Weekend Cooking

Yesterday, while at Barnes and Noble  (Yes AGAIN.  I drove 3 hours to meet my son half-way to do a grandkid swap,  and B&N is a wonderful place for me to relax before driving 3 hours back home. They have books, they have coffee, they have chairs....and they have...CREDIT CARD MACHINES.  I can always leave there happy.)


Where was I?  Oh yes,  while I was at Barnes and Noble, I casually picked up this cookbook...

....I had not heard of it before.  I went in with the intention of buying Rachel Ray's Book of
Burger, but ended up buying this one instead. 
I just had a feeling about it.    And it starts with this line on the back: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 differeent directions.  They are not superhuman.  They are not from another planet.

I was intrigued.

And this morning when I sat down,  coffee cup in hand, and picked up this book and began reading: 
I fell in love with it!


Admittedly, I am only thru the introduction but....heck yeah, I am in love with the author.  

1)  She kept a dinner diary for twelve years!  12 YEARS!!
I love all things diary, journal, letter, notebook. (I have a guest book in my house/living room, for...well, for guests to sign.  I know--DORK, but it's fun for me to remember who,what, when and where)

She said that she is one of those sad, deluded people who  think that the mere act of writing something down will give them control over it.
ME TOO!!
(see how much we have in common?)

2)  She believes in the family table, but will not criticize those who don't.
ME TOO!!  
I love the family table.  I  love the feeling of:  family.  
When my boys were little, we used to read books outloud at the table....I would read a chapter.  We read the Hardy Boys that way and  The BFG.   (okay so maybe it was only one summer we did this, because as I now recall, I would read the chapter while they ate and then everyone was finished and asking to be excused when I was just starting my meal....the Handyman included...so I think I gave that one up after a short while. But we did get a few good books in that summer.)
But talking, laughing, communicating..... that's what I remember about the family table.    And honestly,  some fighting, kids rolling of the eyes, babies putting olives up their noses, throwing spaghetti at their brothers.  That kind of thing.
Nothing's perfect, but that's what's so great, because real life is not perfect, it's just real.

3) She has a blog!!   O.M.G.  How did I not know that?   I have missed years of her blog.  WTH??   YOU probably are all aware of this blog.   This is my life:  Never on the cutting edge of things...always coming in behind.  (sigh)
Dinner:  A Love Story
I am going to make a comment on her blog and tell her I love her!  You think that's a bit much?  Too stalkerish?
Okay fine, but....Once I actually finish the book, there might be no holding me back.

Which brings me to the end of this post....because I'm off to finish reading my new cookbook.  I just wanted to link up to Weekend Cooking, to share my excitement.
Weekend Cooking is weekly meme @  Beth Fish Reads.  I think she just might have more cookbooks than me.





Just FYI....Goodreads has this summary:
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.