Spring Diary

It was a busy few months -- here's what you might've missed.

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Cocktails on the roof, food tours in Italy, a parade of pastas that have earned coveted positions on the Lifetime Dinner Roster! It’s been a busy few months in the Land of DALS and so herewith: Twenty things you might’ve missed while you were…wait, what else could you have been doing that was so important!?! We’ll start with number one above: Back in April, Andy discovered his new go-to drink, the Mortoni…

Not to be outdone on the refreshing cocktail front, I decided that the Hugo Spritz would be my official drink of summer.

A dozen intrepid Dinner: A Love Story readers joined me in Parma for a food tour, hosted by Via Rosa.

James Beard-Award-winning chef Dan Kluger shared his stunning recipe for Rigatoni with Mushroom Bolognese.

My daughters and nieces weighed in with a banger: “Cheap, Loud, Fun: Where to Eat in New York,” i.e. restaurant recs from my favorite twenty-somethings.

I wrote about the 12 best things we did (and ate and drank!) in Rome.

I took a family trip to Ireland!

Caroline Chambers joined me on Substack Live to get us all hyped about the first long weekend of grill season. It worked! Especially that part about the Herby Grilled Steak with Greek Feta Bruschetta.

The next week, I convinced my husband and Dinner: A Love Story intern Andy Ward to talk about his side hustle as the Publisher of Random House. No offense to all my other interviewees, but this Substack Live might’ve been an all-time favorite.

There was, in fact, a lot of book talk this spring. A reader named Abby asked “Would you ever consider writing about your reading schedule…I’d love to hear the nitty gritty of how you get through so many books” and the answer — How to Prioritize Reading the Way You Prioritize Working Out — was one of my most popular posts of the year. I also wrote about Lena Dunham’s Famesick, New York’s newest cookbook store, and asked Emma Straub to discuss what she is reading and loving right now. And remember when beloved novelist Maria Semple taught all of us How to Be a Dinner Fairy?

I developed a comforting, throwback-y recipe called One Pot Ditalini with Sausage, “the kind of strategic meal I used to have in the rotation when the kids’ schedules were scrambling my brain…and all I wanted was a dinner that could sit on the stovetop and be anything to anyone at anytime.”

I asked a dozen of my favorite Substack women writers to weigh in on the gifts they wanted for Mother’s Day…or really any day. (Writer Ann Hood’s dream gift was epic.)

I invited some friends over for a Vegetable Broth Taste Test and was completely surprised by the winner.

I made Cornmeal-Crusted Fish Tacos with Avocado Salad and Mango-Salsa and was reminded that classics are classics for a reason.

Inspired by all my Great British Bake-Off bingeing, I made a small-scale Angel Food Cake with Strawberry Sauce. Not sure it would’ve earned me Star Baker honors, but it was damned delicious.

There was that 10-minute Hot-Smoked Salmon Bowl with Green Beans and Herby Green Sauce that my daughter told me was the best recipe I’ve run on Dinner: A Love Story in a decade. 🤷‍♀️

There were two winners in the Department of Noodles: Spaghetti all’Assassina, aka the Pasta I’ll Be Making for the Rest of My Life, and the simple, elegant Tagliatelle with Scallions and Anchovy Breadcrumbs.

In between the reading and eating, I wrote about the way Rituals Can Be a Mindset and the way rituals ground us. I ranted about ChatGPT. I talked about Happiness Maps. And lastly, I wrote about advice from a reader that I’ve come to think of as The First Rule of Entertaining. I think you will too.

Have a great holiday,
Jenny

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