I really hope you’ve been following the Blog for Family Dinner Project these past few weeks. Writers and experts from around the blogosphere have been sharing tips, essays, recipes and musings all related to the importance of gathering one’s family together around the dinner table as often as possible, a cause TLT readers know is near to my heart.
I’m honored to be part of the B4FD initiative and my post “Short-Order Cooking and The Family Dinner (Back Away From That Peanut Butter Jar!)” is up today. In the post I urge parents not to fall into the trap of making different little dinners for everyone at the table just to placate the “picky,” a practice which, to my mind, undercuts the whole idea of “family dinner” and which is likely to leave you exhausted and frustrated. (If you were a TLT early adopter, you may recognize portions of this post, which appeared here a year and a half ago in response to a reader question.)
B4FD ends on Monday — which happens to be Food Day — with a final wrap-up from the doyenne of family dinner herself, Laurie David, co-author of the excellent book, The Family Dinner: Great Ways to Connect with Your Kids, One Meal at a Time. (You can read my interview with Laurie here and with her co-author, chef Kirstin Uhrenholdt here.)
And don’t forget, Monday on TLT we’ll kick off our virtual, progressive dinner party in honor of Food Day, starting with a first course at my house, then an entree at Red, Round or Green on Tuesday, a side dish at Eat Dinner.org on Wednesday, and a dessert at The Jolly Tomato on Thursday. There will be reader giveaways at each stop, along with recipes and photos for the dishes we’re serving. And we’ve invited other bloggers to share their own recipes via Twitter all week, using the hash tags #FoodDay #DinnerParty.
But if you’re all coming over for dinner, I’d better get busy cleaning my house. 🙂 Have a great weekend, everyone, and see you next week!
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Grace @Eatdinner says
Yay! Thanks Bettina for your great post and all the support you’ve given our project. at Blog for Family Dinner.
It’s so true that parents can fall into the bad habit of trying too hard to appease picky eaters and then just end up reinforcing their bad habits! It can take a long time for kids to come around, but it is far better to keep offering options than giving up and resigning yourself to years of buttered noodles and PB&J!
Looking forward to our Food Day dinner party too!