Dinner: A Love Story—It All Begins at the Family Table

by Jenny Rosenstrach

Jenny Rosenstrach, and her husband, Andy, regularly, some might say pathologically, cook dinner for their family every night. Even when they work long days. Even when their kids' schedules pull them in eighteen different directions. They are not superhuman. They are not from another planet.

With simple strategies and common sense, Jenny figured out how to break down dinner—the food, the timing, the anxiety, from prep to cleanup—so that her family could enjoy good food, time to unwind, and simply be together.

Using the same straight-up, inspiring voice that readers of her award-winning blog, Dinner: A Love Story, have come to count on, Jenny never judges and never preaches. Every meal she dishes up is a real meal, one that has been cooked and eaten and enjoyed at least a half dozen times by someone in Jenny's house. With inspiration and game plans for any home cook at any level, Dinner: A Love Story is as much for the novice who doesn't know where to start as it is for the gourmand who doesn't know how to start over when she finds herself feeding an intractable toddler or for the person who never thought about home-cooked meals until he or she became a parent. This book is, in fact, for anyone interested in learning how to make a meal to be shared with someone they love, and about how so many good, happy things happen when we do.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Nonfiction, Cooking, Memoir, Parenting, Book Club

302 pages, Hardcover

First published June 5, 2012

About the author

Jenny Rosenstrach is the creator of Dinner: A Love Story, the website devoted to family dinner, and the coauthor of Time for Dinner: Strategies, Recipes, Inspiration for Family Meals Every Night of the Week. For four years, she was the features director at Cookie magazine and special projects editor at Real Simple. Her essays and articles have appeared in numerous national publications and anthologies including Martha Stewart Living, Whole Living, and the New York Times. She is the author, with her husband, Andy Ward, of "The Providers," a column in Bon Appétit. She and her family live in Westchester County, New York.

Reviews

[Gail · Rating 2 out of 5]

Generally I like this kind of cookbook/memoir, and while the recipes look good and I will likely try several of them, the premise is all wrong.

Most of this book is centered around getting your picky kids to eat the same dinner that the adults eat. Which would be great except for the fact that the writer created the picky kid situation all by herself by following her own #1 Rule. Which is to feed the kids separate "kid friendly" meals at an earlier hour and then have the adult meal later after they have gone to bed, until the age of 3. By age three the damage is done. This method is a sure fire way to create picky eaters. If you have followed her #1 rule and have the picky eaters already, then the rest of her strategies might help.

If you don't want the hassle of having to deal most of her strategies, then buy a baby food grinder, sit the baby up to the table during dinner,in a high chair or whatever as soon as s/he is able to sit up. Then start feeding the baby what you are eating. You may want to keep out or reduce the amount some of the seasonings/sauces if they are excessively spicy at first, but after the child is about 1 year to 18 months gradually increase the spice. Indian babies learn to eat really hot curries at that age, so why can't an American child learn to eat whatever the adults are eating. I am speaking from far more experience than the author of this book (5 children in 6 years, two sets of twins.) Did I have any picky kids? Yes. Did I have to employ some of the same methods as in this book? Yes. However, my kids were no where near as picky as hers and my pickiest were my first, when I was fool enough to fall for rule #1. I learned quickly and the other 3 were hardly picky at all.

Bottom line: Buy it for the recipes, not for the parenting advice unless you already have picky kids.

[Beth Bender · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are so many things I loved about this book. Especially the attitude with which it's written. Many of her recipes aren't my style, for reasons I'll go into below, but I bought the book.because I wholeheartedly believe in her message. Although I do think it's a sad commentary on our society that something as simple as making dinner is such a challenge for people.

The reasons I probably won't make a lot of these recipes are as follows:

So much meat! Especially pork. The dishes look yummy but my family is decreasing our meat consumption. We're also not all that into sausage.

Many recipes call for expensive ingredients. Seafood, special kinds of cheese, etc.. My grocery budget is generous to include local and organic ingredients but I can't afford tons of salmon or Gorgonzola.

I don't share her experience that Family Dinner is impossible with kids under 3 y/o or that it doesn't work to feed young kids the same food as the adults are eating. In my house that doesn't mean a dulled down adult meal but I don't have picky eaters. Doesn't make me a superior parent to Rosenstrach, of course. She's great about acknowledging every family is different.

