I know what you’re thinking. School’s out! No more reviews! No more refresher courses! No more finals! (Oh wait, those are my childrens’ cries.) But I figured I’d remind everyone of a few crucial salad-making rules and regulations now that it’s late June and we have at least three months of glorious farm-market freshness ahead of us… Number 1. Homemade… Read more »
One of the things I love about my “job” as a food writer is that people email me all the time with questions, mistaking me for some kind of expert. Where do you eat when you’re in Nashville? They ask. Or Can you recommend a good food mill? I see you have marble countertops, do you worry about stains? I… Read more »
The drill-down on my cookbook round-up continues as I present to you Vietnamese Tofu Salad, this year’s recipient of Recipe Most Likely to Join the DALS Rotation, and one of the many dishes I’ve made from Ilene Rosen’s Saladish that have slayed, as the kids say. (Do the kids even say that anymore?) As I mentioned in my official review,… Read more »
I got a Fitbit for Christmas. Well, technically Phoebe got a Fitbit for Christmas and technically it was Christmas 2016, a full year ago, and she loved it more than anything until she didn’t anymore. It sat in its bright blue box collecting dust since January 22, 2017, which was the “last sync” date that came up when I plugged… Read more »
. An abbreviated list of what I feel grateful for on a daily basis: I married a guy who is a Yankees fan even though he grew up in Virginia; I live five miles away from a restaurant that is a destination for diners around the world; and, most relevant for today’s purposes: My children like broccoli. And by “like” I… Read more »
Every year my sister hosts Rosh Hashanah at her house and asks me to bring my kale salad (the one with pomegranates, you guys know it well), and another side. I am only too happy to oblige, especially considering that she is in charge of the brisket and, you know, hosting thirteen of us. The kale salad is a no-brainer,… Read more »
I made these hasselbacks for Sunday dinner with the most beautiful little sweet potatoes I picked up at the market on Saturday. They were misshapen, small, pale peach colored, not even in the same family as the bloated, cloying sugar bombs you get at the supermarket. “Do you know about hasselbacks?” I asked Andy when I pulled them out of… Read more »
If I was a smarter blogger, I would’ve posted a good old-fashioned downloadable back-to-school menu for you today (like I did when I was my best blogger self back in 2013) complete with strategies, under-30-minute tricks, and cook-once-eat-twice kind of ideas that make up the backbone of family cooking. You have my word that I will try to be smarter… Read more »
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 »
The Scene: Tuesday Night. Dad out, 13-year-old at camp, me at office, five minutes from home. Pouring. 4:00 Receive text at work from 15-year-old: Can we see The Big Sick tonight? 4:03 Quick Flixster scan of movie times. Me: 6:15 show, be ready a little before 6 4:04 Can we have dinner before we go? I’m starving 4:05 Sure. Quick scan from memory… Read more »
So there’s news on the Dinner: A Love Story front: I am one step closer to world domination, having taken actual, physical, tax-deductible office space outside my house, roughly two miles from my front door, and two miles plus ten feet from my kitchen. I share a space with six other enterprising businessmen and women, all of whom you will… Read more »
Here in the Northeast this time of year, under perpetually slate-gray winter skies, “market inspiration” can be a bit hard to come by. Feels like it’s all bagged salads and overpriced out-of-season raspberries in our house, as we countdown 33 days, 4 hours, and 17 minutes til spring. But you’d never know there was any inspiration issue over at Kitchen… Read more »
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 »
Over the past few months, I’ve noticed an uptick in compliments aimed in the direction of my salads, even when they are of the run-of-the-mill leaf-and-tomato variety. “What is in this?” My friend Todd asked early on in the summer, referring to his bountiful helping of greens. “I need the recipe for this,” my neighbor (and genius filmmaker) Ed said,… 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 »
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 »
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 »
5:00 Shut down computer. Start making meatballs. 5:15 Get sidetracked by mind-numbing carpool text thread. 5:30 Finish browning meatballs. 5:45 Pick up Kid One at friend’s house. 6:00 Start soup; add meatballs to soup. 6:30 Kid One sits down, by herself, to Italian Wedding Soup, a recipe that is debuting at the family table! 6:31 Kid One complains about stringy cheese…. Read more »
Welcome! I’m Jenny, author of Dinner: A Love Story and The Weekday Vegetarians More
