Dinner A Love Story Book Giveaway

I want to start by saying that when it comes to my family and meals, I kind of wish I could have a do-over. Not entirely because I messed it up — we regularly ate together and I made homecooked meals most of the time. But I made mistakes. I made separate meals for far too many years for various members of the younger set and don’t feel I did a particularly good job helping them learn to try new things. I took things too personally, as if they’re not eating something was about me rather than just regular growing up. What  I would have given to have Jenny Rosenstrach’s blog, Dinner A Love Story, or now her memoir/cookbook — which I am calling a cookmoir. I would have realized that in fact I was doing a pretty good job. (And the book will help one of you lucky readers, too, because we’re doing a giveaway. Details at the end of the post.)

Here are just a few reasons why Dinner A Love Story, the book, is so great.

While Jenny is seriously committed to a family dinner most nights of the week, she is not at all suggesting they should be gourmet, complicated or that the only family dinners that “count” are the ones in which everyone is eating the same thing. (A feat that I sometimes felt happened once in a blue moon and on my worst days only once every other blue moon.) Her Venn diagram (with concentric circles of, for example, spinach, spaghetti and meatballs showing where family members overlap) that she uses to convince herself that she, her husband Andy and their two daughters are eating the same dinner is brilliant.

• she titles a section on favorite Mommy and Daddy drinks as “medicine”

• she is an “off-roader” cook, i.e. she doesn’t necessarily feel the need for specific recipes

• she is unabashed about her mommy guilt when she was working outside the home as an editors at Real Simple and the now-defunct Cookie magazine

• she is funny and yes just a little snarky at times and, as regular readers know, I find it hard to pass up some good snark

• she admits her own foibles and by doing so makes us all feel better

• she’s a good cook interested in crowd pleasers

I could go on. But the real thing is everyone should have this book. It’s a fast read and you will feel better when you’re done AND you will have a bunch of new recipes to try out on your family. So, here’s how you can win your very own copy of Dinner A Love Story. Just leave a comment below about family dinner. It doesn’t have to be an embarrassing story, but we’re certainly not opposed. We will announce the winner on Friday.