I'm not her audience. I'm a mostly SAHM/freelance musician in the Midwest and have time to make my own bread, yogurt, and spaghetti sauce from scratch. Strategies to fit cooking dinner into a life crammed with a high power career and commute don't apply to me. We're also not Gourmands in my house and I don't feel the need to own The Silver Palate Cookbook.

Basically, Rosenstrach and her magazine running buddies aren't my people. I can't relate to that kind of life any more than they can relate to mine. For which they are probably glad, ha ha.

I would highly recommended this book to anyone who feels family dinner is important. Especially those with picky eaters as her strategies are fantastic. This book will stay in my library a long time and I'm sure I'll read parts of it often and flip through for inspiration. Basically, how I use most of my favorite cookbooks even if I don't follow the recipes. A great book.

UPDATE: I've had this book a year and have made only a handful of the recipes. They were good but I haven't otherwise felt the need to read through the book again. This statement is somewhat influenced by the blog as well as the book but I'm growing weary of Rosenstrach's upper class East Coast elitism. And constant mention of food trends. Yeah, I don't really care what everyone else is doing.

[Elizabeth]

Not really a full cookbook, and definitely not for all tastes; no matter how wry and self-deprecating the author is about her rigid devotion to dinner diaries and train schedules, there's a certain clenched-jaw life management on display here that's discomfiting. The food does look mainly good, if resolutely American with a capital A, and if people didn't like to read about mothers struggling with guilt, we wouldn't have 45%of the Internet as we know it.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was not even on my radar until I saw it in my library's weekly Wowbrary newsletter (the newest arrivals at the library). I checked it out on a whim and quickly realized that Jenny Rosenstrach had written this book just for me. How often do you find a book that’s perfectly tailored to you?

Part memoir, part recipe book, Dinner: A love story is the only cookbook I have ever read cover to cover, and the only one that ever led to discussion between my spouse and I. If you’re the kind of cook that surveys your pantry and whips something together, this is probably not for you. But if you struggle to meal plan, never can seem to get your dinner act together, and just generally associate the word “dinner” with “despair,” then please pick up this title!

Rosenstrach divides the book into three sections: the honeymoon phase of a couple cooking together, the trenches of new parenthood, and the family dinner. Even though Rosenstrach definitely writes from the parent/family perspective, I think anyone who dreads the dinner question could get something out of this book. Unlike so many cookbook authors, she never has unrealistic expectations of the reader. This is not a book where you will be expected to use lavender-infused milk as an ingredient. This is a cookbook where most recipes can be completed in 35 minutes or less.

Best part? The recipes are GOOD. And made with good ingredients. When I made the first one my husband pronounced it “fan-freakingtastic,” and my toddler actually ate it (which is his way of pronouncing something “fan-freakingtastic”). As we were getting ready for work the next morning, my husband was still talking about how good that meal was.

I can’t wait to try more recipes out of this book. I finally feel like I can maybe be successful as a cook.

[Ivonne Rovira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jenny Rosenstrach’s Dinner: A Love Story isn’t a conventional cookbook. It’s one part cookbook, yes; however it’s equal parts memoir and how-to manual for getting children to broaden their palates. Rosenstrach had me from the introduction when she explained that her book wouldn’t aspire to Martha Stewart levels of perfection nor further guilt-trip mothers who struggle with feeding picky children after exhausting days at work.

Rosenstrach’s considerably more organized than I. (I’m damning her with faint praise here!) Actually, she sounds more organized than most of us. However, all of her recipes are ones that most cooks can easily handle. The book is a step-by-step guide that instructs the novice cook and gradually adds additional skills. By the book’s third and final section, the ingredients have become more sophisticated and the recipes more complex. For this reason, there’s something here for everyone!

I wish I had had this book and its advice for encouraging more adventurous eating in children when my own three children were tots. However, even with my children in their 20s, I loved the recipes, both for their tastiness and their simplicity. Regardless of where you are in life, you won’t be sorry if you buy this book.

