Good morning. Thank you to everyone who sent along well wishes to Bean. I read every note to her and they were much appreciated. Other than spoiling her with attention, yesterday I planted the remainder of my tomato garden, and noticed some suspicious looking divots that were not there yesterday. (I cannot win.) While Andy mended the subsequently discovered holes… Read more »
I don’t know if it’s laziness or contentment, but it really takes a lot for me to switch up the routine these days. It’s tomato season, for instance, and every time I come home with a mini haul, I imagine grand plans for tarts and pies for dinner, but just wind up slathering mayo on good white toast, topping them… Read more »
We are nothing if not creatures of habit in my house, so when people come over for dinner in the summer, we generally fall back on the same rotation of old reliables — vongole, picnic chicken or steak or chops on the grill, surrounded by a ton of market salads and a cobbler for dessert — and save the more adventurous cooking… Read more »
What we’re reading and eating this week: A bright spot during dark times: I wrote about a woman who has launched a gratitude campaign — she’s writing a thank-you note to someone every day of the year. How much do we love Chrissy Teigen? The always great Jason Gay profiles her in the latest issue of Vogue. Three links for… Read more »
What I’m reading and eating this week: Wanna save Democracy? Read a novel. My kind of dinner: Crispy Rice with Shrimp, Bacon, and Corn. The Unbearable Sameness of Cities. Did you know that everyone has a cheese that matches their personality? Read of the week: The Education of Bill Oliver. This is amazing. Is anyone else addicted to Weelicious’s Smoothie… Read more »
Hi, it’s Abby. My mom asked me to write an introduction for this post about our last-minute trip to Seattle a few weeks ago. I was invited to play in a soccer tournament there and this one was different than most because there was only one game a day, which means there was plenty of down time to explore a… Read more »
Like the rest of the world, I was shocked to hear the news about Anthony Bourdain this morning. He first came into my life in the 90s when Andy’s urbane older brother took us to Les Halles, Bourdain’s Park Avenue bistro that made me feel like such a cosmopolitan. A few years later, I read “Don’t Eat Before Reading This,”… Read more »
When it comes to entertaining, I go through phases. Some nights I am the cook who craves adventure, who embraces an all-day culinary bacchanlia. More frequently I’m the kind of cook who just wants to keep things simple, the one who emails a friend a few hours before dinner “Come over for some spaghetti and meatballs,” because spaghetti and meatballs are… Read more »
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 »
Last week, when Susan Collins, Republican Senator of Maine, broke with her party to vote against Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, I know what you were all thinking: Yeah, it’s good to know where she stands on vouchers and charter schools, but what I really want to know is: Where does she stand on meatloaf? I hear you! As any… Read more »
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 »
A few weeks ago I gave a talk at the Museum of Food and Drink in Brooklyn, and during the Q&A period at the end, someone asked the million dollar question: What’s for dinner tonight? Because I’m a faithful follower of the dinner-in-the-morning religion (for the uninitiated: The practice of taking a few seconds to decide what’s on the menu… Read more »
Though my mother is 100% Italian and an excellent cook, we did not have that kind of kitchen relationship that you read about in cookbooks with the word “nonna” in the title. She was too busy going to law school at night — and then, later, racking up the billable hours — to stand at the stovetop and tell me… Read more »
Forgive me broader readership, I’m going super local today. Many of you probably know that I live in Westchester County, which borders New York City to the north and is flanked by the sailboat-dotted Long Island Sound to the East and the mighty Hudson River to the West. With the exception of college in Western Mass and a decade in… Read more »
Our mothers are both 70-something. They both wore shoulder-padded silk blouses to their full-time jobs in the 80s; they’re both skeptical of salt that is not iodized and turkeys that are heritage; and both made it clear when we were growing up that family dinner – which, yes, was centered on an old-school Italian repertoire, and supplemented by a little… 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 »
I am so pleased to hand over the mic to Katie Workman today. You might say the two of us are sisters in dinner — we met in 2013 at The Family Dinner Conference (yes, it exists), she’s blogged for years, and has two books out on the subject, the latest of which might be my favorite. It’s called Dinner:… Read more »
Since I write about food, it should probably come as no surprise to you that publishers send me cookbooks from time to time (ok, all the time) in case I find them interesting enough to write about. In addition to receiving emails with subjects like “Celebrate National Beef Jerky Day!,” I find this to be one of the more glamorous… Read more »
Welcome! I’m Jenny, author of Dinner: A Love Story and Dinner: The Playbook More
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