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 »
If you are a human being with human friends, chances are you frequently find yourself in the kitchen, scratching your head saying things like “I wish there was something I could do.” When we’re lucky, this can mean a new baby — What can I do to help you get some rest? But when we’re not so lucky, it means… Read more »
Every Friday, like clockwork, the text comes from the mom or dad of one of my 11-year-old’s friends. “The girls are asking for a sleepover. OK by me if OK by you!?” I got this exact message from my friend Annie late Friday afternoon while Phoebe, Andy, and I were sitting on the grassy berm beside the school track where… Read more »
I had nothing but time last Thursday night to dream up something for dinner. Andy was traveling, the girls were out at their various sporting pursuits until after 7:30, and both were getting rides home from friends, so it was me, an end-of-the-week fridge, and a luxurious sixty minutes to work with. I opened the refrigerator door. Cobwebs. How, I… Read more »
There are secrets in every marriage, and ours is no different. Jenny has a leather-bound, blue diary she keeps by the bed, and its contents, after almost 20 years of knowing her, remain a total mystery to me. The other day, when I logged into my iTunes account, I discovered that someone — i.e. my wife — had purchased six… 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 »
I apologize to those of you in the Northeast who might’ve logged on today in hopes of seeing a recipe that falls under the warm-and-cozy category, and not a dutiful looking kale salad studded with wheat berries. The truth of the matter is, the warm-and-cozy stuff happened yesterday in our house, as soon as school sent word of early dismissal… Read more »
One night last week, Jenny and I were in the kitchen, cleaning up after dinner, and Phoebe was sitting at the table, finishing her homework, surrounded by the contents of her scoliosis-inducing backpack. As Jenny checked Instagram and I scrubbed a pan of rice, talk turned to Thanksgiving — and our total lack of planning for it thus far…. Read more »
Those of you who have been with DALS for a while might know my theory, based on years of research (read: making dinner) in my personal lab (read: kitchen table), that the key to expanding kids’ palates is to bring them along with you on the weekly food shop. As the theory goes, when they select the pack of pomegranate… Read more »
“Wait you just made that now?” That’s what Abby said about this soup when she came in from the backyard, and it was exactly what I was thinking as I ladled the noodley broth into a bowl for her lunch. Wow, that was fast. This was yesterday — a holiday — and we had been on the road at various… Read more »
I had such buyer’s remorse the other day. But sometimes, that’s a good thing. I’ll start at the beginning. Instead of writing from home last week, I decided to set up shop at the Starbucks that was down the block from my daughter’s camp. That way, I wasn’t wasting any time in the car, I was maximizing my time working,… Read more »
I know it’s all about The Third Plate these days, but I have another dilemma in my house, namely the Third Piece issue. That is, in the meat-veg-starch triumvirate, I usually have the meat and vegetable down, but lately I’ve been stumped by what else goes on the plate that my brown-rice and bean-hating kids will be excited about, but… Read more »
On a rainy Monday night in midtown a few weeks ago, I found myself faced with classic New York dilemma. I was running late to meet Andy for his birthday dinner downtown and needed to make a decision: Should I try to catch a cab (always a risky proposition on a rainy night) or just get on the subway, which… Read more »
There are four cartons of eggs in my refrigerator right now, which might sound strange considering my childrens’ well-chronicled antipathy towards all things orb-shaped and yolk-filled, but as far as I’m concerned, it might not be nearly enough. The first carton, our standard Trader Joe’s Large Brown Organic, is almost depleted so that hardly counts. The second is one I… Read more »
Guest-post from 10-year-old Abby: I am so sick of kale. Good thing I taught my family to like chard with this world famous dish. Well not world famous, but famous in my house. I love chard. The second I saw the rainbow-colored stems at farm camp growing in a garden with beautiful fluffy green leaves I knew that they would… Read more »
I feel like I’ve been dancing around this one for a few posts now — I keep alluding to the mysteriously adventurous cranberry sauce that includes ingredients some Thanksgiving traditionalists (read: My Mom) might categorize under “newfangled:” Ginger, mint, raw, fresh cranberries. (We’ve never been a molded-from-a-can family, but we have definitely been in the boil-them-down-to-jelly camp.) The recipe, Cranberry-Orange… Read more »
Some days I look at this screen and wonder how on earth I can spin a story out of thin air about a pork chop or a kabocha squash. And then some days, like today, I can’t believe how much I have to say about a head of cauliflower. So many different roads I can go with this, I’m not… Read more »
Welcome! I’m Jenny, author of Dinner: A Love Story and The Weekday Vegetarians More