[Sherri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love, love, love this book. I highly recommend it to anyone who feeds other people. The books that are turned out by the blogger-turned-book-writer cooks are often poorly written, self-indulgent and even whiny with a few good recipes you will probably never make sprinkled in. Not Rosenstrach's book. She convincingly describes how two working parents can regularly feed a family healthy, delicious meals and gives you all the "how to" to do it yourself. Her writing is accessible and fun. She never preaches. Anyone who reads it is going to come away learning stuff they can actually use and apply in real life to make family meals more successful.

The recipes are good (I tried several with good results), and the book is pretty (nice pictures and design, which for some reason matters a lot to me in a cookbook).

[Ashleu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally posted at Nose in a Book

Hi, my name is Ashley and I don’t want children. There are two responses to this. 1) “Hi, Ashley, welcome to the club.” 2) “Oh. Hon. You’ll change your mind.” Now, I know you’re asking, “why are you telling me this?” I’m telling you this because this book is about dinner and families and I still enjoyed it.

Jenny Rosenstrach takes us on a food journal of when she first met the man who is now her husband, to when they first married, to when they became a family of three, to finally a family of four. Rosenstrach packs this book full of not only amazing recipes, but full of stories that make you relate to her even if you don’t have a background in the magazine industry and New York City. I laughed with her, I almost cried with her (to be honest it takes a lot to make me cry while reading), I wanted to hang out with her at her dinner table. Sadly, I can’t. I can however make some of her amazing recipes and hope for the best at my own kitchen table.

Rosenstrach as a blog by the same name: Dinner: A Love Story and it must be said. You can read this book without reading her blog. I read a lot of blogs (well as many as a full time grad student and full time worker can read in her “free time”) and very rarely do I read a book from a blog that two aren’t overly connected. I understand that bloggers hate to hear that because they would love for the two to be separate, but this book is legitamely one of those books I could hand to my mother, who doesn’t know what a blog is, and she would be able to read this as a stand alone book. Yes, there are overlaps, but the overlaps don’t ruin the book. Personally, I think that is a good mark of the author.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a cookbook in the style that has become quite popular lately: one part memoir, one part family recipes. This format works well sometimes (the wonderful A Homemade Life comes to mind) but doesn't totally rise to the occasion here. Dinner: A Love Story is buoyed by the author's engaging writing style, but never really takes off due to overly simplistic recipes.

If you think about what you cook at home during the week, most of it isn't that exciting. At my house, we have a rotation of various quick chicken dishes, semi-homemade pizza, turkey burgers and slow cooker soups going during the work week. They're good. We like them. But would I write a memoir with these simple recipes as the centerpieces? No. Unfortunately, that's what Rosenstrach has done here, and it doesn't quite work. None of these dishes, save one or two family heirlooms, is really special or interesting enough to be in a cookbook. They're the perfect kinds of recipes for a blog or a Pinterest board, but there's very little I need to have in hardcover version because I'm going to make them over and over again.

That said, Rosenstrach's personality is lovely and her enthusiasm for family dinners is sweet and infectious. This was a very readable book, and I did enjoy reading it. While I question some of the parenting advice here (no, I am not going to put my children to bed at 9pm so we can have dinner together at 8pm-- they'll be sleep deprived monsters!), the majority of the content is charming and a good reminder that we can and should share meals with our children on an everyday basis. Or as much as possible.

[Allison Anderson Armstrong · Rating 4 out of 5]

My dad used to remind me "If you read through the entire recipe first, you're less likely to make mistakes." Well, I'm sure he'd be proud to know that I've now read through a whole
cookbook! I am not as scared off by scary food words such as "orzo," "mascarpone," "scallions," "arugula," etc.... I grew up with words like "casserole," "burgers," "pizza," and "lasagna." My mom's a great cook, but there's this new, weird healthy way of cooking with things that the world is beginning to expect me to understand. So here goes nothing...better keep some of those Costco Pot Pies in the freezer just in case.

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

1 part funny and honest memoir + 1 part family friendly recipes following current style of "real foods" = very engaging read. She chronicles her cooking evolution from single to newly wed to mom of two kids under two (I had three under two for a while!!) to mom of two kids in elementary school.

