Greetings Quarantine Friends. Yesterday, I went for a run, made a batch of pudding, walked the dogs at Rockefeller State Park, and spent an hour re-reading the vegetarian cookbook I’ve been writing. It was like finding an artifact on an archeological dig, written in a language I only partly understood. (Good thing I have some time to work on that.)… Read more »
Greetings from Quarantine Day 2. Yesterday felt like another one of those days where switches flipped all across the country, when people started taking the #stayhome orders more seriously, including my children. I went for a run, tested a vegan Caesar dressing recipe for my book, took the dogs for a walk, and made the famous Sarah Keiffer pan-banging cookies…. Read more »
There are many factors I consider when measuring the success of a cookbook, but ultimately, there’s only one that really matters: Does it get you into the kitchen? In my mind, I don’t care who wrote it or how trendy the recipes are — if it convinces you to cook, it’s worthy of a James Beard Award. If it inspires… Read more »
Thank you all for the Seattle restaurant recommendations. As predicted, I didn’t get a chance to explore as much as I usually do on these kinds of trips. Other than a quick hop to Fremont Bowl to eat salmon poke bowls and what I think is maybe the best tofu on the planet, we cooked and ate in. I should… Read more »
I’m off to Seattle this morning but felt an overwhelming urge to download some random recent dinner discoveries for you as I sit at Gate 1 in JFK’s Terminal 7. (Don’t you hate it when that happens?) For starters: Due to popular demand, I created a highlight for the mushrrom-farro recipe I posted on instagram stories last week. (Note to… Read more »
What I’m eating and reading this week… Hot take: Winter fruit salads are better than summer fruit salads! Especially when they look like this one from my everyday cooking hero Sarah Carey. A new book column called “Group Text” from DALS-favorite Elisabeth Egan, all about what to read with friends. Whoever made that call deserves a medal. What my kids… Read more »
There was a time in my weeknight cooking life when, if I came across the phrase “In your food processor…” in a recipe, I would automatically turn the page. Who in his or her right mind would want to lug a small appliance out of the upper cabinets when they were on the clock for feeding hungry kids? And who… Read more »
This salmon salad might be the meal that has made the most appearances at our dinner table over the past two decades. We made it pre-kids when we first got married and lived in Brooklyn; in the new baby years because it was fast and healthy; and in the nightmare toddler years because we called the pink salmon “princess fish”… Read more »
A few weeks ago I headed to Park City, Utah for a mini reunion with my college roommates, where the seven of us spent a long weekend hiking, eating, and hard-core hanging. One night, as my Seattle friend Jenn and I were putting together dinner for the crew (salmon salad, naturally, plus a version of Samin’s cauliflower) when my San Francisco friend, Cara… Read more »
We are nothing if not creatures of habit in my house, so when people come over for dinner in the summer, we generally fall back on the same rotation of old reliables — vongole, picnic chicken or steak or chops on the grill, surrounded by a ton of market salads and a cobbler for dessert — and save the more adventurous cooking… Read more »
I’m so pleased to introduce you to today’s guest-poster, friend and beloved magazine veteran Mindy Berry Walker, who was, most recently, executive editor of Parents. (She’s now helping out on the content end at her sister Cheree’s company, Cheree Berry Paper.) I love this story about her mom, shown above on the left eating cake with Mindy’s aunt and father in the… Read more »
Traveling with teenagers is different than traveling with young kids, but one thing that never changes is that feeling you get when their reaction to experiencing a city or an adventure for the first time is exactly what you had hoped it would be. The first time I went to Austin — maybe five years ago — I remember wandering… Read more »
The Scene: Wednesday, the first school/workday back from winter break The Scene, pt 2: Always the longest, most exhausting day of the year The Characters: Family DALS 5:30 Walk in door. Girls already home, one of them doing homework at kitchen table instead of cloistered in her bedroom, which brings me unspeakable joy. (Literally unspeakable — if I express this out… Read more »
So like a lot of you guys out there, we’ve cut back on meat in our house pretty significantly in the last few years, which probably seems pretty obvious to anyone reading this blog with regularity. For the most part, it’s been a gradual process, one that has been helped along by the ever-growing body of research on the environmental impact… Read more »
I could’ve probably come up with a slightly more enticing name for this recipe, especially since it was one of the better meals I’ve made in the last few weeks. But that would be seriously detracting from what makes it DALS-worthy. You know that stunning Margaret Wise Brown baby book The Important Book? Where she poetically itemizes the characteristics of common… Read more »
What we’re reading and eating this week: A bright spot during dark times: I wrote about a woman who has launched a gratitude campaign — she’s writing a thank-you note to someone every day of the year. How much do we love Chrissy Teigen? The always great Jason Gay profiles her in the latest issue of Vogue. Three links for… Read more »
6:50 Commuter train pulls into northern New York suburb. 7:00 Two parents drive home, walk into house, shout “hellooooooo?” Wonder where kids are. 7:01 Reminisce briefly about the days when kids were at home waiting for them. 7:02 Reminisce briefly about the days when the kids, not the puppies, jumped on mom or dad when they came home from work. 7:03… Read more »
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 »
Welcome! I’m Jenny, author of Dinner: A Love Story and The Weekday Vegetarians More
