My Book is Here!

August 27, 2024

jenny

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

How to buy the book…

You can find it wherever books are sold!

Who is this book for?

Here is a brief list of the kind of people who might enjoy Get Simple: Busy people. Smart people. Meat-loving people (for real). People who enjoy my blog and newsletter! People who look at their bagged “spring mix” salads with bottled dressing every night and think There must be more to ~~life~~ vegetables than this? People who have received a text from their college grad saying HELP! How do I cook for myself? 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, but I could never convince my meat-and-potatoes family to eat them.

I would love to cook more vegetarian meals, but I don’t want to eat pasta and cheese all the time.

I would love to cook more vegetarian meals, but I’m feeding ravenous children who need protein.

I would love to cook more vegetarian meals, but I don’t know how to make plant-based food actually taste good.

And especially:

I would love to cook more vegetarian meals, but it’s so complicated.

In short, if you don’t know where to start: start here.

Where can I find out more?

There will be podcasts and interviews and instagram lives, but for now: Here’s a Q&A I did with Smitten Kitchen’s Deb Perelman — I love that she asked me “What’s something you wish more people knew about your book?” And here’s a fun fall round-up where I was voted “Most Likable.” Or, well my book was anyways. (P.S. In the category of “you can take the girl out of magazines…” Get Simple is filled with all the usual fun stuff — graphs and text exchanges and charts like the one above.)

Which recipes you should try first…

If you follow me on instagram, you’re probably wondering if this book should’ve been called The Weekday Vegetarians: Get Tomatoes. Yes, there are tons of simple, hands-off, just-let-the-tomato-shine recipes in the book, but also, it’s late August here in New York and the heirlooms and golden cherries and Black Krims are poppin’ so I can’t help myself. In other words, definitely start there, but after that here’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

Here’s where you can find me IRL…

Please come to a bookstore event to celebrate — 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, of Cannelle et Vanille, will be joining me in Seattle event, and April Dodd of Milk Street will be joining me in Boston. Hooray!

REGISTER FOR ALL BOOK EVENTS HERE

…P.S. West Coasters, tell me where to eat while I’m there!

I am compressing my West Coast tour into just four days, so I don’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 pick one spot for breakfast, and one for lunch and dinner, what would that day look like? Bonus points if those spots don’t require refreshing my resy app every three minutes to score reservations, and extra bonus points if they are close to the bookstores where I’m speaking. Thank you in advance!

You are invited!!!

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

Follow me on instagram (and send me pics)

I’ve been cooking from the book all week, and if you follow me on instagram, you can get a personal tour of my favorite end-of-summer recipes — 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. I’ve been loving everything I’ve seen so far. ALSO, there will be some fun giveaways and sweepstakes on insta, too, so look out for those soon…

A quick note of thanks…

So many people to thank as always, but I’m gonna stick to a few VIPs today: Designer Stephanie Huntwork, illustrator Laura Palese, and photographer 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 extraordinaire 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 friend Joanna Goddard, whose generosity of spirit should be studied in college classrooms; designer Diana Moss, who redesigned Dinner: A Love Story 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 hadn’t been updated since 2014); my patient, precise, uber-professional editor, Raquel Pelzel who I’ll miss so much when she leaves me 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