The Family Dinner: Great Ways to Connect with Your Kids, One Meal at a Time

I Received The Family Dinner book last night and have already made my first dish, Oven Grains, Greens & Cheese Please, ABSOLUTELY DE-LISH! WITH the help of my 16 year old! As I am sitting here writing she came out, took the book from me and said, "what are WE making for dinner tonight!". Trust me, this is NOT business as usual at our house!!! She has just returned with many a dog eared page for planned dinners and has decided that we need to start composting and growing our own veggie's again (we had a HUGE organic garden in CT when she was younger). We are off (on our bikes!) to a gardening store to buy a composting bucket and the pharmacy to pick up shower caps to use instead of plastic wrap on leftovers (see page 150).My daughter and I have been fortunate enough to have shared many a family dinner with the David's over the past few years and waited anxiously for the book to be released! Sitting around the table with Laurie and the kids and usually a few extended family members, dining on Kirstin's (BEST CHEF EVER) fabulously delicious healthy food has always been an amazing experience.Moving to LA after a recent divorce I noticed that the ritual that I held sacred before, family dinner, 6:30 sharp, every night, had become practically non existent. After a few family dinners at Laurie's I realized that even though our family and schedules had changed we could create new rituals with the focus on connecting. While I still admit to quite a few dinners that are spent with my daughter taking her plate into her room whilst she works on homework, we now share Saturday or Sunday brunch at our favorite restaurant, Sunday night "family dinner" with our closest friends where we all create the meal together, or just the 2 of us making the effort to actually sit at our dining room table enjoying each others company. The only rule that follows us to all these meals, no phones, no television, no computers. Playing games, discussing world news and events, sharing stories and experiences, all a resounding YES!Thank you Laurie for this amazing book and friendship and lovely Kirstin for your superb recipes that I can now make at home!

This is the 'Emperor's New Clothes' of cookbooks.Tom Hanks approves! Foreword by Dr. Harvey Karp! Recipes from Alice Waters!It sounds like a slice of perfection, but this book misses the mark in a big way.My main problems with this book are:1) Laurie David is completely out of touch. When she went back to work, she hired a chef so she could serve dinner promptly at 6:30. Congratulations. How many people can relate to this? Is this the right person to dole out tips and strategies for putting meals together? I couldn't read half the recipes without wondering if a real person with real time constraints had actually cooked these things. Which leads me to...2) Some recipes are just plain nuts. I'm supposed to create a buffet with 30 different options so my family can bulid their own salad. This just makes me feel angry. What a waste :( However...3) Some of the recipes insult my intelligence. Chicken Parmesan made from frozen breaded chicken cutlets? Yeah, I've got that covered. I bought this book for dinner ideas. Next!4) The book is cluttered with anecdotes from celebrities (claiming their perfect mothers sat them down to dinner every night, with flowers and music) but I'm not sure why there are so many of these stories, or why I'm supposed to care. After the first few, they get very repetitive, lead to no recipes or tips, and just lend to the tone of the book feeling self congratulatory.5) This book reads like a warning! Have family dinners- or else! Statistics about teen drug use don't make me want to get in the kitchen, they make me sad and worried. What happened to empowering family cooks? I'm not feeling it. If there is a place for this kind of information, stick it in the introduction and then drop it. Don't keep sprinkling harrowing facts in with the recipes.There are some good recipes in here, I can't ignore that. But I STRONGLY believe the best reason to buy a cookbook (rather than perusing thousands of the well tested, well reviewed, FREE recipes that exist online) is to get inspired about cooking. This is not that book.These are:-Dinner: a Love Story (a real mom with a real life, real budget, etc)-The Splendid Table's How To Eat Supper (food pairings and menu suggestions! Great tips throughout)-any book that has pictures that match the recipe (ha! page 50 (left side) of the family dinner features a full page picture of edamame. Page 51(right side) has a recipe for cabbage and noodles, and savory sausage and white bean stew. No edamame in either of these. What happened there? It frustrates me! Did no one edit the layout of this book?) But for those who get it right- Donna Hay is fabulous, and Nigella, Ina, and Martha do well with the beautiful food.

Laurie and Kirstin have created a truly one of a kind family cookbook that is so much more than any other cookbook on the market today! "The Family Dinner" is full of fun and interesting recipes,stories,games and so much more. What appealed to me initially was the bright front cover and then as I opened it up and browsed through it I was amazed at the wonderful artwork and design. It is so fresh,creative and beautiful. There are tons of "Celebrity" cookbooks out there but this is unique. In our age of computers and gadgets, fast and furious this cookbook endears us to the table and our families. And the recipes are delicious....The Split pea soup is divine, the danish meat balls are to die for. There isn't a recipe that isn't mouth watering.I don't have children but I grew up part of a very large family.I understand the importance of sitting around the family dinner table ,spending time and talking to your family. This cookbook brings back the fun and the desire to do so! It has good old fashioned sensibilities combined with new and innovative ideas on how to interact and learn with your family. It is top of my birthday and holiday gift giving list this year and I am so excited to be able share it with my friends and family. Congratulations Laurie and Kirstin for working so hard to give us this delight!

At first was a bit disappointed in it, but then found myself going back to this book from time to time for inspiration. Quite happy after all.

Excellent service, great condition, good read! I would purchase from this vendor again in a heartbeat. Thanks for the quick delivery.