A Great Take on Family Dinner

Cover of Dinner, the PlaybookDinner:  The Playbook:  a 30-day plan for mastering The Art of the Family Meal by Jenny Rosenstrach, Ballantine Books, 2014.

I talk in chapter 8 of my book (read it here) that one of my “small things” goals is to plan dinner ahead of time; that, while I’m good at entertaining and planning party food, we often rather limp along through the week’s normal family meals.  (Although I am a killer breakfast maker, I must say.)  Jenny Rosenstrach’s previous book, Dinner:  A Love Story, is referenced there.  I ran across that book at the library, liked it, and have visited her blog of the same name several times, which is how I found out about her new book.  DALS is a lovely cookbook with many photographs of Jenny’s family; this book is more of a battle plan with recipes included.  I have to say that I find most of her recipes to be rather weird and her meals a little on the skimpy side:  spaghetti with shallots and Brussels sprouts?  really?  as the whole meal, not a side dish?

Read more