Search Results for: avocado

Anatomy of a Wild & Crazy Saturday Night

9:20 Leave track meet, NYC. (Dream come true: watching both girls run a 4×800 relay, literally one handing the baton to the other) Kids will take bus home after meet is over 9:21 Barely pull onto highway when Andy asks What should we do for dinner? My mind instantly goes to eggs when the kids aren’t home. Breakfast burritos. 9:46 Arrive… Read more »

Weeknight Sushi Bowls

Last Thursday, I posted the above photo on instagram stories and it almost blew up my phone. Not the actual photo, but the messages people sent in reaction. The one that sums it up the best is perhaps this: Sushi on a weeknight? I can’t decide if I really love you or really hate you right now.  I’m writing to make sure… Read more »

New Twist on Old Fave: Tortilla Soup

. The first time I wrote about tortilla soup on this blog, the girls were playing cops and robber at recess and were so young I had to call it “taco soup” because tortillas were just so, you know, sophisticated (read: intimidating) sounding. The second time I wrote about it (as an ideal “deconstructable dinner“) was May, 2012, a month… Read more »

Start with Chopped Broccoli

. An abbreviated list of what I feel grateful for on a daily basis: I married a guy who is a Yankees fan even though he grew up in Virginia; I live five miles away from a restaurant that is a destination for diners around the world; and, most relevant for today’s purposes: My children like broccoli. And by “like” I… Read more »

Five Bright Ideas

Quick one today. Just a few tips and tricks to up your game in the kitchen, beginning with number 1 (above), The Tomato Can Pizza Stand. Backstory: There were exactly two days this past summer when the kids’ sleepaway camps overlapped. And on those two nights, we ate well. One night we cooked at home and made Scallops with Corn and Bacon Hash… Read more »

Five Favorite Summer Salads for Right Now

For better or for worse, when I’m trying to decide what to have for dinner — especially a weekend dinner — I’m hardwired to start the brainstorming with the main dish. And for better or worse, the main dish is usually a pile of protein. On Saturday morning, as Andy and I wandered the farmer’s market, that was implicit in… Read more »

Vacation Highlight Reel: Hawaii

.. Where do I even begin with this post? A little over a week ago we returned from a family vacation we won’t forget any time soon: Twelve days in Hawaii. The trip had been something we’d all been fantasizing about for, well, on my end, maybe my whole life. (Or at least ever since I watched the Brady sisters… Read more »

Summer Shrimp Salad with Yogurt Dressing

. Greetings everyone! So sorry for the long absence. As mentioned in the last post I wrote — nearly three weeks ago, the longest I’ve ever gone — I have been traveling, returning a few days ago, but unable to get anything done this week thanks to the insane velocity of the news out of Washington. I swore off Twitter… Read more »

Friday Reading & Eating

What I’m eating and reading this week: How spring-y and simple and beautiful does this salad look? (Thanks, Phyllis!) Saints for All Occasions took me a week to finish but only because I didn’t want it to end. Best novel I’ve read in a long time. Oldie but goodie on the dinner line-up next week: Enchiladas. (You can use any mole.) Read of the… Read more »

No-Recipe Cooking

Last week, in my Friday round-up, I linked to a recipe on Nate Appleman’s instagram feed and said it would be on this week’s line-up. I’m pleased to report that I am ahead of schedule on that one, making it not only once, but twice in two days this past weekend. Above is our chicken version of the salad-y dish,… Read more »

Sushi Saturdays

If you want to learn how to make sushi rolls in your own house, the first piece of advice I have for you is this: Don’t ever watch Jiro Dreams of Sushi. Actually, scratch that: Watch it, because it’s one of the greatest documentaries I’ve ever seen, but then try to push Jiro — the sushi chef whose Michelin-starred restaurant… Read more »

Lunch Al Desko

So there’s news on the Dinner: A Love Story front: I am one step closer to world domination, having taken actual, physical, tax-deductible office space outside my house, roughly two miles from my front door, and two miles plus ten feet from my kitchen. I share a space with six other enterprising businessmen and women, all of whom you will… Read more »

A Reset Plan (for January and Beyond)

How ya doing on those New Year’s resolutions? I’m pleased to report that it’s only Day Five of 2017 and yet I’ve already checked off THREE of my big ones: Edit and organize passwords on important accounts, book mammogram, and start every single day with a Starbucks Grande Pike or its caffeine equivalent. (I take it to heart to set… Read more »

A Year in Dinners

Lest I miss out on all of the Year-in-Review fun that everyone seems to be having as we wrap up yet another one, I thought I’d try something a little radical: Present all the dinners I cooked in 2016, as recorded in my Dinner Diary. I know: Super exciting! But the headlines this year were so boring and business-as-usual, so what… Read more »

Welcome to the Dinner Rotation!

This post has been in my queue for six months now. I added it back in March, was when I was madly cooking my way through spring’s cookbook offerings so I could write about the best ones for The Book Review. As you may recall, the dinner table was getting a major shot of adrenaline during the testing phase. There were… Read more »

For You!

In accordance with the Louis CK mantra of “It’s hard to be sad and useful at the same time,” I decided that instead of mourning summer’s end, I’d channel my woes* into something productive, namely, a Weekly Meal Plan that should help you get back into the lunch-making, shoe-tying, carpool-dreading, form-signing (form-forgetting?) crazy-making back-to-school routine. The line-up is below — as usual,… Read more »

Look Who’s Coming to Dinner

Here on DALS, veteran readers might have guessed by now, I’ve attempted to solve a whole range of dinner quandaries, from the quick-and-dirty meals you need in your arsenal on a Tuesday night, to the turkey you need in the center of the table on Thanksgiving. Amazingly, though, in the nearly 950 (!) posts I’ve written here, I’ve never once… Read more »