Posts Categorized: Uncategorized

On Comfort Food

Twelve years into this whole parenting thing, I know a few things for sure: The baby will need your attention at the exact moment the garlic in the pan goes from golden to blackened; bribery is a necessary evil; and—perhaps most relevant for the phase I’m in right now—mashed potatoes are crucial for surviving the middle-school years. I’m not talking… Read more »

Dinner: The Playbook ON SALE TODAY!

We’ve been on vacation for the past week, a sort of calm-before-the-storm deal. From the moment we made our reservations a few months ago, I began thinking of it as our “Week Before” vacation: The week before school starts, the week before reality descends again, before work gets crazy again, before life morphs, as it seems to do every September,… Read more »

Seven Summer Favorites

There’s still a week left to go before school starts, but already the back-t0-the-grind jitters are creeping into our last few vacations days at the beach. The girls’ class schedules arrived yesterday by email — this is when I long for the days of snail mail notification — and now, when I close my eyes, all I seem to see… Read more »

No-Stress Vacation Dinner

On Saturday we found ourselves in an unusual predicament: It was 4:00 and we hadn’t decided what was for dinner yet. Oddly, if it were a normal weekday at home, this wouldn’t be an issue. But we were on vacation, and as anyone who has read my first book (or read the post “My Drill Sergeant of Leisure“) might recall, on… Read more »

Friday Round-up

When I have a bag of pre-mixed cobbler topping ready to go, I am always a half hour away from the best summer dessert. (Also nice if you’re traveling somewhere and don’t want to buy or schlep all your baking supplies.) Is it November 4 yet? Just pre-ordered what is sure to be the cookbook of fall 2014. Super-cool trick… Read more »

Sir Yes Sir!

You know when you go to someone’s house for dinner and you walk out of the house three hours later thinking, We might have some room for improvement, parenting-wise? That’s what happened last summer when we went to visit our friends, Will and Alaina, and their excellent kids, Eli and Bee. Will is a freshly-retired 20 year veteran of the… Read more »

This Week in Insta-Inspiration

Tomatoes, basil, corn, stone fruits, lobster, berries, al fresco dining! It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Sure, I could throw you to the DALS archives for a little tableside inspiration (our summer salad series comes to mind at once) but instead, I thought I’d show how a few of my favorite instagrammers are celebrating the bounty. I’m pretty sure everyone… Read more »

Couple Things

OK, so I know it’s August, and that these last few weeks are probably a good time to relax, slow down, savor what remains of the summer. But the fact of the matter is, we here at DALS have a lot of exciting things going on so I just wanted to call your attention to two of  them. For starters:… Read more »

Old Favorite

Remember this one? I found myself re-reading it the other day — sniffling away again, as usual —  and thought it was high time I re-issued it — just in case there are any new readers here who have never had the chance to download a copy, or just in case you have kids who need to squeeze another book… Read more »

Neat Trick

Last week I was listening to two parenting podcasters: Dan Pashman, host of “The Sporkful,” and Hillary Frank, host of “The Longest Shortest Time.” They were discussing how to raise adventurous eaters and had some good advice for parents of picky eaters — I’m happy to report that family dinner and the idea of repeated exposure came up a few times. But my… Read more »

Bringing Vacation Home

We don’t even know where to start with this one. We have just returned from a two-week vacation in Alaska, and the prospect of adequately capturing the magic of the experience seems about as overwhelming as the state itself. You know that feeling you get when you’re on vacation, the one where you just keep looking around and thinking “How… Read more »

Four Summer Starters

We have been entertaining machines lately — I think partly because it’s June (so many things to celebrate), but mostly because we bought some new furniture for the patio, and we are looking for any excuse to sit outside with one of these in hand, and hang with friends. Dinners have been your typical DALS summer standbys (grilled fish, baby… Read more »

Cook One New Thing This Week

. By now, everyone who officially entered the Dinner: The Playbook Challenge should have been notified about their status. Once again, thank you all for such a wonderful response. And if you weren’t one of the fifty selected, it certainly doesn’t mean you can’t play along. For those of you reading about the challenge for the first time, here is… Read more »

Picnic Chicken

I know we are only a day or two into summer, but I can safely say that this chicken Abby is eating is going to be my go-to recipe of the season. In this particular photo, my midfielder is loving it a few hours after a 2-1 loss, but I am pretty sure she would be just as happy to… Read more »

Friday Round-Up: World Cup Edition

Any soccer fans out there? Any (American) people who secretly wish they could call it football instead of soccer without sounding like a weenie? Any weeneies out there who have more than one pair of Sambas in their closet, even though they haven’t played a game of soccer in 25 years? Any parents who spend more time than they care… Read more »

Birthday Party Burrito Bar

Is it just me, or is it impossible to open a newspaper these days without reading about Chipotle? I know they’ve had a few setbacks lately — there was that whole executive excessive salary issue last week; and then last month when they decided to print inspirational quotes from the country’s literary lights on takeout bags and cups and didn’t include any… Read more »

A Challenge

You guys know the story about how family dinner got majorly kick-started in our house…way back yonder when the girls had to stand on stools to reach the stove…right? For those of you who don’t, a superquick refresher: To bust out of a pizza-pasta-nugget rut, we challenged ourselves to cook 30 brand new meals over the course of 30 days…. Read more »

Trend Alert: The Sneal

Toasts might be all the rage right now in cities across America (in my world it begins and ends with the salted butter and anchovy tartinette at Buvette, thanks for asking) but I can say with confidence that I’m pretty sure the whole trend actually originated in my house last spring. Yes, it’s true! For skeptics out there, I can… Read more »