Hey, have you heard that kids who eat dinner with their families are at lower risk for obesity, smoking, drug and alcohol use, academic failure, social ostracism, genetic diseases, tied tongues, fallen arches, and general sassiness? Yes, I, too, am a little sick of this particular pet of the modern parenting media. (And I say this as someone in whose home family dinner is nearly sacred.) So I didn’t particularly want to like Liz Edmunds, a family food consultant who treads this familiar ground in her new book The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner. But darned if she doesn’t tread it particularly well. She starts with all the usual excuses people give — too busy, too tired, not a good cook — and gives them a hearty “Pshaw! Get in the kitchen!”
Inexperienced cooks get a quick-fire lesson in meal planning, shopping, and following a recipe, and then it’s right into dishes organized by her family’s theme nights — Monday is comfort food, Tuesday is Italian, etc. For the most part, these are not recipes that can be started after walking in the door at 5:45 p.m. and served by 6:30 p.m. to get baths started at 7 p.m. (Roast chicken on a Monday?! Lasagne with homemade noodles on Tuesday?! Can I come over for dinner, Liz?) And they are definitely better suited to active teenagers than 30-something women who sit at a computer all day (and chili served with frosted cinnamon rolls is more likely to appeal to teens, anyway). But this is undeniably real food, made from real ingredients, without any “70 percent store-bought help” crap. In the end, I couldn’t help but feel inspired to put in a little extra dinnertime effort. And I hereby declare Friday to be Pizza Night at our house.
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