It all begins at the family table - A Love Story

Loved the entertaining text, interesting recipes (yet to be tried) along with cute photos! I "related" even tho' I gave up a medical career once our family arrived (5 kiddos in 7 years)...great read!!

When I first started reading this cookbook (because yes, there is lots of potential for reading here), I was in love. I like the blog that started it all, so decided to check out the cookbook. Reading it is a delight- so many stories that tell you that the author has really been in the trenches when trying to put dinner on the table for her family with two kids under two years old. She specifically mentions that she counted it as eating around the table if one spouse was walking around the table holding the baby and the other spouse is sitting at the table trying to get the toddler to eat. I definitely laughed in recognition and then made my husband read the "Two under Two" section.

I easily made a whole week's meal plan using recipes from it. The book is mostly recipes for main dishes- if you are looking for lots of dessert recipes or sides, I think you will be disappointed. The recipes are organized into three sections:

1) recipes that are great when you don't have kids but have more time to craft a delicious meal
2) recipes that are suitable when you are just barely surviving with tiny kids and the idea of organized dinner seems to be a laughable pipe dream
3) recipes that are better when the kids are older and you have a little more time back, and the idea of everyone eating around the table seems doable.

Each section has lots of stories and anecdotes that really add to the loveliness and warmth of this book. The third section also has lots of tips and strategies that the author has put into place to avoid being a short-order cook for her children (one of whom is very picky). None of these tips involve hiding vegetables. The author makes it clear that this is what works for her (one suggestion is assembly-line meals where kids can add what they want), but we're all doing what we can do to get by.

Unfortunately, not all the recipes I have tried have been winners. When evaluating a recipe, I like to follow it fairly closely initially. I am mostly cooking out of the second section of the book - the barely making it section - because that is where I am right now. Lazy Bolognese was a huge fail at my house- we usually use a different recipe that really isn't any harder but comes out much better. The pasta with caramelized onions and spinach was pretty good to me, but my husband and toddler daughter weren't nuts about it. The sausages with potatoes, onions, and apples was very successful. I don't even like potatoes that much, and I LOVED the potato, onion, and apple mixture. Downside about that recipe is that it takes a while to cook - not a lot of hands-on time, but waiting time, so if you are trying to really throw something on the table pretty quickly, it might not be for that kind of night. We do sausage a lot at our house, and it is definitely faster to just throw it in the oven and then boil potatoes or "bake" them in the microwave. Does it taste as good as the potatoes/apples/onions? No, it does not. But it is fast. The sausage, kale, and white bean stew was INCREDIBLE. That said, there are other recipes that I still want to try - like the Swedish Meatballs, the pork shoulder ragu, and the pizza dough recipe. The recipes definitely lend themselves to improvisation and adjustment.

I am not sure if all the recipes are on the website - some of them definitely are.

Who will like this cookbook:

- People with small children who feel totally alone and frustrated in their attempts to eat something approximating a real dinner. I love the precision and delicious reliability of Ina Garten's cookbooks, but this is so not where I am at this point right now.
- People who eat meat and/or animal products - there are vegetarian recipes and some veganish recipes,
- People who eat a dairy-free diet (many of the recipes are easily adaptable to be dairy-free, not the case with some of my other favorite cookbooks like Ina Garten's or the Pioneer Woman)
- People who like the blog
- People who believe strongly in the family eating meals together
- People who need new ideas for dinner

Who probably won't like this cookbook:

- People without kids who are uninterested in reading stories about trying to eat dinner with kids or who feel frustrated at the standard definition of family as parents + kids. In the author's defense, this is what her family looks like, and the book is written from her perspective. She never says that all families should or do look this way, but I know people who are very sensitive to this kind of thing. So if this is you, you might want to try a different cookbook.
- People who like standard "meat and three" kinds of meals. I think my husband is in this category, which is why the recipes are less of a hit than I would have hoped.
- Vegans (again, you will find some appropriate recipes, but most of the recipes have some kind of animal product in it).
- People who like to rely on processed and packaged foods when cooking
- People who do a lot of crockpot cooking (you could adapt some recipes for the crockpot, but I don't think the author mentions using a crockpot once in the book)
- People who want dessert recipes

This is a story that started with a graduate student that work as a writer/proof-reader, in addition to school. During this time, he saw the most impressive cheese and then many years later, followed up on the story behind this.

