Search Results for: green bean

Anatomy of a Weeknight: Post-Holiday Edition

The Scene: Wednesday, the first school/workday back from winter break The Scene, pt 2: Always the longest, most exhausting day of the year The Characters: Family DALS 5:30 Walk in door. Girls already home, one of them doing homework at kitchen table instead of cloistered in her bedroom, which brings me unspeakable joy. (Literally unspeakable — if I express this out… Read more »

When Half the Table Goes Meatless

So like a lot of you guys out there, we’ve cut back on meat in our house pretty significantly in the last few years, which probably seems pretty obvious to anyone reading this blog with regularity. For the most part, it’s been a gradual process, one that has been helped along by the ever-growing body of research on the environmental impact… Read more »

A Can-to-Table Vegetarian Dinner

I could’ve probably come up with a slightly more enticing name for this recipe, especially since it was one of the better meals I’ve made in the last few weeks. But that would be seriously detracting from what makes it DALS-worthy. You know that stunning Margaret Wise Brown baby book The Important Book? Where she poetically itemizes the characteristics of common… Read more »

Anatomy of a Weeknight Dinner

6:50 Commuter train pulls into northern New York suburb. 7:00 Two parents drive home, walk into house, shout “hellooooooo?” Wonder where kids are. 7:01 Reminisce briefly about the days when kids were at home waiting for them. 7:02 Reminisce briefly about the days when the kids, not the puppies, jumped on mom or dad when they came home from work. 7:03… Read more »

Anatomy of a Summer Weeknight: CSA Edition

Last Thursday, at around 5:00, I text Andy: What’s in the CSA bag today? We do a farm share through his office every other Thursday and I always try to plan dinner around it, even though it’s usually a little of a lot, not a lot of a little. 5:01 His reply: One piece of squash, one bunch of broccoli, three spring… Read more »

Let’s Take it Outside

Happy Grilling Season Everybody! Quick Public Service Announcement to those book owners out there looking for some good Memorial Day menu ideas. We were lucky enough to be invited to a cookout on Monday, but if I was grilling, I’d feel good about any one of these line-ups. (Your key: DALS = Dinner: A Love Story; HTCE = How to Celebrate Everything; DPB =… Read more »

Where We Eat in Charleston, SC

I know! This post is a long time coming! First, allow me to be the millionth person to tell you that Charleston, South Carolina is now one of the biggest restaurant destinations in America. As most of you know by now, we are New Yorkers who spend a week or two a year on Kiawah Island, about 25 miles outside… Read more »

Top 10 Quick Dinners

As my dinner diary approaches its 20th birthday (February 22, people, what are you getting me?) I’ve noticed that flipping back through the years to see what was for dinner has become more of an archaeological exercise than a practical one. I love that on Page One, Week One we cooked “Fresh Pasta with Amatriciana Sauce,” a recipe from a cookbook… Read more »

Weeknight Sushi Bowls

Last Thursday, I posted the above photo on instagram stories and it almost blew up my phone. Not the actual photo, but the messages people sent in reaction. The one that sums it up the best is perhaps this: Sushi on a weeknight? I can’t decide if I really love you or really hate you right now.  I’m writing to make sure… Read more »

Holiday Gift Guide 2017

Season’s greetings everyone! I’m pleased to present to you the DALS 2017 gift guide, which, per tradition, tries to keep your family’s eating and reading pleasures in mind. This year, to shake things up a bit, I added a “pairs well with…” element to many in the mix, as a way to personalize or accessorize. Happy giving. Parlor Instant Coffee… Read more »

Five Favorite Summer Salads for Right Now

For better or for worse, when I’m trying to decide what to have for dinner — especially a weekend dinner — I’m hardwired to start the brainstorming with the main dish. And for better or worse, the main dish is usually a pile of protein. On Saturday morning, as Andy and I wandered the farmer’s market, that was implicit in… Read more »

As You Sow, So Shall You Weep

. I was so happy when Short Stack Editions reached out to me a few weeks ago to see if I wanted to check out their latest volume, Cucumbers. For starters, their single-ingredient, expertly-designed booklets never fail to deliver on the recipe MVP front. (I’m guessing there are a good number of people reading this who have made Pasta Con Ceci — pulled… Read more »

Crispy Tofu with Ginger and…Whatever

I’m beginning to think that my kids are never going to warm up to tofu. Though I guess I can’t blame them considering that I never served it until relatively recently…and also because I never really ate it myself, unless a little silky white cube in my miso soup accidentally slipped onto my spoon. In the last few years, though,… Read more »

The Gift that Keeps on Growing

For my birthday last month, I asked for two things: A Shake Shack picnic dinner at our local Hudson River waterfront park — a success by all accounts — and a family vegetable garden. By “vegetable garden” I did not mean one-clicking a few raised bed kits on Amazon and calling it a day. I meant that I wanted everyone in the… Read more »

Spring Pasta Dreaming

For the last few weeks, when dinnertime rolls around I haven’t found myself where I like to be the most, namely sitting around a table with my family, downloading the day’s events over a plate of something quick and fresh. Instead, I’m sitting in a parking lot or on bleachers or walking around a track waiting for a practice to… Read more »

My Favorite Vacations

I would say up at the top of the list of Reader FAQs, maybe after “What can I make with chicken breasts?” but before “Can you recommend a good book for my kid?” is this:  “Where should I vacation with my family?” It’s an excellent question, and one we’ve tried to answer over the past seven years in travel posts here… Read more »

Ragu Pies

You should see my freezer right now. There are amorphous Ziplocks of homemade chicken stock, a bag of pre-soaked beans, a bag of fully baked beans, some shredded chicken from taco night last month, a single sausage here, a chicken drumstick there, a sliced mini loaf of the crazy delicious Danish rye bread from Great Northern Food Hall (so good with… Read more »

Thirty Dollars, Five Dinners

Back in the fall, Christina Chaey, an editor at Bon Appetit presented me with a challenge: How would you stretch $30 at Whole Foods into five family dinners? My first reaction: HAHAHAHAHAHA! Can’t be done. (Whole Paycheck anyone?) My second: You know…this kind of use-it-or-lose-it exercise is always useful, no matter where I’m shopping. Plus, I had just returned from… Read more »