“I would rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck” ~ Emma Goldman
THE DINNER CONCIERGE | Kristin
I believe dinner is so much more than a meal, more than just food. Dinner is a ritual & the cornerstone of our daily life as a family. In this hectic world, with schedules that grow bigger everyday, dinner is the oasis amidst the chaos. Dinner is a time for us to come together as a family and nourish our souls as well as our appetites. At the dinner table we talk, we share, we learn about each other…we are together.
A few years ago, as a wife & mother raising three children and managing a family of five, I realized we had fallen into the convenience cycle. Kids’ activities, volunteer obligations, business meetings and travel left me scrambling at (not enjoying) the dinner hour. If we didn’t eat out, I found myself at the grocery store, without a plan, buying a main dish to prepare and “a few extras”. Several trips to the grocery store a week resulted in wasted time & money. Leftovers were diligently saved and then thrown away. Tired of the waste, I decided to make a change…
I became an avid subscriber to culinary magazines, bought cookbooks, searched the internet & began following the growing number of AMAZING food bloggers popping up all over the Internet in order to gather recipes for my personal collection. I was determined to make eating in functionally gourmet. After collecting recipes all week from the rich and vast ocean of culinary resources, I would sit down with a cup of coffee on Sunday mornings and pare down my choices, organize & “build” a dinner menu for the week. A lot of thought and planning went into this “menu building”exercise…seasonal dishes, wise use of leftovers, balancing the major food groups and, oh (let’s not forget)…will my family eat that? However, it did not take long to see the benefits…savings in both time and money. I started enjoying the kids’ games and activities after school because I wasn’t running to the store after dropping them off to figure out what was for dinner - I had a plan! I started sharing menus with friends and, well, I guess that is when Dinner Concierge was conceived.
ME |
I was born and raised in Connecticut. Married my college sweetheart, Michael, in 1988 and after living in New York, Philadelphia, Princeton, and then Ipswich, MA we began our journey west with a move to Dallas. Five years, an abandoned legal career & three children later…
Mallory, Madison & Max
…we landed on the West Coast and now live in the small town of Belvedere on the San Francisco bay. When I am not reading cookbooks, blogs or foodie magazines I can be found at the barn with my daughters as they ride their horses, at my son’s baseball/basketball games or at the beach walking with my husband and our dogs.
MY FAVORITE TIME OF DAY |
Just before dinner…the children are all home working on homework, the dogs have been fed & they are quietly lounging on their beds. I watch as my husband’s ferry crosses the bay from San Francisco…he will be home in just a few minutes. The sun is setting and, from our deck, I can see Angel Island before me take on a deep, pink glow. Michael joins me and we watch the last of the sailboats coming in for the day as we enjoy a glass of wine together…the aroma from our kitchen calling us in for dinner.
I’ve just stumbled upon your website, Kristin, and already know I will love it. We live in the Oakland hills; I can see Belvedere out my window. More important, we share the same food market area. My wife works at a law firm across the street from the Ferry Building. But here is the thing, we eat food made from scratch every night. Our daughter is now 28. Just finishing grad school, she isn’t much of a cook, but has come to appreciate that in her age group she is unusual in having a home-cooked dinner every night when she was growing up. As my wife works in an office in SF and I work at home, getting dinner on the table every night has been mainly my responsibility. The good thing is that I love to cook. I love to paint, too, and find both activities much the same (a little bit of this, a touch of that). I used to cook from recipes, starting back with Julia Child on TV, but now I just grab ideas from sites like yours and use whatever I can find in the fridge or pantry. I found your site today looking for ways to make a dinner for two from one duck confit leg. Our fridge is well stocked with farmers market goodies and veggies friends have grown, so my result might not make the table at Chez Panisse but it will be delicious and do fine for us. That’s for tonight. Tomorrow the “search” for dinner starts again. I have some good frozen gulf shrimp. Sounds like an idea, with garlic, lemon zest and panko crumbs, and a fresh tomato and basil and mozzarella salad….
(We don’t have Montana but my wife has a horse out in Cull Canyon).
Cheers, Don
Don, thanks for the lovely note! Yes, we are lucky to live in such a wonderful food market area. I love hearing from readers who appreciate whole food and home-cooked dinners. My children all still live at home but I think that, like your daughter, they appreciate dinner at home every night. Heading home from our vacation in Montana they kept saying how they couldn’t wait for a home-cooked meal. “Farmers market goodies and veggies from friends” are the BEST!! I hope your visits here will provide you with some dinner inspiration and, if you are so inclined, please share some of your own favorites. Thanks again for visiting!
Wow. I found this site while looking for a recipe for stuffed peppers. I will definitely be an avid reader from now on. I too am a stay at home mommy (who gets tired of boring meals), with an abandoned career and a new son. I love the content and you are wonderful writer. I also love the photography.
Just home after a few days of traveling with my daughters and their horses and this was the first note waiting for me in my mailbox this morning…what a treat! Congratulations on the arrival of your son and your new career as a stay-at-home Mom. As my oldest daughter, now 18, approaches her HS graduation day in a couple of months and then, soon thereafter, leaves the nest for school and riding on the East Coast, I am so happy and grateful I was home all these years…enjoy every moment, even the hard ones:) Thank you for your kind words and I hope you continue to find some dinner inspiration here. Best, Kristin.