There are many factors I consider when measuring the success of a cookbook, but ultimately, there’s only one that really matters: Does it get you into the kitchen? In my mind, I don’t care who wrote it or how trendy the recipes are — if it convinces you to cook, it’s worthy of a James Beard Award. If it inspires… 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 »
Before I had children, my husband and I threw the best holiday parties. We’d head out on field trips all over New York City, where we lived at the time, to hunt down finger foods and festive garlands. Weeks before the big night, we’d have menu-planning sessions and discuss pressing issues: knishes or empanadas? Pinot noir or Châteauneuf-du-Pape? Store-bought pita… Read more »
. I was all excited to share my Super Easy Family Dinner Party Plan with you a few weeks ago after serving three of the most delicious pizzas for my college friend, Samidh, his wife, Nithya, and their two kids. I was envisioning calling it “Family Dinner Party in Three Easy Steps” because, really, it felt so effortless, the kind… Read more »
Quick one today. Just a few tips and tricks to up your game in the kitchen, beginning with number 1 (above), The Tomato Can Pizza Stand. Backstory: There were exactly two days this past summer when the kids’ sleepaway camps overlapped. And on those two nights, we ate well. One night we cooked at home and made Scallops with Corn and Bacon Hash… Read more »
Ask me who won the Super Bowl last year. Or which teams were even in it. Was it the Deflate-gate game? Did Janet Jackson’s top fall off mid-halftime-show? Was Lawrence Taylor MVP? I’m not proud of my ignorance, but at least I have some company. As we head into Super Bowl 51 weekend, there’s a good chance that one of… Read more »
Boy this blog is in seriously high holiday gear lately — which I guess makes sense — but as you know, I always like to have at least one decent family dinner idea on the home page at any given time. That is the bread-and-butter of this whole operation after all, and you can count on me never forgetting that…. Read more »
As most of you know, the heart of my book, How to Celebrate Everything, is as much about savoring the smaller moments, about infusing meaning into the everyday, about taking a step back to make sure we’re all asking ourselves: Are we living intentionally or just racing to the finish line every single day? What I would also like to… Read more »
Keep the Cocktails Simple, Check Your Instagram Feed, Outsource, Crash Clean Only The Rooms That Matter, Have a Few Fallback Conversation Starters Up Your Sleeve, Do Whatever You Can Ahead of Time, and (maybe most important) Remember: No One is Expecting You To Be Jackie Kennedy. For all the details, and way way more, head over to Joanna Goddard’s ridiculously addictive… Read more »
We had a few out-of-town friends over this past weekend for cocktails and snacks — for no real reason other than I hadn’t seen a bunch of them in a while and because…well, because I felt like it. There were pitchers of pre-made Manhattans (thank you Andy) and a ton of food, but the corner of the spread that I… Read more »
When I drew up a list of Pros and Cons way back when we were trying to decide to leave the city for the suburbs, the entry on the Con side, after “commute” but before “leave alllll my friends” was, naturally, hummus. As you likely know by now, we were moving from Brooklyn Heights, a neighborhood bordered on the southern… Read more »
So we turned the calendar page this week which means, among other things, that January and all its Draconian eat-better-resolving can take a back seat for a day or two. And lucky for us, The Super Bowl is here, which means we have more than a failsafe justification to do a little indulging. Herewith a few drool-worthy, game-worthy recipe ideas… Read more »
A lot of you checked in with me via instagram or email to see how we fared with our Big Blizzard Bo Ssam Dinner, and my answer is…well let’s just say I wouldn’t be too upset if the forecast called for another two feet of snow this weekend. It wasn’t our first attempt making Bo Ssam — Momofuku’s famous sweet,… Read more »
“We’re looking at a pretty dire situation here,” I texted Andy. It was about 5:30 on a Thursday and one of his coworkers was coming for dinner an hour and a half later. The situation in question was the dinner itself. Ever since reading about Diana Kennedy’s famous Carnitas in Genius Recipes, I’d been meaning to try out the recipe,… Read more »
What we’re reading and eating this week: I made Diane Kochilas’ pasta with yogurt and caramelized onions (above) the other night and was reminded why it’s held up as a go-to winner for almost fifteen years now. Elegant enough for company, easy enough for a weeknight, and so F%@#ING MINDBLOWINGLY DELICIOUS! I’ve only ever cooked the version with sheep’s milk… 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 »
I noticed something funny the other week. We’ve been cooking for friends all winter — don’t mistake this for me characterizing myself as big-hearted or generous: During long stretches of single-digit days, these meals are acts of self-preservation as much as anything else. We’ve busted out The Ragu, of course. We’ve experimented with short rib tacos and lettuce wraps. We… Read more »
See the coffee table in this picture? We’ve had it for fifteen years. We bought it before we had kids, when we were rushing to furnish our first real apartment and we went to some big Crate and Barrel sale and bought a bunch of stuff that looked like the kind of thing that grown-ups would have in their first… Read more »
Welcome! I’m Jenny, author of Dinner: A Love Story and Dinner: The Playbook More
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