Hard to believe, but my Dinner Diary (pictured here) turns 20 years old next month (that includes Volume 2) and to celebrate, I’ll be picking some favorite pages and recipes from the year I started — which is 19-freaking-98 if you’re doing the math. If you have any MVPs from the DALS archive, please let me know. (Even better, tag your go-tos on instagram with #DALSdiary).
What else:
U R A Hot Dish: Molly is so funny.
Speaking of which, this is the greatest idea for a starter ever.
It’s been way too long since I’ve made my Sunday Minestrone and I plan to remedy this asap.
Feel-good story of the year, brought to you by Sarah Silverman.
Managing the Trump-related rifts in your relationships.
A week of eating with Smitten Kitchen’s Deb Perelman.
Three mocktails I want to try.
I’m reading Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen’s memoir, not because I’m such a huge fan, but because I heard it was so well-written. Now I find myself deep-tracking Bruce in Spotify and it feels like I’m hearing his hits — “Growing Up,” “Rosalita,” even “Born in the USA” — for the first time.
Have I mentioned? Fauda was the most exciting series I’ve watched since…maybe in my adult life.
From the Archives: Andy gets wild ‘n’ crazy with his college friends.
Tonya Harding Would Like Your Apology Now
I’ve never been a big jerky fan, but I’m kind of addicted to this organic turkey jerky. (FYI: Thrive has been a past partner, but this is not a sponsored link.)
Jenny Komenda’s tricks for personalizing your space. (I love that kitchen.)
The latest cookie to blow up the internet. (I still haven’t made them!)
Have a good weekend.
Photo by Chelsea Cavanaugh for How to Celebrate Everything.
I have so many favourite DALS family dinners. My kids (6,4 and 1) love your sausage, bean and kale stew, chicken pot pie and fishcakes. These have featured on our weekly dinner diary frequently over the last 4-5 years and have saved us! I have 2 of your books which are re read like a treasured novel.
Our weeks may be mad with kindergarten and school, drop offs, swimming and the general chaos of 3 kids but when we sit down for dinner at the end of the day, talk about our favourite part of the day and there are empty plates it all makes sense.
Thanks for your calm no nonsense manner, your book reviews, your love of rituals, holidays and planning dinner before breakfast!
Brenna Wong
Our favorite go-tos from DALS are definitely the pork ragu and the meatballs. I have made both so so many times (with slight adaptations) since purchasing the book in 2012. I think I made the yogurt chicken almost every week for a couple years. The orzo with chicken is another steady favorite, as is the butternut squash soup. Yeah, five years later, it definitely remains one of my favorite cookbooks! And make the salted chocolate chip cookies! Instant favorite.
2 from the first book that are still in heavy rotation at my house: “Dinner party secret weapon” make ahead baked polenta. I love it with roasted or sauteed mushrooms on top. And “Phoebe’s Spice” in Spicy Shrimp with Yogurt. I serve wth pulao rice.
Thank you for the continued kitchen inspiration!
Many recipes from the DALS cookbooks are eaten at our table but the one you’d see there the most is the POM chicken meal and now from the DALS site, potato pizza.
We love the chicken thighs with mustard, herbs and breadcrumbs that you recently reposted. I always make it with dill, because that’s what I happened to have the first time I made it. My son claims to “hate dill” and my daughter supposedly “hates mustard” but they both wolf these down and request them repeatedly.
We also love the cod nuggets and poke bowls and have many more of your recipes bookmarked to try.
I have cooked so many recipes from your first cookbook that it is literally falling apart. I need to either break down and buy a new copy or take the old one to be rebound! Your playdate cookies are the ones that my boys know how to make without a recipe now because we make them so often. The pork ragu, meatballs, and shrimp salad rolls (from your second) cookbook are regularly in our rotation, as are several soups. I look forward to many more years of recipes to come!
The Korean shrimp pancakes are always an easy hit at our house. I also love the cornmeal crusted chicken thighs!
Pork Ragu, Tony’s Steak, Yogurt Chicken, Franks and Beans (every Halloween), Rosa’s Mud Cake, Dunkin Donuts Cake, Never Fail Banana Bread, Pasta Con Ceci…. Just to name a few favorites!!! 🙂
I first read DALS while on the beach during the summer of 2014. After I read about the Dinner Diary I immediately turned to my wife and said, “We have to start doing this!” We’re both compulsive list makers and it sounded so perfect. Three and a half years (and one set of baby twins) later we’re still going strong. We love turning back to this day several years ago, or looking what we ate on important days. Thanks for the idea!
