When the storms blew in yesterday we were worried we’d have to move the boys’ birthday party, but the weather held off enough that we were able to move ahead as scheduled. For me that meant grilling hot dogs on the old rec area grill. You know the type? The square grills that sit next to picnic areas. I don’t know how many people use them, how old they are, or who cleans them, but I have never had a bad meal off of one.
Yesterday’s hot dogs were no exception. Nothing beats a hot dog on a hot summer day, and while the storms had cooled the day off a bit the hot dogs were still crisp, tasty, and provided that summer thrill that can only come from grilled meat.
I have come to think of parents as belonging to the category of those that believe in kid’s food and those that don’t. It might be a spectrum of sorts as at a birthday party the day before the father bought food for the adults but ended up buying a half cheese and half pepperoni pizza. The same thing gotten for the kids and at previous birthday parties for this family pizza has been for everyone. Other parties there are “kids” pizzas, the cheese and pepperoni, and adult pizza with lima beans and asparagus and stuff like that.
My biggest thought on the birthday party dynamic is if you are hosting a birthday party around meal time, which most people do, then you must provide food for everyone. I am also a person that believes food is food. I enjoy a good chicken tender as much as the next person and if you toss them in the flaming pit of hell sauce then they are as adult as any other type of food.
Pizza, hot dogs, chicken tenders are all categories of food I enjoy quite well, and do not understand the people that think of them only as kids food. Imagine denying yourself a hot dog on a warm summer day because you consider it kids food. Or going to a baseball game and not having the most delicious of American cased meat products, because you have somehow outgrown eating a sausage on a bun. It is absurd. Although I do make sure I always have diced onions for the adults.
David Huzzard Writes 