It's Time For Limeade, Lobster Rolls, and Everything Else That Defines Summer

 OUR PARIS HOTEL ROOM, SUMMER, A FEW YEARS AGO

It's tough to figure out where to begin on a blog post such as this one, but let's just leave it to this: my holiday weekend has been defined so far by hot dogs, lobster roll, limeade, Mojitos, French rose wine, grilled chicken, ice cream, movie matinees, a Sunday night party with friends, a good book, tank tops (yes, even with breast cancer surgery, it's doable!), Coppertone (the smell recalls 100 summers, even those I haven't lived yet), there some tanning, naps the Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer in the City" (ancient but still iconic),because, after all, I'm doing it urban. No beach, no country, no mountains for me this weekend. It's been asphalt and bricks and back gardens, and all good.

As for the limeade and lobster rolls, I always return to one treasured (and almost ten-years-old) cookbook, which is named, appropriately, The Lobster Roll. Buy it now and I promise it will be worn and stained (in a good way) by Labor Day. It is my summer go-to. And here's the special feature of well made (meaning fresh) limeade: the base converts perfectly for Mojitos!! Just add rum and mint. I took a big bucket of same to the swingin' shindig/book party hosted for me last night by neighbors Margaret and David Dunning.

IS THIS AN AD FOR EYEWEAR? NO. IT'S OF GUESTS AT THE DUNNINGS PARTY: ANN BONHAM, WOODY KAY AND JESSE JOAD

The party rocked and we sold books. I love these small at-home book parties. It was a 6-8 that went until 11pm! At the beginning I didn't know most of the guests, but by the end I did. As I noted, summer in the city. 

Would I like to be on a beach? Of course. But a nearly empty beach. After writing my NYSD column this morning, I stole away to the air-conditioned peace of my local Bijou and watched Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris." In true Woody fashion it is full of itself, but in true Woody-of-olden-days fashion it has some authentic humor and it is a Valentine. His best films always are a Valentine to something: Manhattan, the boroughs, appropriate women, inappropriate women, the U.K., and with this film, Paris. OMG, it's my Paris, too, and I missed it, but loved seeing it lookin' so good.  

We should all be young and in love and in Paris. Or in love and in Paris. Plus Le Train Bleu to the Riviera!