The Dinner Diaries

My friend Betsy's book, The Dinner Diaries: Raising Whole Wheat Kids in a White Bread World, was published today, and I am going to venture briefly out from behind the curtain of my anonymity schtick to recommend it highly. Betsy, Andy, Zack, and Maya are some of our favorite eating companions. Maya is as picky and adorable as E. Zack is as gourmet and tween as M. Andy is as nice as S, maybe even nicer. And Betsy, well, she's a neurotic mom like me, albeit maybe a little (a lot) more neurotic on the food front. Truly, they are great, and one of the great things about the book is how Betsy brings her family totally to life--I promise, you'll want to hang out with them too!

Betsy is a great food writer with an awesome (if slightly less than prolific due to recent book writing) blog. When Algonquin contacted her to see if she would write a book for them, she grabbed the opportunity to attempt a food makeover for her family. The book is her account of trying to find healthy food that everyone would like, which turns out to be quite a task, but Betsy's great writing and most excellent sense of humor make it a great read. I have to say I bogged down in the fish chapter--and then felt really guilty about the bluefish we'd had for dinner--but really, there's just tons of information and entertainment here, and I'm not just saying that because she's my friend and she quotes my husband and, I'm pretty sure, includes the rest of us in an anonymous kind of way. And the rest of you won't enjoy seeing half the people we know immortalized in print, but, hey, you can't all be me.

(On a slightly more serious note, one thing I did realize when reading this book was that, when it comes to food, I care a lot more about sustainability than I do about my family's health. I mean, my family eats pretty well and we're all pretty healthy and fit--I might feel differently if it were otherwise--so I just can't bestir myself to worry about the mercury in the bluefish--most of the time. But the killing off of all the fish in the ocean? That gets me worked up.)