Chicken pot pie with sweet potatoes: awesome

Spicy fries made with sweet potatoes: awesome

Breakfast burritos for dinner: awesome

I think Rosenstrach's budget is a wee bit more generous than mine, but still, I found her recipes worth considering and very doable. I so much appreciated her honesty that sometimes, having a storebought pizza together is the only way you'll actually have dinner together as a family--and that still counts!! It doesn't always have to be from scratch. I also enjoyed her writing style and found myself cracking up on several occasions. I have employed some of the same tips for years on my own and found them to be very helpful in getting everyone to partake of the same meal (deconstructing dinner being one I employ frequently), but I also think children younger than 3 can be expected to eat what the rest of the family's eating. Still, I applaud her for striving to have everyone in her family sit down and enjoy a similar meal together--especially when she and her husband were both holding down demanding full time jobs. Wow.

[Bea Elwood · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book gets only two stars because I have read better books; but if you are American parents frustrated and ashamed of your (in)ability to place a home cooked meal on the table every night this book is a good place to start. I did appreciate that this was the story of one family and the real-world steps they took to make family dinner an important part of their family life, two-thumbs up for that.

However, right away she states: I don't even recommend attempting a sit-down meal with your kids until your youngest is at least three. Having already read "Bringing up Bebe" and "French Kids Eat Everything" (one by an American mom and the other by a Canadian mother describing their parenting experiences living in France) I found Rosenstrach's statement really jarring. The fact that French babies start sleeping through the night (sometimes as young as six weeks old, but almost always by three months old) and can be taken to nice restaurants while still toddlers and eat whatever their parents are eating period, seems worthy of emulating.

But what all three of these books had in common was how frustrating it feels for new parents who are concerned with creating healthy eating habits with their kids and how important it was not to let setbacks, failures or disappointments keep you from family dinner.

[Sarah Swann · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVE LOVE LOVED this book! I loved her stories and how real she is. Made a running list of recipes I want to try and it's nice and long. I can't wait to get cooking! This book will live on my cookbook stand in my kitchen so it will remind me of how important it is to feed my family well and help me find the joy in cooking again.

[Cassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this practical, relatable memoir and cookbook. I came away from it inspired to do more with our family dinner routine and with a loooong list of simple, delicious-sounding recipes to try. I also spent way too much time on the blog this afternoon! Highly recommended for moms -- and, really, for anyone who takes pleasure in preparing and serving a simple, tasty, wholesome meal.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read the “dinner a love story” blog for years and this book has also been on my tbr list for years too. It’s dated—I mean, I don’t think most women my age are clipping recipes from magazines any more because it’s their only primary source for finding new thing to make for dinner. I feel like Pinterest, ig, and blogs have made dinner planning/brainstorming easier. I like the memoir style, lists, and simple recipes. I’m lost on lentil and anchovies soup though 🤮 even though the first line after says “don’t let anchovies scare you away.” Ha! That’s the most out there recipe in the book and the rest are tame and sound like something we’d make at our house. Anyways, you can probably read her blog and be just fine but it was fun to read this after years of following and tag some recipes to make.

[Mercy Davenport · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! I can tell I really loved it because it’s one I want to buy and add to my cookbook collection. It’s part cookbook and part food memoir. Just a mom that loves to cook and struggles like all of us to get everyone to eat dinner together and find time to make good food. Recipes are interspersed throughout. And it’s good but normal food… like I can make it.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not for me.
1/ I don’t care for memoirs and this book is half cookbook, half memoir
2/ I don’t cook meat and most recipes contain meat.
3/ the multiple references to needing to drink was cringy

[Gail · Rating 4 out of 5]

About the Book: I’d heard of Dinner: A Love Story before ordering a copy but admittedly had spent zero time on Jenny Rosenstrach’s blog nor was I aware that this was a cookbook that wasn’t just pictures of food with directions on how to cook it, but a true story woven within its pages. After reading Bread & Wine earlier this spring, I felt inspired to pick this cookbook up and I’m so glad I did! I found myself totally immersed in Jenny’s life story, about remembering the days her mom went back to school and her dad made breaded chicken cutlets every night for five years. How she and her husband started to explore cooking in their tiny New York City apartment in their early 20s. And, perhaps most of all (given the season of life I’m in), I enjoyed reading about how Jenny managed to keep dinner time sacred in her home after the addition of her two daughters, born barely a year apart.

