Today’s neighborhood treasure and I used to live in the same house. Now I have to travel a little bit further to enjoy it, er, I mean, him. What treasure is this, you ask? My father, of course. And today, on his 83rd birthday, I brought him a beer and made him and my mom dinner. