Handsome

Went grocery shopping with my son yesterday. He eats in fits and spurts which I am to understand is normal for a 4 year old. Right now, he is eating.

He loves salad. I must remember to thank the school. We certainly don't eat enough salad at home for him to be a fan. I'm going to work on changing that.

So, we gather salad "fixins" and head to the dressings aisle. When I was a kid, I ate only French dressing. Every outing, every salad with a meal - French dressing. When I got a little older, I ventured to try my mother's Zesty Italian that she made from a dry packet and some magical ingredient (oil? water? what!) in the container that came with the packet. I later tried oil and vinegar because it seemed so sophisticated coming out of 2 glass vials that were then mixed together on the salad itself. And I could control the amount of vinegar! Then, voila, I realized that the special sauce on my favorite sandwich (the reuben) was Thousand Island. Yum. (I soon after realized that Thousand Island is ketchup and relish. yum?)

In my recent years, I've discovered Ranch. Put it on lettuce, carrot sticks, peppers...doesn't matter. I love the way it tastes, smells even the way it looks. I do believe that I have found my favorite dressing - finally.

So, in the condiment aisle we are confronted with 8 million choices for Ranch dressing (luckily it is my family's favorite flavor, too.) Staring out at me from the chest level shelf - Paul Newman. Yum. (and not just the dressing, if you know what I mean!) We put it in the cart.

"Who's that man?" asks my salad eater.
"That, my friend, is a handsome man."
"Did he make the salad dressing?"
"His company did."
"Is he a cook?"
"He is an actor...and a handsome man." (I couldn't help myself)

On the back of the bottle is a charming little story about the ranch recipe being part of Butch Cassidy's legacy, yadda yadda.

Later we found Paul, I like to call him Paul, on several different items - salsa, spaghetti sauce, popcorn. We didn't buy any of those but it did keep the conversation going.

(spaghetti sauce)
"Is he married?"
"Yes, to an actress named Joanne Woodward."
"Is she pretty?"
"yes"

(popcorn)
"Does he make movies?"
"Yes, pretty good ones, too"
"Have I seen any of them?"
"not yet"

(salsa)
"What else does he do?"
"He gives money to charity...and he is a handsome man." (it's a sickness, really)

Dinner was a success and lots of salad was eaten. It really is one of the best ranch dressings I've tasted. I think we'll stick with it. I hope my boy keeps eating healthy. He will be a handsome man.

You won't getting me to try Blue Cheese any time soon, though - I don't care who's on the label.

http://www.newmansown.com/