I really enjoyed this book. Also I liked very much the recipes that I have tried. I think that they have been tested and refined to make them simple and tasty. However, if you are looking for ways to expand your children's eating choices, I think you will be disappointed. There was only one idea that I thought might be useful. She suggests making a food pyramid that shows what kings, queens, princes, and princesses eat. For example, kings eat broccoli, princesses eat salmon (it's pink). You can use your imagination and experience to create your own pyramid.

I admit: I usually check out books like this from the library, which is how I read it in the first place. However, we've already used at least 6 of the recipes (all of which were a hit with my 9 year-old), and it's just such a pleasant read, it's nice to select a recipe and then recall the back-story. So, she's getting my money - which in my time of frugality, is saying something. Can't believe I actually planned - and shopped for - a week's menu, and it was a pleasure! So nice to inject some fresh ideas into our weeknight repertoire, especially. Highly recommended.

This book has some recipes, but isn't primarily a cookbook. Each small grouping of recipes in this book is prefaced by an anecdote or an essay that explains how the recipes became a part of the author's home cooking repertoire. Although the book has some recipes for dinner parties, it mostly consists of recipes that have been successful for the author in terms of being relatively healthy and quick to fix meals to make after work and eat with her husband and kids. She and her husband seem to split the cooking, so there are "guy friendly" recipes galore in this book.

I really enjoyed reading about how she balances her career and family life and think that she had lots of interesting ideas for working mothers or fathers who want to make healthier eating and family meal times a priority. Be forewarned that the tips she shares in this book can often be quite time consuming or require planning in advance and may not work for everyone. It probably is much quicker and easier to keep taking the kids through a drive through or to the prepared foods section of the grocery than to follow many of the suggestions in this book but if you really feel that you want to make family dinners a focal point of your family life, this book will probably help you a lot.

Here's one example of the type of food planning recommended in this book: in order to please picky eaters, plan your meals using Venn diagrams and make enough components that everyone at your dinner table will at least have one component in common on their plates. So, if everyone in your family eats spinach, but some people are vegetarian and some people don't eat wheat, etc., you could use spinach as the "intersecting" item and make sausage, pasta, grilled tofu and baked potatoes so that everyone would end up with a carb, a protein and spinach on their plate and will be able to bond over the fact that they all have a common food item that they can enjoy together.

I really admire the author's dedication to family meal time as a way to promote togetherness and would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in that topic.

The premise of this book was fantastic: Dinner is a love story, a way to connect with and strengthen your family. Like the author, I have a passion for the family dinner hour, and was excited to get a copy of the book.

What I liked:
*She enjoys food and cooking. This is not a "since-I-have-to-cook" book.

*The food writing is crisp, clear, and inviting.

*She cooks every night even during the years she worked a long day with a commute. Impressive!

*She loves her husband and enjoys his input and company in the kitchen. This was HUGE for me.

*The dishes range in complexity and price point and reflect the real-life kitchen of a foodie. I appreciated the recipes that were twists on standard family fare especially.

*She is opinionated. I don't agree with some of her opinions, but I enjoy a writer that that doesn't apologize, candy coat, or backpedal.

What I didn't:
* Her parenting advice and anecdotes are as prominent as the recipes for much of the book. She portrays herself and her husband as a victim of her children's erratic sleep and eating habits and chronicles their various contortions to accommodate them. For a proactive parent, this was a frustrating read.

