Book Review (Dinner: the Playbook)

I love to read cookbooks. Not the 800-page tomes, but the personable cookbooks that have a story for every recipe, or at least a good bit to read before you start cooking.

I picked up Dinner: the Playbook from my library recently and settled in to read it. It was a good read. I can't comment on the recipes, which look fabulous, because I haven't actually cooked anything yet....

What I liked:
Obviously, the portion that was more story-form than cookbook-form.
That each recipe has a picture.
Most recipes have suggested sides (and recipes for a lot of the sides suggested) so you aren't left wondering what else to make for dinner.
The ideas for making dinner less stressful.
Simple recipes (most everything looks like it will come together quickly, which is nice for a busy family).
The recipes are rather healthy looking, and most of the ingredients aren't too expensive. They do range in price though.

What I didn't like:
The author included three recipes for pizza and called for refrigerated bread dough (purchased) or if you want to make your own dough she linked to her blog for the recipe. I thought she should have put the recipe in the book, it seemed simple enough to include. But it's also simple enough to look up online so I suppose it isn't that terrible of a complaint.
Also, this is a book that will not stay open on its own.

A recipe I'd like to try.

The author and her husband didn't start having family dinners with their two children until they were 3 and 4 years old. So, as one might imagine, there was quite a fuss over eating "real" food (rather than hot dogs and fish sticks, I guess).

Since we've always had our daughter eat dinner with us (and the dinners are not hot dogs or fish sticks, gross...), I couldn't really relate to the concept of introducing your kids to the idea of family dinner. I am very thankful for my daughter's palate! She is quite open to new foods and will eat most anything with gusto (but she's still a kid so sometimes kid-speak leaves her mouth. Like, "this is the most horrible thing I've ever had!!!!!" LOL). She says she is picky about crusts, because apparently she needs something to be picky about so she picked bread crusts. I'm good with that. She'll eat almost any vegetable without complaint and will eat almost anything we have for dinner. As an example, I've never made kale before and I decided to try it last week. I made kale sauteed with garlic and red pepper flakes and she gave it a two thumbs up (literally).

There are some recipes in the book I'd like to try out, but haven't taken the time yet. If I owned the book, I'd probably make about half of them over time.

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