Greetings eaters and readers! What’s for dinner tonight? I’m feeling serious Bowl Vibes, so will probably make either Smoky Black Bean Bowls with Tomato-Rice or my greenest Quinoa-Tofu bowl that just absolutely screams spring…and protein, if you are into that kind of thing. In book news, happy publication day to The Family Dynamic, by Susan Dominus, which explores the interplay of environment, nature and nurture in families that produce multiple successful siblings. It is incredibly fascinating to read about these families — like the Groffs, for instance: an Olympic athlete, an award-winning novelist, and a notable entrepreneur — but this is not the kind of book where you sit there and itemize all the things you’re doing wrong as a parent. Dominus humanizes the high-achievers by honestly exploring their lives and you really come away from the book with an appreciation for all kinds of parenting styles. She does, however, note at least one trait that almost all of the families shared. (Alas, I wish I could say it was family dinner!) Curious to know more? Well, lucky us, Sue will be joining me for the first of a few fun Substack Live Book Talks I’ll be holding this spring. This one will take place on Thursday, May 8 at 1:00pm ET. (All newsletter readers will get an email alert, but you must have the Substack app to participate. Enable notifications so the app will notify you when we’re live.) Sue will be taking reader questions in real time, but feel free to leave one in the comments today if there’s something you’d like to make sure we address. And now! Three (more) Things I’m excited to share with you this week, including those perfect blueberry muffins…

1. Mix-and-Match Mother’s Day Menus

What’s everyone doing for Mother’s Day? My brother-in-law is hosting an evening barbecue in honor of my sister, my mother, and me (thanks, Nick!), but if you’re going the traditional brunch route, allow me to suggest a few MVPs from the Dinner: A Love Story archive, slotted into my fall-back brunch menu formula which, in review, goes like this:

Baked Good or Bagels + Something Eggy + Fruit or Salad
(Optional for the meat-eaters: A platter of Oven-Baked Bacon)

Here are a few ways to fill out that menu mad lib:

Luisa Weiss’s German Marble Cake + Simple Spring Strawberries and Sugar + Herby Asparagus Leek Strata

Sour Cream Pound Cake with Lemons and Strawberries + Vegetable Frittata + Strawberry-Feta Salad (also in The Weekday Vegetarians)

Smitten Kitchen’s Perfect Blueberry Muffins + Spinach and Sweet Onion Quiche (scroll to bottom) + Slaw with Crunchies and Yogurt-Curry Dressing (also in The Weekday Vegetarians: Get Simple)

Bagel Spread (cream cheese, lox, red onion, capers) + Artichoke-Parm Quiche (page 116 of The Weekday Vegetarians) + Gem Lettuce Salad with Radishes

Or, mix and match as you see fit.

OR! Maybe there is room for Abby’s Nutella Banana Bread? I also have my eye on Maialino’s Olive Oil Cake. How good would that be with a Strawberry-Rhubarb Compote?

Happy Mother’s Day, everyone! If you’re scrambling for gift ideas, I know a New York Times bestseller that might do the job. For other (less self-interested) ideas check out last week’s Mother’s Day Gift Guide. Ish. ♥️

2. Instant Meatballs

If you’re like me, sometimes you’re in the mood for meatballs, but you’re not in the mood to make them, with all the attendant herb-chopping, garlic-mincing, Parm-shredding and pan-frying required. (Forgive me, Grandmas Turano and Catrino 🙏) Enter sausage meatballs, or, well I guess sausages, shaped like meatballs. This is a trick I first learned from Yasmin Fahr’s book Cook Simply, Live Fully, and illustrated deliciously through this sheet pan dinner extraordinaire, but you essentially remove the pre-seasoned sausage meat from their casings, shape into little rounds, then bake on a cookie sheet. That’s it. Twenty-five minutes later, you can throw them on a baguette with pasta sauce, toss them into a bowl of noodles or greens and vegetables, or drop them into Italian wedding soup (shown above, a riff on Clare de Boer’s spring beauty). The method works with any kind of meat sausage — pork, chicken, turkey; the ones shown in my photo are made from the Stonewood Farm turkey sausage we picked up at a Vermont co-op last weekend.

The How-To: Heat the oven to 400°F. Add a tablespoon or two of olive oil to a sheet pan. Using your hands, shape the sausage meat into 1-inch balls, rolling each around in the oil as you place it on the sheet pan. Cook until the meatballs are browned and cooked through, 20 to 25 minutes.

3. Questions to Ask College Graduates (Besides the Big One.)

In a few weeks I will be heading up to celebrate my youngest daughter’s college graduation up in Vermont, something that is hard to get my head around, considering it was only about two weeks ago when we brought Abby home from the hospital, swaddled in her little blue and pink blanket. We’ll see how I do, but I’m determined to lean into the gratitude and celebration part of this occasion, as opposed to the heavy-heartedness of closing yet another chapter, because really, how could I not be grateful…even for the sadness, the clearest indication of how much Abby loved her college experience. And of course, the fact that we were able to give her this experience in the first place.

Because this will be my second college graduation in as many years — Phoebe graduated last year, that’s the two of us up there in 2024 — I know that there will be a lot of conversations that focus on the Future with a capital F, i.e. What are your plans next year? I remember overhearing Phoebe and her friends answer that question a thousand times in the course of a weekend — often hearing the question come right from my own mouth — and thinking: We only have 24 hours left here, so can we talk about here? This might be just a Me thing, of course, it’s not like these young adults are so fragile that they can’t handle talking about their future, and plus, not everyone is sad about leaving school, but continuing our theme of Questions that Spark Deep Conversations, here are a few I might be pulling from the arsenal:

What would Freshman You be most surprised to know about Senior You?

What are you most proud of from the past four years?

Did you change your mind about anything while you were in college?

In the future, when you picture your quintessential college day, what will you describe?

What are you looking forward to?!

What would you add?

Leave a comment

Have a great week,
Jenny

P.S. Exciting news from the DALS House!

Every Living Thing, by Jason Roberts — a book that our very own Andy edited — has won a Pulitzer Prize. (Now I better read it.) From the editor himself: “I’m a sucker for the history of science, and this book chronicles the quest of two monomaniacal men in the 18th century to identify, name, and categorize…every single living thing on earth. Safe to say, it didn’t go perfectly. Ten years of research! Roberts went so deep, he even indexed his own book.” Here’s a list of all the 2025 Pulitzer winners.

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