*Making dinner every night seemed to be her personal litmus test for being a good wife and mom. I realized about halfway through the book that a sit-down home cooked dinner is the end goal, not the means to an end.

*I would have loved a more extensive pantry list.

*Wow, there are a LOT of seafood recipes.

Overall impression:

This was a book I expected to love given the title and publisher blurbs. She kept her focus laser-sharp on family dinner. The recipes were a bit more adventurous and healthy than typical family fare, which I liked. She also portrays and teaches the give and take between recipes and freestyle cooking technique as well as any author I've read. For those reasons, this would make a great gift as a cookbook for a new bride or a mom wanting to transition to home cooked meals.

This book fell flat for me as a cookbook memoir because of the sheer volume of parenting advice that assumes children will upend the entire family for years with their sleeping and eating habits. It gave the book a split personality in both content and writing style. You can proactively parent, just like you proactively make dinner. If she had chosen to present their parenting style as a choice with both good and bad consequences (like she did her choice to pursue a writing career full time after having kids), I wouldn't have knocked a star off my review.

This book reads like a novel and is pretty entertaining. The author's adventures in dinner prep and anecdotes about her daughters are fun and keep the book moving. The recipes integrate seamlessly into the text, which makes for a nice reading experience. And there are some family dining tips I really found useful - like how to get the non-cook involved with dinner preparation. However, it is not organized very efficiently for daily use in the kitchen. It is divided into 3 sections: life before kids, new parents, and family dinner, and I found it difficult to flip through to browse for recipes or meal plan efficiently. To me, the book is best for reading through, picking the recipes that are of interest to you, and then adding them to your collection. It's not the kind of book you go back to repeatedly. I got it from the library and feel like I got what I needed from it without purchasing it.

Purely subjective, but...I was not a fan of her parenting advice or attitude. I was never a reader of her blog - if I was, perhaps I would have known whether I liked her style of writing. By the end of this book, the tone really started to irritate me. It may not be an issue for you, but you should know that this is a cookbook with a lot of the writer's voice and opinions in it.

As other reviewers have mentioned, the family dining advice is sort of controversial. The author encourages families to serve two separate meals - one for the adults and one for the kids, until the youngest reaches the age of 3. Aside from the fact that for most people, this would not actually make dinnertime easier, this is pretty much counter to all childhood nutritional advice I've ever read. Of course, as with anything, you can take other people's parenting advice with a grain of salt, but it bothered me how strongly she pushes this.

Lastly, but most importantly - the food! The recipes are a pretty decent collection of the basics with some more exotic ideas interspersed throughout. They are very accessible and straightforward. I didn't find the recipes especially healthy or unhealthy - there's a nice mix of splurge meals and everyday workhorse type meals. If you are starting from scratch in cooking for your family and don't have your "back pocket recipes", this could be a very useful addition to your collection. For me, as a moderately experienced cook before kids, with a good recipe collection of the basics (breaded chicken, red sauce, risottos, etc.) I wasn't as interested in the recipes, because they were for the most part variations of what I already had. That being said, I found a couple keepers and I do think the cookbook is worth a read - I would just check it out from the library first to make sure it's your style. Hope this helps.

I loved reading this and wish this book (and ethic) had been around when my girls were little(they are now 23 and 27). I did many of the things in this book but back "in the day" visiting farmer's markets,traveling to ethnic markets all over the city, and loving cooking and baking with my kids all weekend was seen as slightly wierd. I guess I did something right since one daughter is a fabulously talented chef and the other is a food blogger. I think that Jenny (Rosenstrach) might have this (wonderful future) ahead of her. I have been calling fish in parchment "fish presents" since my girls were tiny and it was crazy to see her doing the same thing. Also, I thought I invented the onion trick....)-:....anyhoo..I made her buttermilk oven fried chicken tonight-fabulous!...Last week I made her starter curry- so delicious! and this weekend I am making the pork ragu for my formerly kosher hubby...The recipes look wonderful and I can not wait to try them all.

I enjoyed the style of this book immensely. And the ridiculously simple chicken pot pie recipe really is amazing. It has become a keeper in our house.

I would have liked a few more recipes. And wow does this author like pork! She mentions going to Hebrew school so I was surprised by the number of pork recipes in her repertoire. Just a personal preference, I have not made any of those recipes. But I see reviews from vegetarians so there are probably subs I could make so I might take another look at them.

I love her non-judgmental tone and the snippet from her husband about "how to grill". I know it sounds silly but I don't even own a Weber and the step-by-step directions really made it look less intimidating.

her parenting advice was realistic although kids are different, not sure if you can get every kid to be as adventurous as her girls are at the dining table. But I enjoy the challenge!

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.

I love this cookbook.
The recipes are very approachable - I've never had to google an ingredient or go to a specialty store (and spend lots of $$), but somehow the food is so much better than what I could come up with on my own. Classic recipes like great-grandma's meatballs, chicken pot pie, and beef stew are there, but also pork braised in wine and pomegranate juice with red cabbage (my personal favorite), and cold salmon salad. I think it's safe to say that I've cooked out of this book at least twice a week since I got it last Christmas.
The other side of this book is how to handle family dinners. I haven't tried her approach (no kids here!) but the idea of deconstructing a meal is still interesting to read about. Maybe it will come in handy in a couple of years.
Jenny incorporates stories from her young adult life all the way through marriage and having two kiddos. I really enjoyed reading through them while flipping through the recipes the first time, and they are fun to skim while the pot simmers.
I can't recommend this book enough!

This is my absolute favorite cookbook - the one I return to time and again for those "back pocket recipes" as well as inspiration for new flavors. It has become my favorite gift to give newlyweds, new parents, new homeowners, the list goes on. My copy is lovingly stained and creased, and my personal dinner diary is full of DALS recipes and spin offs. You cannot go wrong with this!

I absolutely cherish this book, as it tells heart-warming stories about Jenny's family, their special family recipes and she reminds us what's important -- quality time. I've made a handful of recipes from her book which are simple but elegant. My guests and family have all commented on how delicious my dinners have been...so THANK YOU JENNY! In today's times, we forget what's important- making a delicious, healty dinner and connecting with our families. This is the way it was when I was a child and I want my son to experience this gift and pass it onto his family some day! This book allows me to do both -- a definite keeper!

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 beautifully written, so much so that even a skeptic like me has begun to 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.

Whoa. The world is suddenly a better place. Jenny R. has outdone herself, writing a cookbook that I shuttle between my bedside table and kitchen counter. It's the only cookbook I own that's a page-turner. The recipes are easy to follow and seriously delicious--and can be prepared even amongst the typical chaos that comes with every family meal. Much more than a cookbook, though, Jenny's book is about bringing the family together--having fun while making and eating delicious, healthy affordable food. What do I like most about this book? It's real. It's chock full of photos and heart-warming stories from Jenny's actual life. Her writing is funny and inspirational and kind--non-judgemental and approachable. She had me smiling at the intro.

This book knocked my socks off!

This terrific book is a mix of memoir and recipes. I discovered Jenny's delightful web site a few months ago. This book brings her story and recipes to your kitchen. The memoir portions of the book trace her evolution as a cook and fill in the details of her family dinner story. I'm a mother of 4 kids and I've always worked outside the home, so I know the challenge of putting family dinner on the table. Jenny's book validates the efforts we make to get everyone to eat together. It provides a booster shot of inspiration, but no guilt. Check out her memo from her pre-work self to her post-work self - so clever and a great way to remember your good intentions when you're rushing to get out the door in the morning or when you're worn out after work. The focus on cooking from scratch with wholesome ingredients (which I share) is practical, not preachy. The book helped me get revved up again about making dinner. It also provides down-to-earth recipes and tips to make it easier. Plus, she is really funny. The book is a pleasure to read and the recipes I've tried so far have been great. Thank you, Jenny!

