Memorial Day Weekend...When Summer Really Starts!

I seriously love everything about May. I love the way May smells (cut grass and lilacs!); I love the incessant chattering of birds at 4:45 a.m. (no, really, I do!); I love the long, sunny days; and I especially love Memorial Day Weekend. It is the unofficial gateway to summer! Are you ready?!?

I’m ready. Well, almost ready. We’ve got a weekend full of baseball and soccer to look forward to, and a huge cookout we’re hosting on Monday. This has become a kind of tradition for us. The Memorial Day parade rolls right by our driveway…

Friends and family come and watch with us, then meander down the driveway and hang out for a few (or several) hours eating, talking, and laughing. And swimming — with any luck. A newer tradition has been to wait until the LAST POSSIBLE MOMENT to fix whatever is wrong with the pool water. It’s green, green, green. We’re working on it! And we’re surrounded by optimists who insist there is every reason to believe it will be ready by Monday.

In addition to hanging with family and friends, I’m looking forward to appearances from some annual food favorites this Monday, like my Super Fast Turkey Chili and Strawberry Glace Pie. Both are fantastic crowd-pleasers, as are some of the morsels below. Take a look at these babies!