Ranch Dressing and Father's Day

My ranch dressing recipe is up over at family.com.

Which has nothing to do, not really, with our celebration of this

hard-rockin'


kid-cuddling


board-game losing


marathon-running


colonial heart-breaking


deliciously aging


love-of-my-life baby daddy.

There is an excellent recipe for ribs over at family.com: it takes a long time, but it does this quite independently with almost no hand-holding on your part. Yum yum yum. Also, donut cake. Because you were wanting to make donut cake, weren't you?

Of course, I want to be the kind of blogger who posts gorgeous pictures without detracting from them with self-ironizing commentary. I want to be all, like, sure, a "summer" pennant--hardly worth mentioning! But please. I made that while the kids were at their last day of school and then practically waited by the door for them to get home--and then when they finally arrived, they both had friends with them and headed straight upstairs without noticing. "Did you see the banner? Did you?" I asked, after following them up, because I am five years old. And so, because they are good kids, they bolted back down and said, "Wow, Mama!" and "That's *so* nice!" and I felt like I was about as big as a deer tick.

And the peonies. "Did you see the peonies?" I ask everyone as they arrive. And if they didn't, then I have to take them by the hand and lead them back outside to look. I just can't believe we have peonies in our own yard, can't believe our good luck and beautiful lives. "Look!" I keep saying in a million ways. "Can you *believe* that?" Love and joy be with you!

June

Hello, dear friends! I hope this Tuesday finds you well and happy. I am writing with a couple of new food columns over at family.com. I am just going to link to the landing page since the site is under transition. But over there you will find excellent recipes for hummus and banana muffins. Do you want to check in again, when you get a chance, about wish-list recipes? Someone mentioned pasta salad, and I'm going to do that one soon. But please let me know if there are others. I've been in a real phase of "Oh god--it's already 6. What do we have in the house?" Hence all the chickpeas.

Another thing: the cooking class at Love to Cook is going to be rescheduled for the fall, as a number of people who were hoping to come in June can't make it. So I will look forward to seeing you then!

Meanwhile, our lives have taken a turn for the summery. We spent a gloriously green weekend at my parents' house in upstate New York, where we took a favorite walk that meanders past an old hunting perch.

Ben kept saying, "Wow, I remembered this being so much bigger and taller!" which really cracked me up. Sometimes the children seem to be reading from scripts about growing up. And Birdy spent some time down below, gathering her courage for the ascent, which she eventually made. You go, Birdy.


We also had a chance to troll through my parents' attic--a favorite activity. The results were a two-day-long game of Risk (I don't love the war theme, and I had to opt out since, just as I remembered, that game makes me so competitive that I practically punched Michael in the face, but boy is that 1963 board gorgeous) and also some very ancient deck chairs that we schlepped home to revamp.

I hope your lives are every bit as minutely thrilling as ours.

xo