As I read this book, I found myself exclaiming out loud several times, “Yes!” or nodding my head in agreement with something Jenny had written (like the passage I excerpted below). Because you see, somewhere between my late 20s and the age I am now (31), I’ve become obsessed with preserving the dinner hour in my own home. I’m grateful that I was raised in a house where my mother (who stayed at home with all four of her kids) had dinner on the table every night without fail. Sometimes I was a brat about what she served (I recall a year where I felt like we ate nothing but casseroles and as an 8-year-old, tuna noodle casserole instantly made me stick out my tongue), but for the most part, my mom has been and always will be the best cook I’ve ever met. The older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve realized food is my mother’s love language — she bakes the best pies, she volunteers with funeral dinners at our church and her potato salad is legendary. So I’m lucky that I had her in the kitchen as the foundation for my love of cooking.

So now, while I may be a working mom, I subscribe to the work philosophy that Jenny wrote about here in DALS: I never want a job that keeps me from being able to put dinner on the table for my family. I’ve become a big believer in the philosophy that if more people could just return to cooking AT HOME, with REAL INGREDIENTS, our nation would go a long way to healing its health crisis. (Apparently the incredible Michael Pollan’s new book is all about this very subject — I shared this article of his on Facebook earlier this week). There is something beautiful in the routine of coming together as a family over food and I so look forward to having those moments with Dean and any future children Nick and I might have in the years to come.

Passage(s) I Want to Remember: I was starting to shape a theory about dinner. I found that if I was eating well, there was a good chance that I was living well, too. I found that when I prioritized dinner, a lot of other things seemed to fall into place: We worked more efficiently …, we had a dedicated time and place to unload whatever was annoying us about work and everything else, and we spent less money by cooking our own food, which meant we never felt guilty about treating ourselves to dinner out on the weekend. And perhaps most important, the simple act of carving out the ritual—a delicious homemade ritual—gave every day purpose and meaning, no matter what else was going on in our lives.

Recipes I Loved: What’s fun about cooking—really cooking—is exploring recipes and learning new techniques you’d never tried before. Which is how I came to discover the beauty of an egg wash on the dough of Jenny’s YUMMY chicken pot pie (who knew it took a bit of egg white to make a crust look SO golden-y delicious?!) and also how I decided to make Jenny’s recipe from the book for curried chicken with apples. I LOVE exploring ethnic cuisine (even though it totally intimidates me; I blogged about my first attempt at making Indian food a few years ago).

Would I Recommend? Here’s who I think this book would be perfect for: New brides (this would make a WONDERFUL shower gift), families with little kids who enjoy cooking (because Jenny is a wonderful example of how you can still make dinner (with a variety of courses) a priority despite all the families out there who may insist you have to live off chicken nuggets until your kid is a teenager); foodies (duh!); and anyone curious about a cookbook that, while it IS a cookbook, reads just as much like a wonderful memoir as a collection of delicious dishes. You can do yourself a favor first and spend some time on Jenny’s blog if you want …I didn’t have to, but in the time since, I’ve become obsessed with it and find it to be one of my daily reads!

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really interesting book. I can't remember when I first found the author's blog of the same name, but I really liked it so I was excited to read the book when it came out. Since I haven't been following the blog from the beginning the book tells the story of how Jenny started keeping track of what she ate or made for dinner every night and how that evolved when she had children and then further evolved into her blog. The book is divided into 3 parts - the first part explains how Jenny started keeping track of her meals and the beginning of her relationship with her husband Andy. Part 2 describes the insanity of trying to plan meals and eat them with some semblance of order with small children in the picture. Part 3 describes when the children are older and Jenny's goal of having everyone eat dinner together and eat (mostly) the same meal. There are lots of recipes in each section that have been vetted by Jenny and her family as well as readers of the blog. Overall, it was a really unique book that I definitely enjoyed.