It’s so fun to see what other people’s favorite recipes are because they are ones I’ve never even made (shame on me, I need to make the pork ragu!)
But my two recipes that I always and forever come back to are your turkey chili recipe and the chicken parm meatballs. The meatballs are my go-to when friends have babies or surgeries and need some food love. They have been entered into the yearly tradition of dinners in the Outer Banks with my family. “Alyssa, you’re making meatballs one night right?!”
And I’m officially adding the mustard/thyme chicken + carrots from last week’s post. It was moan-worthy and I’ve got my best friend Paul making it this week.
Thanks for all you do and all you offer!
The articles you posted were SO good, especially the one on managing relationships with those who voted for Trump. I had to send it to every Democrat I know and will re-read it a few times until the tips are ingrained in my memory. And thanks for the link to the cookies– I can’t wait to make them!
Tonight I’m making my second favorite of yours (after Pork ragu ofcourse), it is the turkey meatball chicken soup with spinach.
I made those cookies and found the dough super hard to work with…I’m sure I did something wrong. They tasted great…..but were so crumbly. I’d love to hear how they worked for you.
So many of your recipes are on constant rotation in our house! We love the pork ragu (obviously!) and we also love the meatballs and tomato sauce, the yogurt-marinated grilled chicken is always a hit and the bourbon pork tenderloin is so so good! TWe just love your DALS cookbook so much! hanks for being a part of our family! xo
So many of your recipes are on constant rotation in our house! We love the pork ragu (obviously!) and we also love the meatballs and tomato sauce, the yogurt-marinated grilled chicken is always a hit and the bourbon pork tenderloin is so so good! TWe just love your DALS cookbook so much! hanks for being a part of our family! xo
I LOVED the cookies. Usually when I bake, I bring the bulk of it to my office, but these were so good I didn’t want to share.
Making them into a roll required a bit of smushing but that kept them together for me. Anyway, some thoughts on what may have gone awry: Did you keep the butter cold? Did you chill for 2+ hours? I left in the fridge overnight and had nice clean cuts when I sliced. Jenny, looking forward to your report if/when you bake!
my husband gotten me all 3 of your books for various christmases! our family’s go-to recipes are the chicken lemony orzo soup (we don’t do orzo but dump in whatever leftover rice or noodles we have on hand – it’s SOOO easy when i do NOT want to cook. they even ask for leftover soup for breakfast!), the coconut curry chicken (we’ve gotten lazy and skip the skewers and the peanut sauce, we just cut the chicken in bite-size pieces and cook it with the marinade and all. it is SO yummy over rice), and the fish cakes (my daughter’s favorite!!!). we used to do salmon salad and peanut sesame noodles every week, but my daughters are not as into them anymore, so i’ll have to put it back in rotation later. one of the unexpected fun things i’ve noticed is that your recipes become sort of a marker of my family’s history AND my daughters growing taste buds. i remember tiny hands picking choice bits out of salmon salad and little faces balking at anything curry flavored. and yet this year, i see them saying “mom, we’re not into potatoes anymore” and drowning their rice and chicken with coconut curry. food memories. the best. thanks for helping make them for us!
Three mocktails I wanna read!
I absolutely adore the sausage, kale, and white bean stew, orechiette with sweet sausage and broccoli, mac and cheese, pork ragu, mongolian tofu stir-fry, tortilla soup, broccoli slaw, lemon blueberry pound cake…the list goes on and on. These have been on my dinner rotation since 5 years ago, when I was a senior in college and started reading your blog. Now I’m 26, about to be married, and hopefully starting a family before too long It’s really special to me that these recipes are such a comforting part of my daily life.
My favorites: chicken soup with orzo (from the NY Times), the easiest tortilla soup ever, poke (with salmon or tuna from Fish Tales on Court Street) bowls, BBQ pulled chicken sandwiches (I always have a bag in the freezer too!), Hawaiian pizza usually with store-bought dough, grey poupon and honey salad dressing (OMG!), coconut rice and brussels sprouts, pizza salad with focaccia croutons!!
Turkey Chili and Butternut Squash Soup I make on repeat all winter long. Must try some of these other recipes soon!