Here is how I use the MySql date field.

I created a field of date type in the existing table as follows:

ALTER TABLE tableName ADD COLUMN crdate DATE;

The current date is inserted using the now() function: 

 INSERT INTO tableName (field1, crdate) VALUES (’value1′, NOW())

Then, the rows with the current date are selected using the curdate() function:

SELECT * FROM tableName WHERE crdate = CURDATE();