellas and the Julias and the Bittmans,… Read more »
Happy Official First Weekend of Grilling! I’m not sure what will be in the center of the plate yet, but whatever it is, it’ll be surrounded by as many fresh green salads as I can fit. Herewith, a few protein options: Spicy Pork Tacos This one calls for peach salsa, but you can just as easily do pineapple. Brush the pineapple… Read more »
This past weekend, with a certain amount of glee, I told the girls that the kitchen was closed for business. I had just come off a week or two of recipe testing and large-scale cooking, Andy was traveling, and with a packed weekend, it was as good a time as any to grab food on the go. So we ordered… Read more »
Anyone who has ever volunteered at school will appreciate the scene in my kitchen all day yesterday: Dozens of 28-ounce cans of diced tomatoes and cannellini beans, enough chopped onions to kill a small animal, large, misshapen bags of frozen homemade chicken stock thawing in the sink, two 6-quart Dutch Ovens on the stovetop, and one lobster pot on the… Read more »
As you’ve probably gathered by now, most nights our family dinners rely on a philosophy followed by chefs the world over: Use fresh ingredients and mess with them as little as possible. This is easy to live by early in the week, when our fridge runneth over from our big Sunday shop. By Wednesday or Thursday, however, the hyenas (read:… 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 »
We know what we’re having for Christmas dinner: The same exact thing we have every Christmas dinner, right down to the salad dressing and the sides. The trouble comes on the nights before and after, when we’ve got family over, friends stopping by, or a bunch of hungry kids sitting around the condo after a day of skiing. On these… Read more »
Sometimes I worry about my recipes the way I worry about my kids. As in, is this one getting enough attention? Does that one need a little extra love this week? I think it’s safe to say that Andy’s Pork Ragu is the Marcia Brady of dinners here on DALS (Marcia! Marcia! Marcia!) followed closely by Salmon Salad, Braised Short… Read more »
Of all the things that taste better the next day — Grandma Jody’s chicken, pasta with Bolognese — I think maybe Shepherd’s Pie is right up there on my list. At least part of the reason for this is because some of my fondest childhood memories involve standing in front of my best friend’s fridge, eating forkfuls of the pie’s spice-spiked… Read more »
Welcome! I’m Jenny, author of Dinner: A Love Story and The Weekday Vegetarians More
