Since discovering the oven-roasted shawarma recipe (
There’s a new cookbook out today called Hot Sheet, by Olga Massov and Sanaë Lemoine, which is an ode in recipe form to all the ways the humble sheet pan makes a home cook’s life easier, from starters and snacks, through dinnertime and dessert. Good lord, everything looks so delic … | Continue reading
Friends! News! I’d like to introduce you to my next book, The Weekday Vegetarians: Get Simple, which will be published in August, and is available for pre-order as of TODAY. How badly do you want to eat the cover? Here is a brief list of the kind of people who might enjoy Get Sim … | Continue reading
In the elevator this morning, I ran into my neighbor, a mom of two young kids, who immediately said “I’m so glad the city canceled school, it’s miserable out there!” I nodded in agreement, even though I had zero idea that school had even been canceled. It’s been so long since I’v … | Continue reading
I’ve been a Weekday Vegetarian for over five years and though now it feels easy, a lot of that is because I’m not cooking for my college-age children on a daily basis anymore. When I was just getting started, with younger kids who weren’t always, shall we say, receptive to the pl … | Continue reading
Thirteen years ago, here on The Blog, Andy wrote about “fish presents” after discovering that the recipe was a sneaky way to market the meal to young seafood skeptics. This is how he described the dinner back in 2010, when our daughters were 6 and 8: Our latest venture in rebrand … | Continue reading
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 … | Continue reading
Greetings eaters and readers! I went through my Google doc notes from last Christmas (in our old house 😭😭), and forgot how organized I was — links or print-outs for every recipe, a shopping list, a game plan, and even notes written to my 2023 self with ideas for w … | Continue reading
It’s always a good day when I get to tell you about a new book from Yossy Arefi, member of an elite crew of recipe writers who meet me where I am, namely: in no-fuss, no-brainer baked good land. Her latest book, Snacking Bakes, speaks my love language, offering up baked treats (b … | Continue reading
Please answer a question for me: Is honeynut squash as common as butternut squash these days? I ask because I only ever used to score the smaller, sweeter squash at the farmer’s market during a very specific window of weeks, but now I see them spilling forth out of boxes and crat … | Continue reading
Don’t tell Great Grandma Turano, whose namesake meatballs have been the default in our house for decades, but we’ve been silently betraying her for the last year and half. It all started when I read about Anna Francese Gass and hergrandmother’s meatballs, featured in Gass’s 2019 … | Continue reading
September, as always, was a busy month, compounded — in a good, happy, lucky way — by our move to Manhattan. Which is probably why this past Sunday, our first completely free day in what felt like weeks, Andy turned to me and said “Why do I feel like I still don’t know my own kit … | Continue reading
Anyone who has spent a minute reading Dinner: A Love Story knows about my affection for Leah Koenig’s cookbooks, which I turn to all year long, but especially this time of year as we head into the Jewish holidays. A leading authority on Jewish food, Koenig is a genius at interpre … | Continue reading
Moving was stressful — lists upon lists upon lists upon lists — but I’ll tell you one part of the whole thing that was downright therapeutic: Cooking down the fridge. It’s that magical combination of creativity, and frugality that join forces to be something that is almost a comp … | Continue reading
The other week, on my newsletter, I wrote about Milestone Dinners through the years, and asked readers to suggest menus for our last family dinner in the house before we move. I loved the answers, not only because they were legit delicious recipes, but because they were sentiment … | Continue reading
I confess this was actually last week in grilled chicken, and also that it will most likely be next week in grilled chicken and possibly the week after that, too, because the dinner is that good — so fresh and flavorful and just plain beautiful — and I should probably try to cont … | Continue reading
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 b … | Continue reading
It’s not summer til we eat…How would you finish that sentence? The list is long for us, but we managed to check off three major boxes this past week on our Maine vacation — First there was warm Triple Berry Pie with ice cream, which was store-bought, but really reminded me of the … | Continue reading
Subscribe now As you likely know by now, my most favorite kind of summer cooking is a simply grilled something surrounded by a bounty of farm-fresh, creative salads. (It always reminds me of my old magazine boss, Carrie, whose fashion philosophy was “Gap clothes, Prada accessorie … | Continue reading
Last month, I was thrilled to speak with my old friend Elizabeth Mayhew, aka The Dutchy, for a Q&A assignment. We worked together at Real Simple and she is the one behind the banana bread that gets more ink on Dinner: A Love Story than either of my children do. Well, Elizabeth is … | Continue reading
Well, I finally did what I’ve been threatening to do since February’s London visit: I recreated the fish we ate at Noble Rot, that cozy black-wood-paneled restaurant on charming Lambs Conduit street in Bloomsbury that I still haven’t shut up about. We ate some pretty amazing food … | Continue reading
“In the late summer of 2019, I hit a wall. I felt cruddy after years of eating everything I wanted, all in the name of professional research.” So beings Andrea Nguyen’s wonderful new cookbook Ever-Green Vietnamese, where she reimagines her traditional Vietnamese repertoire, seeki … | Continue reading
Greetings eaters and readers! I’m thrilled to present Amanda Hesser’s Easter Menu as the next chapter in my Dinner Party Game Plan series. Here, Amanda, co-founder of Food52 and one of my personal food writing heroes, offers two options, both of which won me over for their ease a … | Continue reading
How do I eat vegetarian without leaning on carbs? Since I wrote The Weekday Vegetarians, I have gotten this question at every turn. The first thing I need to say about this is that in general, we eat a normal amount of carbs in our house. We’re not eating pasta every night, but n … | Continue reading
