EASY STEPS TO BRING BACK DINNER

So, you're taking the plunge. You've decided you're reclaiming family dinner, making it your own, an oasis of contentment among the daily chaos. Do not underestimate the power of that utterly essential Step No. 1, the decision to just do it. But now maybe you're scratching your head, wondering how the heck to get to Step No. 2 and beyond? Well, here's a slew of smart thinking to get you where you're dreaming: Family Dinner, the Civilized Way.

Don't go it alone: Enlist the kiddies. Demonstrate the carrot peeler. Teach the fine points of knife, fork and spoon, and where to plop them on the table. Appoint a vice president of salad.

Aim for three: Start slowly. Do not set out to make dinners seven nights a week. Start with only one, if that's all you can handle. Build up to three. Extra credit for anything beyond.

Don't wait till tummies growl: Planning is everything. Sketch out ideas for maybe three meals in a given week. Everyday Food's Lucinda Scala Quinn says shopping is 50 percent of the equation, and she does it all on early Sunday mornings. Everyday Food, the magazine, gives you shopping lists for a week at a time. Quinn loves to knock out plenty of cooking on Sundays, with all hands on deck, making it a lively kitchen tableau.

Compound recipes: Learn to think like a smart someone who knows that one easily divides into three. Roast chicken one night turns into chicken and dumplings the next night, and chicken soup the night after that.

Block by block: Break your meal prep into 10-minute tasks. Whip up a quick marinade before work, toss chicken breasts and marinade in a food storage bag. Rinse and dry greens, tuck back in fridge. Rinse and chop broccoli to steam later on. Sometimes just lining up ingredients is enough to jump-start the later-in-the-day cooking.

Stick with what you know: No one says family dinner need be a five-fork affair. Simple homemade food is guaranteed to satisfy. If you're inclined to test one new recipe, round out the meal with standbys -- your killer vinaigrette, the no-brainer baked potato.

Dig in, everybody: Serve family-style, says chef and cookbook author Lisa Schroeder. Gets everyone talking as they pass the pasta and slide the Parmesan cheese down the table.

Never underestimate the aromatics: Corollary here is, "If they smell it, they will come." Just watch what happens when you get the garlic sizzling, onions browning. Same goes for cinnamon wafting from the oven. The aromatic bliss floating from the kitchen is the surest dinner bell ever.

Down-home details: A dash of cinnamon atop the poured-from-a-jar applesauce, a sprinkling of paprika on the sour cream. You needn't knock yourself out on every dish to impart that mama's-at-the-stove dash of lovin' from the kitchen.