Since buying this book several weeks ago, I have made at least six new recipes from it. While my husband and I enjoyed all of the dishes, four were absolute home runs and will enter into our immediate dinner rotation. I can't wait to cook my way through the remainder of the cookbook. The stories interspersed throughout are cute and added to my enjoyment of the book.

And it comes through in this funny, heartfelt book.

Building a family isn't something you do all at once, and Jenny shares her story with humor and insights into the ups and downs (and recipes!).

I really enjoyed it.

This is my new favorite cookbook. Every recipe that we have tried so far has been delicious. I keep thinking that the next one we make won't be as easy or tasty as the last- but we have not yet been disappointed. I've never read a cookbook cover to cover before and I love how each recipe has a connection to real life and that each recipe has literally been enjoyed by a real family. It makes the whole process of getting that home cooked meal on the table feel less daunting because someone real has done it! It even includes a section on how to make those most crucial happy hour cocktails to help you get that dinner on the table! I really can't say enough!

I've been cooking through this book all summer and haven't had a bad recipe yet. The recipes that you'll find in this book are not only crowd pleasers they are simple and delicious. It's a great gift for any parent. I already have too many cook books but I had zero buyers remorse after finding a few recipes that will now be added to my dinner rotation. If you're still skeptical, check out her blog to see if her cooking style will fit your style.

This is a great book, part cookbook, part memoir, part parenting guide. If you have small children who eat (or Don't as may be the case) , if you work and worry about their dining habits, read this, you'll laugh out loud and fall in love with Jenny and her family.

Enthusiastic two thumbs up (actually four thumbs) for this great book and blog by Jenny Rosenstrach. Guilt-reducing, inspiring, funny, and loaded with great dinner recipes, this book helps even the beginning--or thinking about beginning--cook discover the potential of dinner as "the emotional anchor to our days." -Mary Beth Lagerborg and Mimi Wilson, Once-a-Month Cooking.Once-A-Month Cooking Family Favorites: More Great Recipes That Save You Time and Money from the Inventors of the Ultimate Do-Ahead Dinnertime Method

Funny, useful, and practical! The author shares real-life experiences involving food, cooking, and parenting! I particularly appreciate suggestions for feeding picky eaters and putting real food on the table fast! I've never read a cookbook that I didn't want to put down - until now!

wonderful! a must have for busy people and busy parents. very impressed by the quality of the recipes and the use of ingredients. the commentary fits and really engages you in the book. this was an unexpected surprise gift from a friend and I am very grateful!

Great for beginning cooks and parents with picky eaters. I've tried a few recipes but I love the narrative in between recipes to really give it all context. Love this new food/fiction/non-fiction category.

The recipes are fine, but the author acts like she discovered the 'novel' concept of kids eating real food and of "busy, stressed" parents managing to cook a meal. Guess what? All of France does that routinely, as do more and more Americans. I did, however, LOVE the dollhouse she made from magazine photos--brilliant. Most of the food sounds good, but I'm tired of every Mommy with a perfect life selling their parenting advice.

HOW IS THE KINDLE EDITION MORE EXPENSIVE THAN THE HARDCOVER??????? please explain it to meeeee. i'm still old fashioned, and still prefer to have and actual book in my hands, but the kindle arrives faster, so I have bought some of those.
still dont understand how it can cost more???

Very unlike my life. Who doesn't allow their children under the age of 3 at the table? While I appreciate the focus on whole ingredients, there are many ways to put dinner on the table every night. I found this book still too New Yorky, foodie, and snobby for a regular person trying to work, raise kids, and eat a decent (not gourmet) meal every night. Distrust any author who claims to write a family cookbook and be a regular working mom while having been published in Bon Appetit (Swedish meatball recipe and story).

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.