There are so many things I loved about this book. Especially the attitude with which it's written. Many of her recipes aren't my style, for reasons I'll go into below, but I bought the book.because I wholeheartedly believe in her message. Although I do think it's a sad commentary on our society that something as simple as making dinner is such a challenge for people.

The reasons I probably won't make a lot of these recipes are as follows:

So much meat! Especially pork. The dishes look yummy but my family is decreasing our meat consumption. We're also not all that into sausage.

Many recipes call for expensive ingredients. Seafood, special kinds of cheese, etc.. My grocery budget is generous to include local and organic ingredients but I can't afford tons of salmon or Gorgonzola.

I don't share her experience that Family Dinner is impossible with kids under 3 y/o or that it doesn't work to feed young kids the same food as the adults are eating. In my house that doesn't mean a dulled down adult meal but I don't have picky eaters. Doesn't make me a superior parent to Rosenstrach, of course. She's great about acknowledging every family is different.

I'm not her audience. I'm a mostly SAHM/freelance musician in the Midwest and have time to make my own bread, yogurt, and spaghetti sauce from scratch. Strategies to fit cooking dinner into a life crammed with a high power career and commute don't apply to me. We're also not Gourmands in my house and I don't feel the need to own The Silver Palate Cookbook.

Basically, Rosenstrach and her magazine running buddies aren't my people. I can't relate to that kind of life any more than they can relate to mine. For which they are probably glad, ha ha.

I would highly recommended this book to anyone who feels family dinner is important. Especially those with picky eaters as her strategies are fantastic. This book will stay in my library a long time and I'm sure I'll read parts of it often and flip through for inspiration. Basically, how I use most of my favorite cookbooks even if I don't follow the recipes. A great book.

UPDATE: I've had this book a year and have made only a handful of the recipes. They were good but I haven't otherwise felt the need to read through the book again. This statement is somewhat influenced by the blog as well as the book but I'm growing weary of Rosenstrach's upper class East Coast elitism. And constant mention of food trends. Yeah, I don't really care what everyone else is doing.