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BooksThe Weekday Vegetarians

My Book is Here!

By August 27, 2024January 26th, 2025One Comment

Today is the day! I could not be more excited to announce thatย The Weekday Vegetarians: Get Simpleย is officially out in the world. No more of this pre-order stuff, no more waiting! Itโ€™s HERE! This is my fifth book, and I know I say this every time, but I am pretty sure itโ€™s my favorite so far. (Donโ€™t tell the others! Also, be warned, youโ€™ll have to deal with even more exclamation points than usual today!)ย Get Simpleย picks up whereย The Weekday Vegetariansย left off โ€” if the first volume gave you a real-life plan for eating less meat, without giving it up completely,ย Get Simpleย takes it a step further, addressing the most common obstacles that prevent dinner-makers from taking the plant-based leap. Hereโ€™s all you need to knowโ€ฆ

How to buy the bookโ€ฆ

You can find itย wherever books are sold!

Who is this book for?

Here is a brief list of the kind of people who might enjoyย Get Simple: Busy people. Smart people. Meat-loving people (for real). People who enjoy my blog and newsletter! People who look at their bagged โ€œspring mixโ€ salads with bottled dressing every night and thinkย There must be more toย lifeย vegetables than this?ย People who have received a text from their college grad sayingย HELP! How do I cook for myself?ย People who have uttered any of the following statements out loud or silently, existentially, as they slide yet another tray of chicken thighs into the oven:

I would love to cook more vegetarian meals,ย but I could never convince my meat-and-potatoes family to eat them.
I would love to cook more vegetarian meals,ย but I donโ€™t want to eat pasta and cheese all the time.
I would love to cook more vegetarian meals,ย but Iโ€™m feeding ravenous children who need protein.
I would love to cook more vegetarian meals,ย but I donโ€™t know how to make plant-based food actually taste good.
And especially:
I would love to cook more vegetarian meals,ย but itโ€™s so complicated.

In short, if you donโ€™t know where to start:ย start here.

Where can I find out more?

There will be podcasts and interviews and instagram lives, but for now: Hereโ€™s aย Q&Aย I did with Smitten Kitchenโ€™s Deb Perelman โ€” I love that she asked me โ€œWhatโ€™s something you wish more people knew about your book?โ€ And hereโ€™s a fun fall round-up where I was voted โ€œMost Likable.โ€ Or, well my book was anyways. (P.S. In the category of โ€œyou can take the girl out of magazinesโ€ฆโ€ย Get Simpleย is filled with all the usual fun stuff โ€” graphs and text exchanges and charts like the one above.)

Which recipes you should try firstโ€ฆ

If you follow me on instagram, youโ€™re probably wondering if this book shouldโ€™ve been calledย The Weekday Vegetarians: Get Tomatoes. Yes, there are tons of simple, hands-off, just-let-the-tomato-shine recipes in the book, but also, itโ€™s late August here in New York and the heirlooms and golden cherries and Black Krims are poppinโ€™ so I canโ€™t help myself. In other words, definitely start there, but after that hereโ€™s your plan of attack:

  • Sheet Pan Summer Pizza with Corn & Tomatoes
  • Roasted Tomato Tart with Really Good Blue Cheese (cover recipe!)
  • Strawberry-Tomato Gazpacho
  • Miso-Mushroom Tacos with Pickled Cabbage (above)
  • Buckwheat Crepes with Vegetables & Cheese (see the reel)
  • Tamarind-Glazed Cauliflower Tacos
  • Brown Butter Orzo with Zucchini & Basil
  • Summery Sicilian Eggplant Parm
  • Crispy Honey-Harissa Glazed Chickpea Bowls with Yogurt & Mint
  • Kale Salad with Black Beans, Queso & Creamy Salsa Dressing

Hereโ€™s where you can find me IRLโ€ฆ

Please come to a bookstore event to celebrate โ€” I really love meeting people in this community! Here are all the tour details. Note that the the San Francisco event has been moved to Monday, September 9.

Updates: The San Francisco event has been moved to September 9; and I have two new conversation partners: Aran Goyoaga, ofย Cannelle et Vanille, will be joining me in Seattle event, andย April Dodd of Milk Street will be joining me in Boston. Hooray!

REGISTER FOR ALL BOOK EVENTS HERE

โ€ฆP.S. West Coasters, tell me where to eat while Iโ€™m there!

I am compressing my West Coast tour into just four days, so I donโ€™t have a ton of time to explore, but I want to know: If you live in Portland, Seattle, or San Francisco, and you had to pickย oneย spot for breakfast, and one for lunch and dinner, what would that day look like? Bonus points if those spots donโ€™t require refreshing my resy app every three minutes to score reservations, and extra bonus points if they are close to the bookstores where Iโ€™m speaking. Thank you in advance!

You are invited!!!

Westchester friends!ย This oneย feels more like a party than an Official Book Event, and the best part is that itโ€™s not only celebrating TWV โ€” itโ€™s celebrating one of my most favorite people on earth,ย Jodi Levine, my partner in crime onย Like Magicย (remember Like Magic?), and co-author of her own new genre-busting craft storybookย Mousetown. Weโ€™re partnering with the wonderfulย Picture Books, and itโ€™s happening atย HudCo, my old work-share stomping grounds in Dobbs Ferry, NY. (Check out their space, btw. It isย inspiring.) Jodi and I will both be signing books and Iโ€™ll be giving a brief talk with local entrepreneur Jess Galen, who ownsย Bloomy Cheese & Provisions, and who also provided a crucial olive oil assist for theย book shoot last summer. There will be snacks and beer and wine! And PS, if you want to come to the party but donโ€™t want to wait three weeks to get a signed book, we can definitely make sure that happens. Just get in touch with Sara atย Picture Book. You canย REGISTER HERE!

Follow me on instagram (and send me pics)

Iโ€™ve been cooking from the book all week, and if you follow me onย instagram, you can get a personal tour of my favorite end-of-summer recipes โ€” corn, tomatoes, corn with tomatoes, tomatoes with corn, etc. Nothing makes me happier than seeing my dinners out in the real world, prepared and consumed by real humans. Please tag me on instagram (@dinneralovestory) so I can repost, or just email me photos of your triumphs: Jenny AT dinneralovestory DOT com. Iโ€™ve beenย lovingย everything Iโ€™ve seen so far. ALSO, there will be some fun giveaways and sweepstakes on insta, too, so look out for those soonโ€ฆ

A quick note of thanksโ€ฆ

So many people to thank as always, but Iโ€™m gonna stick to a few VIPs today: Designer Stephanie Huntwork, illustratorย Laura Palese, and photographerย Christine Han, all of whom were on the original TWV team, so you know what that means in terms of beauty and quality; food stylist extraordinaireย Lauren Radel; Andrea Portanova and Lauren Chung at Clarkson Potter, who collectively have about two thousand emails from me in their inboxes right now (sorry!!!); my agent Elyse Cheney; my friendย Joanna Goddard, whose generosity of spirit should be studied in college classrooms; designerย Diana Moss, who redesignedย Dinner: A Love Storyย beautifully and in record speed to be ready for pub day! (There will be MUCH more about this undertaking soon, but can you believe how pretty it is here, now? DALS hadnโ€™t been updated since 2014); my patient, precise, uber-professional editor, Raquel Pelzel who Iโ€™ll miss so much when she leavesย meย for her new badass job next month. (Good luck Raquel!) And of course, all of you here on Substack. Working on this newsletter brings me more joy than I thought possible, and I hope that you get to feel a little piece of that, too.

Thank you as always for the support. Back to regularly scheduled programming next week!

Jenny

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