It is time to celebrate. I blinked, and my daughter’s all grown up and stuff.

About 2 weeks ago, she got an actual, real job offer. We got the “news” that our budding journalist will be a staff writer. Like, with benefits and everything. In Connecticut, which we do not know. Which means one thing – time to panic.

She had to find “affordable” (meaning low rent – what is affordable to Bill Gates and my daughter are on an entirely different plane of existence) housing, a car, and everything in between. Her boss, Claire, must be really cool. She went above and beyond in Connecticutting our daughter with a roommate in an apartment that she can actually afford. One down, a huge number of things to still go.

Obviously, prioritizing is a thing. Priority #1:  time to have our family over. The rest can wait.

Some explanation about LarryLand may help. We have a party house. Heck, when you have 16 Palms, a pool large enough to host the entire Olympics, a firepit to have smores around and a barbeque connected to a bar, you are now required to host every ballet party (the Party Parents Parties were especially rowdy), school group party, birthday party, family gathering and presidential inauguration (I accept the job as president of LarryLand for life).

How did we get here? The story goes like this  We were looking to relocate to Huntington Beach. We told the realtor – no pool, no way, no how. So, naturally, she showed us LarryLand complete with a large backyard and a pool.  The owners were enjoying their yard when we popped in. They saw in us what they saw in themselves 25 years before – a new family looking for a home to start their family. They rejected another offer, waited for us, and here we are 26 years later. We are a very lucky family. 

My daughter grew up here. We were the house that had the parties – my wife would work the front of the house, I would work the back, and lots of wine was consumed. No Taco Trucks. It seemed that every summer was spent with a half dozen soirees with 30-40 people, all of their kids and a pretty good time.

It seems to me that the right way to remember all of this is with the food. I had to learn how to feed a crowd and found that it really isn’t that hard if you have a few good recipes you can rely on. The key is this:  You get some “Meat” such as a tri-tip, fish, chicken, wild boar, and throw it on the grill.  Everyone knows how to do this, so I won’t boar you with the details.

The trick is in the side dishes. Having things that you can make in scale, without much time or effort gives everyone the impression that you actually know what you’re doing (to be clear, I do not). And you’ll note that dessert is not mentioned – it takes forever to bake a cake, so I’ve started buying them.

So, to share my daughter’s publishing career, let’s publish the food that went with it:

• Tomato and Preserved Lemon Spread (Tomato, Preserved Lemon)
• LarryLand Guacamole (Recipe)
• Lemon Garlic Chicken Wings
• Summer Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette (Recipe)
• Barbequed Tri Tip
• Lemon-Thyme Glazed Salmon
• Mollie’s Cumin Corn (Recipe)
• Roasted Mushrooms (Recipe)
• Roasted Potatoes (Recipe)
• Nani’s Brazilian Pudine (think flan)

Doing this may all seem a little self-serving, and I suppose that this is a bit true. At the same time this is part of the way I remember our family. I hope that you find the recipes on this site, and that you try some of them.

I have been blessed by my wife, my daughter and my home. The blow out parties of 100 or more became parties of 40 and now 10-15.  The frequency went from a 4 or 5 a year to 1 or 2. There will come a time when it’ll be a simple dinner with us and a few friends (but LOTS of wine, I can assure you).  This is what happens as you get older, as your family moves on to new phases in their life. I will not miss those days – they are what they are, and we are now what we are going to be.

If anything, I look back with a bit of pride.  We had the great and good fortune to raise our daughter here. It was and is fun. Now it is time that she move from the half-way house of college to the nut-house of a full time job. It took me 6 months to get my first job; it took her 6 weeks. She’ll do just fine.

This journalist got it write.