Here is my favorite quote from the book:

"Homemade stock is a luxury most people cannot afford. Not in the material sense but in terms of time. Who has the time and energy to add one more task to the to-do list after the cooking, the feeding, the math-homework 'helping,' the eat-your-broccoli-ing, the cleaning, the dishwashing, the backpack unpacking, the lunch packing, the bathing, the bedtime storying, the back tickling, the please-just-one-more-kiss-goodnighting? Somehow the guy I married did. (How on earth did that happen?) More important than the fact that using homemade stock instead of the store-bought kind made soups and stews taste a zillion times better, he knew that it made me happy...I'm not sure I can think of a better definition of love." (p.287)

[Feisty Harriet · Rating 4 out of 5]

My sister-in-law gave this to me for my birthday and I went home immediately and read the entire thing cover to cover, all 300 pages, without stopping. In fact, I skipped watching the Oscars because I just couldn’t put this down. Growing up my family usually had breakfast and dinner together, every day. More often than not my Mom woke up extra early and made real breakfast. Pancakes or waffles or crepes, sausage and eggs, coffee cake, cornbread, real hot chocolate (made from scratch, not from a packet or a bottle of Hershey syrup), and oatmeal you cook on the stove. She did breakfast right. As we got a little older and started going to school earlier or, heaven forbid, had 6:00 am practices the breakfast routine changed. We also had dinner together more often than not, and again it was real dinner. I don’t think I ate dinner out of a box until my freshman year of college and my roommate made Hamburger Helper, which I despised (then and now). We would beg for boxed macaroni and cheese, which my Mom would sometimes buy as a treat (WHAT WERE WE THINKING?!), but for the most part we sat down to dinner together every night, or at least often enough for me to believe that was the standard and not the exception. I loved how this book details it is not difficult to do so and while Rosenstratch doesn’t throw guilt trips your way if you are of the Hamburger Helper and bagged salad type–not at all–she talks about how the MOST IMPORTANT THING is the ritual and routine of having a meal together. I loved this book, and I will probably read through it several more times and earmark more of her recipes. Yum!

[Diana Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a lot of cookbooks. A few years ago it got to the point where they needed their own, dedicated bookshelf inserted into my kitchen. Obviously, I have a bit of a problem when it comes to cookbooks. Out of all the cookbooks I have, however, Dinner, A Love Story is the one that rarely makes it back to it's spot on the shelf -it's always on the kitchen counter.

Jenny Rosenstrach "gets it". We all want yummy, healthy, easy and quick to make meals becuase with kids and a job and a million other things it's hard to get a good meal on the table. Jenny does not let you down. I've owned the book for about six weeks and made half the recipes in the book. Not one of them has failed me. The recipes I've tried have been easy, quick and my picky little munchkins have not rejected a single one. I was able to make many of them with things already in my fridge or pantry - perfect for those nights when planning dinner was a big fail. Last night I made Lazy Bolognaise and it was delicious. Wish I'd made more to freeze for another dinner.

The charm of Dinner, A Love Story is not just in the recipes. Rosenstrach is a gifted writer and suplements the book with laugh out loud stories that make you realize that ther are people out there just like you - struggling to get a good meal on the table but making it a priority to at least try - and Jenny is one of them.

[Missy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely devoured this book (see what I did there? "devoured" hehe) in less than 24 hours. Full disclosure - Memoir is my favorite genre and I am addicted to cookbooks, so it is no surprise that this one appealed to me. This book will not make you feel guilty if you don't already cook and spend hours around the family table - it also won't give you the big head if you do. It WILL inspire you in practical ways to put dinner on the table. Moreover, it will inspire you to embrace whatever life season you are in with your family. Don't think you can't relate to a woman who has kept a diary of every dinner she's cooked for the last 14 years! I am not a list person in any way, but I admire anyone who puts that much effort into what she feeds her family and friends. She's witty, kind, gracious & funny! I'd love to be invited over for dinner. The recipes are simple & fresh and will appeal to all types of cooks (and eaters) - be warned. I cried after reading the last page of this book.... And it wasn't from chopping onions.

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, which was largely but not exclusively recipes. The author discusses ways to get the whole family to sit down together and had many many kid AND adult friendly recipes. I pulled about 8 and Rob is excited to try a few. I have added her blog to something I look at regularly for recipe ideas.

