Category Archives: review

Today marks a sort of unusual anniversary for me. It was the day that I discovered what remains my favorite application, on any platform, of all time — Notational Velocity. I first started using it on this date back in 2005 — 8 years ago.

In fact, I first wrote about it just a few days after I downloaded it. And I have continued to use it, every day, ever since. I now use nvALT, which is Brett Terpstra’s wonderful fork of the original that includes all sorts of handy extra features.

That said, the original version would still be plenty fine for me regardless. A really great app.

As I stated earlier, even though I do a lot of the cooking for our family dinner, when it comes to searching for new things to try my wife Bethany is the queen. One of her favorite sources is a cookbook called Dinner: A Love Story by Jenny Rosenstrach. While it is full of wonderful family-friendly recipes and ideas, it is also a wonderful read. That’s right, read. It is not only a cookbook but a memoir as well. One in which the food is a central theme that the narrative is woven through.

It has saved our mealtime conundrums many times. Most of the recipes are simple, quick, and largely designed for a busy family like the author’s. For instance, we recently had a whole meals worth of spaghetti noodles left over (because I can never figure out how to make “just enough”) just sitting in the fridge a few days old. There was also some flat leaf parsley in the crisper waiting for use. Bethany remembered that the book had just the perfect use for these — a Spaghetti Omelet. I had some doubts after having tried another similar idea in the past but I was game to give it another go. Sure enough, it turned out perfectly. So delish!

Another one from the book that we keep coming back to in ious forms is the Chicken Milanese. It is not only perfectly great following the recipe but also highly adaptable to improvisation. With a few slight changes or additions this can easily become Chicken Parmesan or even some healthy and flavorful Chicken Fingers for the kids.

And, as one would imagine from such a source, the Dinner: A Love Story blog is an equally entertaining mix of the same cookbook/memoir mashup that makes the book so great.

All of this to say that Dinner: A Love Story is another great book for the busy cook. The biggest dilemma you may face is wether it belongs on your nightstand or in the kitchen. I recommend following Bethany’s path — first the nightstand, then the kitchen.

I’m generally the cook of the house. That means that, most nights, I’m the one that plans and prepares dinner. I have no problem with this. I love to cook and am pretty proud of my skills in the kitchen. Especially as I was raised in the care of two women, my mom and grandmother, who did not cook really at all (we ate out a lot). Plus, it makes me feel like I’m taking care of my family.

That said, coming up with new things that everyone will eat is often quite hard. Bethany does not eat red meat and is mostly vegetarian in general. Beatrix is as picky as five year olds often are and when she does eat she eats like a bird. My Mom, who is living with us right now, is on a special diet seemingly on a meal by meal whim. And I have been trying to monitor my intake of carbs and overall balance of protein, fruits, and vegetables. Yet, somehow, we manage.

Sometimes, we end up trying something new because I invent it based on ingredients we have on hand. Other times, I see a new recipe and am inspired. But other times, even though I’m generally the cook, it is often due to Bethany suggesting a recipe that we end up breaking the routine.

Well, Bethany has a friend who has a great family cookbook called Parents Need To Eat Too as well as a blog of the same name. It is perfect for situations like ours where you have many tastes to please and only about a half hour at the end of a long and busy day to do so.

Tonight we tried this one from the blog and it was amazing:

Roasted Butternut Gnocchi in Blood Orange Brown Butter | Parents Need to Eat Too

Near gourmet in concept but simple to pull off in actual execution. Rich and full of flavor. Seriously, it was fantastic. It just so happened that we had a similar circumstance as the author — a squash and a blood orange that were on the edge of use so it worked out perfectly. Bethany had by chance roasted our squash the night before hoping to find something to do with it.

I served it with a side salad of baby kale, chard, spinach, carrots, and tomatoes. It served four nicely with some leftovers.

So, if you are the cook like me and were wondering what to do for dinner tonight, I can’t think of a better suggestion.