When the girls were little, my idea of celebrating a birthday was an 8:00 dinner reservation and a babysitter booked by Andy. It didn’t matter what restaurant we were headed to, so long as I didn’t spend half the meal kneeling under the table looking for a Polly Pockets shoe. But in the past few years, as the girls have gotten older and wiser (though somehow no less clumsy in the small-parts dropping department) it’s a different story. I find it’s not nearly as fun to blow out the candles without the two of them inserting their “cha-cha-chas” in the birthday serenade, and begging for the slice with the flower.
My birthday is still a few weeks off, but I’m proud to announce that DALS turned one this week. (Can you believe??) And in the spirit of including the whole family in the celebration, I’m offering gifts to you guys, my faithful DALS readers, who on a daily basis make this space so much more rich and so much more fun. Anyone who leaves a comment below is eligible for his or her choice of various goodies I’ve been collecting from generous vendors, including Laurie David’s cookbook The Family Dinner and a pile of food-related notepads from the always entertaining Knock, Knock. (I’m just going to assume you all have the DALS signature “Make Dinner Not War” bumper sticker already, but if you don’t, you can select that for your prize as well.) As usual, the selection process will be highly scientific — Phoebe and Abby will be picking three winners at random. So keep the comments clean. (That means you 654!)
I’ve also included some fun year-in-review stats, gleaned from the all-powerful Google Analytics and then a few personal faves from Andy and me. Thought they might help as you head into the weekend.
Ten Most Clicked Posts of the Year (in order): Letter of Agreement, The Recipe Door, Instant Dinner Party, Salad Pizza, Lemon-Pepper Chicken, Picky Eater Taxonomy, Dinner: A Love Story, The Book, Time for Dinner The Cookbook, Green French Fries, Vegetable Hater Special.
Most Popular Category (no surprise): Chicken
Most Popular Pep Talk: My Real Food Movement
Most Popular Chicken Recipe: Baked Chicken with Tomatoes and Mascarpone
Most Popular Pasta Recipe: Rigatoni with Back-pocket Bolognese
Most Popular Beef Recipe: Belgian Beef Stew
Most Popular Seafood: Thai-spiced Salmon in Coconut Milk
Most Popular Vegetarian Recipe: Pappardelle with Butternut Squash
Most Popular Soup: White Bean and Tomato
Most Popular Baking Recipe: Rosa’s Mud Cake (below)
Jenny’s Most Favorite Posts by Andy: Pick a Country, Any Country, Have a Baby Win Some Books, Tony’s Steak, Jake, Great Grandma Turano’s Meatballs, The Family Part of Family Dinner, Pork in Milk
Andy’s Most Favorite Posts by Jenny: Absolute Value, Special (pictured below) On Anniversaries, Sorry, I Have to Catch My Train, Table Manners for Grown-Ups, Sunday Minestrone, You Can’t Mess This Up I’ve Tried.
Thanks for a great year — Here’s to many more!
Happy Birthday! I don’t have kids (yet), but I read you religiously.
To many more years!!!
Happy Birthday, DALS! It certainly has become one of my favorites in the past year. Keep it going!
Happy birthday to you! You live in a zoo!
That’s what my kids like to sing at birthdays in our house. 🙂
Happy Birthday! You’ve inspired numerous dinners in our household.
Also, love the letters between the two of you!
Many more!
K
Congratulations! May last year’s most amazing bits be this year’s “Meh, that’s kinda good, but not as great as THIS.”
Looking forward to many, many more birthdays, recipes, and The DALS Cookbook. 😉
Happy Birthday!
I discovered your website recently and now check daily! My favorite post has been the pork ragu – so good!
Happy birthday (:
Happy Birthday DALS!
I love your easy, no-nonsense dinner ideas, but what keeps me coming back is the witty, honest writing style – love it!
I can’t wait to cook from DALS (hint hint).
I LOVE your blog–it’s on my bookmark bar and I check it every day! Your “beans and toast” recipe from the cookbook has become my favorite new “back-pocket recipe” and I love reading your funny family anecdotes. I know your girls avoid some foods and food combinations but they sound like pretty adventurous eaters to me (I did NOT grow up eating kale chips!). 🙂
Happy Birthday! Thanks for the enjoyable reading!
i can’t believe it’s ONLY been a year! i feel like i’ve learned so much that’s it’s hard to think it was all packed into 365 days! thanks for giving me a glimmer of hope about having and feeding my kids someday 🙂
happy birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i have gleaned both awesome gifts {my sister proudly sports the make dinner not war bumper sticker on her volvo} and awesome recipes {the bolognese = heaven!} from you in the past year. here’s to many more!
Happy Birthday and thank you for all the cooking inspiration.
Happy Birthday! I have to admit, I have the Instant Dinner Party and Chicken with Tomatoes and Marscapone bookmarked. (And the vinegarette recipe – with the cute photo of your dearest playing tennis in her swimsuit.)
Happy Birthday! I love reading your site to get some great new recipies and family meal ideas. Thanks for writing!
Happy Birthday!
Happy birthday! And thank you for giving me back that urge to cook. It had faded with time, but the day I first read your blog, it started to come back in this house.
WoW, DALS happy birthday!! Little did I know that I had gotten in on this in your first year. I love this blog and I take home things to try every week from here…I know I know I need the cookbook! I hope you blog for years to come and many more cookbooks!
one year already?! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! i love this blog. keep on keepin’ it real.
Happy Birthday, DALS! Wishing you many more years of fast, fun, delicious meals that promote dinnertime harmony. I can’t really prove it, but I think the frequency with which I utter the words, “Well, that’s dinner. You can eat it or wait until breakfast,” has decreased dramatically since I stumbled upon this blog. It is the clever strategies? The kid friendly ingredients? Not sure, but I do know I feel more relaxed about dinner and for that I thank you. Oh, and I’m with Maria above: the “beans and toast” from the cookbook kick butt. Just had it last night, in fact, and I’m looking forward to the leftovers for lunch.
Happy Birthday! I find that I check this blog on an almost daily basis and I’ve gotten a ton of useful information but the thing I appreciated most was learning that someone else’s husband refuses to use the cute and environmentally friendly bento boxes when he packs the lunches.
Happy Birthday! Every day I read your blog it’s as if you have a nanny cam into my life. Hard to decide what is the best part.Your birthday pancake ritual,Trader Joe’s visits (we can compare receipts), your husband’s “all guy” posts, or just the fact that you are every mom out there and make us feel all a little less crazed with dinner ideas, family ideas, and laughs!
Happy Birthday to my favorite blog! It is the first thing I check when I get to work and I always love every single post (often wishing I could have a Dark N Stormy at oh… about 9 AM ). Thanks for so many laughs, so many ideas, so much inspiration and for fostering such a lovely community. Keep on doing what you’re doing and don’t let the Val’s of the world rain on your parade.
Happy birthday to my dinner obsession. Thanks for so many good meals and ideas this year and we’re looking forward to many more!
Happy Birthday! This is one of the few blogs that I check every day to see if there’s a new post! I love all of the ideas, recipes and great stories! I miss Cookie, but I am so happy that it lead you to this! Keep all of the great stuff coming and can’t wait for your second birthday!