The author often had "overlapping" meals in which she would eat the spinach and chicken; one daughter would eat the chicken with rice and other daughter would eat the spinach and rice, She considered it a huge victory when all kids could sit together and eat the same food. What will stick with me is when she went to her friend's house and her older kids were all going in different directions and the friend said she would happily make 5 different meals if they would all just sit down together. I'm going to try to remember that just having my kids at the dinner table together, even if they are picking at their food, is a huge success in itself.

ETA: I ended up buying this book b/c we were so happy with the recipes we pulled and initially tried.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, I really enjoyed this book.
And more importantly, I will continue to enjoy this book!

And this is really saying something because
a) I frequently think of dinner as the daily albatross around my neck and
b) I don't really get into to cookbooks.

So, why is it such a great read?

Because its much more of a love story than a cookbook. Yes, there are recipes. Pretty damn good ones, at that. But the way they are presented is what makes it captivating. The author introduces them with lovely, funny, humble prose about the time in her life when each recipe appeared. These vignettes are are beautifully written and even makes a skeptic like me realize that dinner is so much more than one of the last chores of the day. Its an opportunity to connect, bond and share love. I've been inspired to lighten up, think strategically, and look at the last meal of the day as a chance to write my own love story.

[Maria Burnham · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book! I checked it out from the library, thinking I was getting a cookbook, but really what I got was a beautiful story about how food and homecooked meals tell the stories of our lives. The book weaves together recipes (most of which I would feel comfortable making) and the author's journey of keeping a food journal. It tracks the days of day-long cooking of fancy meals to the frantic life of having little children and just needing to get something on the table.
I take meal-planning seriously and work hard to feed my family healthy, tasty meals. I am planning on buying this book to have in my cookbook collection. Oh, this book also gives a wonderful list of cookbooks to have--can't wait to beef up my cookbook collection!

[Kate Peaslee · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved loved loved this book. a MUST for anyone managing work and home life, esp with young kids, who prioritizes healthy eating, cooking at home, and eating together as a family...some great suggestions here on how to make that happen in a regular, realistic manner...funny, sweet family and relationship anecdotes interspersed with recipes. never thought I would read a glorified recipe book for fun from start to finish, but here it is! my only regret is that I read it as an ebook and now have to get the hard copy for easy access to the recipes, many of which we've already tried. oh, and there's a companion blog that I now check nearly every day.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I look and sound just like my mother. I also got my love of reading from her. So it makes sense that both of us love read cookbooks the way others read novels. Jenny Rosenstrach writes a helpful and entertaining food blog, Dinner A Love Story. Her book by the same name is great for people like Mom and I. She has created a nice mix of personal stories and recipes. People with children will be interested on her tips/cooking style to create one meal to please her and her husband while accommodating the food weirdness of each of her children.

[Alicia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! It has compelling narrative and it is a great cook book. I read it from cover to cover and kind of want to start over again. I wouldn't say she has inspired me to cook fancy things, but she makes me want to keep cooking good food every day, and to serve it to my kids and be okay with it if they don't like it. To keep trying because I like good food and that is reason enough. I will definitely be reading this again and again.

[Vivian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading the narrative (and there is quite a lot of it, for a cookbook). Actually, this is more a journey through marriage and family than a collection of recipes. What a good idea! She talks about acquiring equipment, stocking the pantry, all sorts of stuff that the cooking novice would appreciate. It's like she's holding your hand, but not.
This would be a great wedding gift. Or, just visit her blog: dinneralovestory.com

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! I picked it up after a friend recommended the blog. Through small chapters (that have accompanying recipes) that span 1998-2012, the author tells how she came to prioritize family dinner and how both her family and her approach to dinner evolved over time. She has plenty of good ideas and recipes to try out. If you enjoy reading about how other people view dinner, cooking, and family, you'll enjoy this book.

[Lindsay Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspiring without being preachy. Most recipes are simple and fast to pull together for a weeknight meal and I also really want to eat them! My only complaint is that the seem to eat like a two income family (ie lots of fish and seafood) which aren't exactly in our budget, but still sound super good for our couple times a year when we splurge. She also has a daughter named Phoebe, so I automatically connected with her.