Greetings to my dear eaters and readers. I hope you all had joyful and meaningful holidays however you celebrate. I write this first newsletter of 2024 with a deeply heavy heart — my father, Ivan Rosenstrach, died on December 25, 2023. His life was rich with family and community and friendship and we spent the last week of the year… Read more »
When we were in Maine a few weeks ago, we road-tripped to Damariscotta, a picture-perfect town on the Damariscotta River famous for its pristine, hearty oysters. It’s one of those small towns that seemed to have every business necessary to live the good life as a food lover — a butcher-gourmet store, a seafood market, a robust used bookstore, an… Read more »
I’ve gotten really into shoving whatever vegetables I’ve got into a 400°F oven soon after breakfast so I have something hearty and healthy waiting for me by lunch time. (Perks of working from home, yes, I know.) Here are three recent winners, which you should of course feel free to serve for dinner. Roasted Eggplant & Tomatoes with Tahini Dressing… Read more »
A few weeks ago, we met some friends for dinner at Maialino, Danny Meyer’s recently relocated Roman trattoria and wine bar that is now housed in the Redbury Hotel and, with its checkered tablecloths and sepia portrait-lined walls, still as charming as ever. We ordered the obligatory cacio e pepe and the vongole, and it was all wonderful, of course, but… Read more »
In what has become something of a Rosh Hashanah tradition, I’m delighted to once again feature a recipe from cookbook author Leah Koenig on Dinner: A Love Story. Leah writes the wonderful newsletter The Jewish Table, and even if you’re not celebrating the Jewish New Year next week, even if you are not looking for a modern, seasonal, delicious main dish for the holiday table,… Read more »
One of the unforeseen benefits of having two kids in college is that their expanded social circles now encompass friends from the wider New York area, plus visitors to the New York area, plus friends just interning in the New York area for the summer. All of this translates to more guests at the dinner table, which means the weeknight… Read more »
Want your family to head in a more plant-based direction, but not sure where to even begin? I hear you! In fact I was you…only a few years ago. Here are a few strategies that helped me scale way back on my family’s meat intake from Monday through Friday, excerpted from my book, The Weekday Vegetarians. 1. Cook What You… Read more »
We were craving something light and flavorful on Friday night and somehow landed on Niçoise Salad. Only problem: We had no potatoes; Phoebe didn’t want eggs; I didn’t want olives; Abby begged for crispy chickpeas instead of tuna; I said YOU CAN’T HAVE NIÇOISE WITHOUT TUNA; Andy said YOU CAN’T HAVE NIÇOISE WITHOUT OLIVES. We did it anyway! The whole… Read more »
Like a lot of people, my younger daughter, Abby, discovered cooking during the pandemic. For her it wasn’t about project cooking — she didn’t bake a single loaf of sourdough — it was much more about self-care, about ensuring that she had at least one moment of joy in a day spent mostly staring at her friends and teachers over… Read more »
I feel pretty good about my vegetable life at dinner time, but I’ve recently realized I am not terribly consistent about getting produce into my lunches when I’m working from home. When I even have lunch, that is. Often my mid-day meal, if I remember to stop what I’m doing to actually have it, is just a forkful of leftovers standing in… Read more »
There are all kinds of ways people prefer their latkes: thin and lacy, meaty and crispy, kicked up with horseradish or shredded vegetables, spun from leftover Thanksgiving mashed potatoes (!!!)…and I know you’re probably expecting me to give you some diehard purist take here, but the truth is, I love them all equally. They are fried potatoes after all. Below is the recipe… Read more »
Even though I’m no longer cooking for young kids on the clock every day, I can’t seem to shake the habit of scanning new cookbooks for potential weeknight recipes while wearing my Efficiency Goggles. How long will that take? How many pots? How forgiving is it? (Like, will I be arrested if I use 2% vs. whole milk?) How many… Read more »
Every day is like Christmas when it comes to the mail lately. I’ve gotten review copies of some pretty exciting cookbooks, which isn’t surprising considering we are heading into the holidays, traditionally when all the Big Ones come out. A few to put on your gift-giving radar: Black Food, a collection of recipes and stories from the African diaspora (and the… Read more »
I’m heading into week two down here in South Carolina and I regret to inform you that your weekly dispatch of Three Things has been downgraded this week to just Two Things, but what beautiful two things they are…It’s corn and tomato season, baby! This week begins the stretch of weeks we spend all year pining for: when the corn… Read more »
We’ve been vacationing in Kiawah Island, South Carolina forever, and it doesn’t matter how long the drive has been, or how tired we are of being in the car (or the plane) we always stop at our favorite open-air market on the way to the island. No matter what we are in the mood for, no matter what time of year it is, this… Read more »
We are huge soft shell crab fans in my house, but only really get to enjoy them in our takeout spider roll a few times a year. Right now, though, they are in season up here in New York and when I spied them at our new fish store (we are so lucky, everything there tastes like the boat-to-market time is, like,… Read more »
I’m in love with the new cookbook, Vegetable Simple. Eric Ripert — the chef and owner of one of New York’s most revered Michelin-starred restaurants, Le Bernardin — is known for his refined seafood dishes, but here, he turns his eyes towards his second love, vegetables. The most amazing thing about it is how actually simple the recipes are. Like not chef-pretending-to-be-simple… Read more »
As many of you know, Saturday night dinner has become a real thing for us during the pandemic — a way to differentiate a weekend night from all the others — and the dishes we’ve made to mark it run the gamut, each one somehow special in its own way. Sometimes Saturday dinner is super old-school, like Marcella Hazan’s Milk-Braised Pork… Read more »
Welcome! I’m Jenny, author of Dinner: A Love Story and The Weekday Vegetarians More