I cleaned out our refrigerator over the weekend and found a tub of Gochujang (Korean fermented chile paste) hiding in the back, far away from where most of my condiments live. Which might explain why I forgot about it for some time. And I’m not sure how because it’s one of those … | Continue reading
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 … | Continue reading
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 obligat … | Continue reading
I was thrilled when I first learned that Lauren Fleshman, one of the most decorated American runners in my lifetime, was writing a memoir, Good for a Girl. A few years ago, she published a “Dear Younger Me” essay that went viral, and I think I am responsible for at least half its … | Continue reading
I know you’re not going to believe me, but I didn’t even realize these tacos were vegan until maybe the fourth or fifth time we made them. To give you an idea of how easy and thrifty the meal is, Andy scraped them together on one of those end-of-the-week nights when it felt like … | Continue reading
Unlike products I cook with — Trader Joe’s 100% Greek Kalamata Olive Oil, my Diamond Crystal Kosher salt, Grey Poupon Dijon, etc. — I somehow, after all these years, don’t have the same kind of brand loyalty to the products I bake with. So I thought this year, in anticipation of … | Continue reading
Greetings Dinner: A Love Story readers, old and new. I’m pleased to present the DALS 2022 Holiday Gift Guide, which, as tradition dictates, attempts to keep your family’s and friend’s eating and reading pleasures in mind. (Because, really, who wouldn’t be ok with that kind of gif … | Continue reading
I’m so used to cooking for two in my recently emptied nest, that I felt almost like I had to re-learn how to cook for four when the girls came home for break. Plus, because I was busy prepping for Thanksgiving — and because I’m a human person — I was in search of dinner recipes f … | Continue reading
Fun fact: I have only made one Thanksgiving turkey in my life and it wasn’t even on Thanksgiving Day (my mom owns that duty). It was one random afternoon in the middle of July, when I was in the recipe testing phase of my book. (Deadlines are deadlines!) If you’re wondering why y … | Continue reading
In my first book, Dinner: A Love Story, I wrote a letter to my former, newly engaged self, walking her through a wedding registry and advising on the items that would earn their keep and the ones that would end up selling for two bucks at a future garage sale. It was satisfying t … | Continue reading
Honeynut squash is like a butternut squash’s best version of itself—sweeter and more intensely flavored. This recipe, Rigatoni with Honeynut Squash, Chard & Hazelnuts, which essentially adds vegetables to a peppery cacio e pepe–style sauce, is a simple, healthy, warm-your-bones w … | Continue reading
Last year, I wrote about a half dozen fall vegetable love stories: Cabbage Loves Apples, Beets Love Dill, Chinese Greens Love Ginger, and I’d like to add a new one to the list: Squash Loves Tahini. Specifically delicata squash; I’ve been making this salad above for lunch almost e … | Continue reading
When I had young kids, a lot of activities fell off the priority list — happy hour drinks with coworkers, catching the newest Wes Anderson movie in the theater, general self-care — but I was determined to continue having people over for dinner. For whatever reason, it was the kin … | Continue reading
One of my more favorite mini NYC itineraries when the girls were little was a walk on the High Line, a stop at the magical Books of Wonder on 17th Street, then, of course, a hot chocolate (or the iconic “cold hot chocolate”) and pretzel croissant at City Bakery, just off NYC’s Un … | Continue reading
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 wee … | Continue reading
Hot take alert: I don’t know if I’ve ever had a pasta salad and thought, Wow, this is a great pasta salad. Have you? They always seem to be just too pasta-heavy and…room temperature-y. Well, after trying this one from Odette Williams’s wonderful Simple Pasta last week, I am on my … | Continue reading
When Hannah Che’s The Vegan Chinese Kitchen first arrived on my desk, it was a 90-degree morning in July. I started flipping through the pages, and I’m not kidding, within 10 minutes I was putting together this dinner you’re looking at above: Cold Vermicelli and Cabbage Salad. I … | Continue reading
Over 1300 posts acrosss ten years on Dinner: A Love Story, and somehow, not until today have I ever written up the most classic, most satisfying thing you can do with tomatoes this time of year: Make a fresh tomato sauce and toss with pasta. Do you even need a recipe so simple? I … | Continue reading
I didn’t meet Aanya until I walked into the cafeteria for snack time after my third soccer session of the day. She was eight years old (but tall enough to look twelve), wore round glasses, and had her hair tied in a low, messy bun. She was sitting at a table with Mahi, my closest … | Continue reading
Forgive me broader readership, I’m going super local today. Many of you probably know that I live in Westchester County, which borders New York City to the north and is flanked by the sailboat-dotted Long Island Sound to the East and the mighty Hudson River to the West. With the … | Continue reading
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 mo … | Continue reading
Last week, one of my daughter’s college friends was visiting New York for the first time and asked if we had any suggestions for what to do and see and eat over the course of a single weekend. It was fun (if overwhelming) to think about, and reminded me of a loose formula I used … | Continue reading
I just returned for the summer from my first year of college. It’s weird and bittersweet to be back in my childhood bedroom, surrounded by relics of my upbringing—including a massive collection of French comic books (pictured above: me at age 5 devouring Les Schtroumpfs, aka The … | Continue reading
Even if you think you don’t know Melina Hammer, you probably know Melina Hammer. She’s shot and styled for all the major food players in New York (Food52, NYT Cooking, Julia Turshen 🙂) and when one of her artfully chaotic recipe shots appear on my instagram feed, I don’t … | Continue reading