So I finally got around to checking out Cathleen's "birthday gift" to me from last year: Jenny Rosenstrach's Dinner: A Love Story. I was at my library and they finally had it, so I did what any sane person would do: I gave a little yelp and a hop, then remembered that I was in a library, grabbed the book and got out of there as quickly and furtively as possible.
Anyway, this book has been just as fantastic as I thought it would be. Jenny's writing style is charming and conversational and I've found myself laughing out loud many times. But even more important than keeping me entertained, (wait, is there anything more important than that?) it's given me a new angle from which to tackle my dinner issues.
Wait, what's that you're saying? "Alissa, how can you have dinner issues? You love to cook and you're at home all day, for goodness sake!" I know, it sounds ridiculous, (I could NEVER cut it as a working mother) but dinner is like a scary freight train relentlessly bearing down on me every day. No matter how much I like to cook, the continual thinking, planning, and actual cooking with small people underfoot can make even the stoutest chef heart tremble a little bit. Not to mention that my eldest daughter likes to ask me in advance what we're eating for dinner tomorrow- usually just as we're sitting down to the dinner that I just made.
It literally puts me into a panic.
That's why I'm so excited to have a fresh perspective and some new ideas to try out in my kitchen. Maybe it'll breathe some new life into old favorites and make the monotony avoidance a little easier. So what I'm trying to say is,
Thank you, Cathleen, for your thoughtful cyber present. I love it and it was just what I needed.
Happy Weekend, Friends!
-Alissa
