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Peaches! May is the month for locally grown peaches and a big deal at our house. The kids and I like to schlep out to Schnepf Farms (in Queen Creek) and pick our own, which apart from being fun, also pretty much guarantees us more peaches than we know what to do with.

My daughter and I spent part of last week trying to get the rest of the lemons off our tree. This resulted in the usual, what are we going to do with all these lemons - apart from juicing, and juicing, and juicing them? With more than a gallon of lemon juice frozen in 8-ounce containers, we are anticipating a good run of homemade lemonade this summer (our formula is 1 cup lemon juice, 1 cup sugar and add water until you have half a gallon of lemonade).

One of the most interesting things about following food trends is watching the uses of a particular food evolve. It was just a few years ago that we only thought of cranberries as a canned jellied annual tradition or a juice component of cosmopolitans. Well, maybe not cosmopolitans in particular, but cranberries were primarily bought or prepared for gel or juice. Ninety-five percent of commercially grown cranberries go into sauce, juice or sold dried. Only 5 percent is sold as fresh cranberries (wikipedia.com).

What is the best thing about football season? Seeing your team win? Taunting others about their team's loss? The come-from-behind win? Relief that a lead wasn't blown? Winning the office pool? Sucking down brews and foods that would make a cardiologist cringe? The chance to leave the house and buy as many shoes as you want because you know it's not going to be noticed?

I’ve often told guests they can have great food or a clean house when they come over. Most opt for the great food, but I really prefer to have the clean house as well, in spite of the challenges of my schedule. One way to free up time for the ancillary entertaining preparations is to use recipes where most of the prep is done ahead of time.

“Eat your vegetables” is one of the time-honored parental directives. Growing up, apart from salad, vegetables were either steamed/boiled and coated with butter or slathered in cheese or hollandaise sauce.

One of my favorite things about the weekend is our muffin ritual. Usually on Sunday mornings I throw a quick batch of blueberry muffins together. Sometimes it’s hard to think of fresh baked items being quick, but they can be. On a morning that is not rushed, it’s a great way to start the day.

It’s fun to go through food magazines this time of year. There are numerous variations on traditional recipes, tempting me and taunting me to try something new. I’m all for new, but for Thanksgiving, I’m a bit leery to stray from what’s become the norm in our family; recipes we only break out once a year, not because they’re difficult, but because they are traditional for us. Additionally, some of them are loaded with ingredients like butter and cream so year-round consumption would result in multiple butterballs at the table.