Posts Categorized: Uncategorized

Grill Week!

Are you the lucky person in charge of figuring out dinner for the Fourth of July Celebration? (Yes, I meant “lucky!”) Check in with DALS this whole week for a line-up of crowd-pleasers and show-stoppers. Andy is even threatening to weigh in with a post titled: The One Object Every Serious Griller Should Own. Aren’t you curious? Come back and… Read more »

A Question for You About Recipes

Which recipe style do you like better? RECIPE STYLE 1: Conventional The style most magazines and cookbooks go with where all ingredients written in a list before the instructions. Like this delicious looking tagliatelle I will be making soon. OR RECIPE STYLE 2: Casual Ingredients are integrated with instruction using casual estimates for measurements (“a handful of walnuts” or “a few… Read more »

Something New

Here’s a question: how do you get your kids to try something new? We’ve deployed various methods over the years, including but not limited to: bribery (eat this, get that), blackmail (you don’t eat this, you don’t get that), begging (dear god, I am begging you, just one bite), guilt (but poor mommy spent twenty minutes making these fava beans for you!),… Read more »

How to Win Stuff

Those of you who occasionally join the DALS conversation may have noticed a special encrypted code phrase about winning a Beansoup apron in the comment fields recently. And, if you were like my 7-year-old, you may have then had the thought “What about me? How do I win the apron??” Don’t worry, you can be eligible to win fun stuff,… Read more »

The Promise of the Unexpected

I once read an Q&A with Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) where the interviewer asked something to the effect of “What’s your secret? How do you know how to relate to kids so well?” This was a while ago – probably 2006ish – so I may not remember his answer word for word, but I remember the gist of it…. Read more »

Please Help

This is so easy — please, if you have your phone with you, text JAPAN to 50555 to make a $10 donation to Global Giving. It will take you under 15 seconds and will help their on-the-ground efforts to provide relief and vital services to victims of Friday’s earthquake and tsunami. If everyone who shows up on DALS today does… Read more »

The No-Fight Zone

Last Thursday, I started hating myself a full hour before my morning coffee. If you must know, I started hating myself at precisely 8:04, which was the first time I yelled at my kids who were in danger of missing the 8:09 bus. Yelling Where are your shoes and yelling Where are your gloves and Did you brush your teeth and… Read more »

Chicken Chili: Always the Right Answer

On any given winter day in my house, if I ask the innocent question cooks across the earth are asking — i.e. What should we have for dinner tonight? — I can pretty much always count on Andy suggesting some kind of healthy, simple seafood; I would bet the house on Abby requesting — please, Mom, puh-leeeeeeze, I’ll kiss you 99 trillion… Read more »

DALS Housekeeping

Hi there. Just wanted to let you know we are working on a DALS recipe index so you will soon be able to search by ingredient, by season, by dish type and by mood (“I’m walking in the door at 6:00 and must eat at 6:30?” or “It’s Sunday and I have a whole glorious afternoon to cook!”) without having… Read more »

Please Help

I don’t know how to even start an entry like this. This is Liam, 6, who died on Monday. I never met him. I met his mother, the unstoppable Gretchen Holt Witt, when I worked at Real Simple. She worked at Oxo (she still does) and our paths crossed on a bunch of stories there and a few years later… Read more »

Just Add Salt, Pepper, Lipitor

Phoebe proclaimed last Sunday her best day ever. It began with knocking around some tennis balls, segued into an indoor soccer clinic, then ended with lamb chops for dinner. And other than the moment of punch-in-the-gut sticker shock at the butcher (almost $40 for eight double-cut chops!!), Mom would have to agree. This is about as simple as it gets…. Read more »

Holiday Exclusive: Santa Speaks!

Santa: Hello? [To elf] I don’t think this thing is working. There’s no one… [Into phone] Hello? Hello? DALS: Hi, Santa. Santa? I’m here. Santa: Oh, okay. [To elf] It’s working now, Shorty. Go wrap. [Into phone] So, what can I do for you? DALS: First, I just wanted to say it’s an honor talking to you and thanks so much for… Read more »

Delighted! Honored! Amazed!

Time for Dinner cracks Bon Appetit’s Favorite Cookbooks of 2010 list! And as if that’s not already exciting enough, they put us right next to Paul Greenberg and a few doors down from Allegra Goodman.

Printing Reminder

Just wanted to remind you that there is a “Print” function under each post that allows you to print the posts and recipes without the photos. So you don’t have to look at pictures of my kid playing soccer when all  you want in the world is to know how to mash the potatoes.

Happy Halloween, Etc.

Abby’s design (“Teeshee”), left; Phoebe’s design (“Bat”), right. Bring on the Milky Way Darks!

The Gateway Bean

Last summer, on the final day of school, I drove Phoebe up to Skaneatles, a beautiful postcard-y town in the Finger Lakes region of New York. It was a belated sixth birthday celebration, and an opportunity for a little old school father-daughter bonding. The plan was to stay two nights in the Sherwood Inn, go for a cruise around the… Read more »