From time to time, a Slate staffer or critic offers up a favorite cultural pick for Procrastinate Better readers. Today’s endorsement is from senior editor Dahlia Lithwick.
I’ve come to believe most mothers can be divided into those who have made peace with a slapdash family dinner and those who haven’t. As the child of a stay-at-home mom who cooked her way up and down the entire food pyramid every day of the ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s, and beyond, I’ve never made my peace with defrosting, ordering in, or contracting out. I must cook dinner. Even when there’s a work deadline. Even when I am swearing audibly through every mince and saut é .
Jenny Rosenstrach’s gorgeous blog, Dinner: a Love Story (recently featured in the Times ), comes dangerously close to porn for me. Rosenstrach worked at Real Simple and Cookie, and she writes about cooking for kids without any of the preciousness of kid blogs or the righteousness of food evangelists. She just really, really loves food, loves her family, and understands the complex ratio of panic to desperation with which most of us approach weeknight dinners. Her directions are easy, the photos unpretentious, and her comprehension of the baffling kid palate is extraordinary. I could say I only log on once a day for inspiration, when it’s time to start making dinner. But I’d be lying.
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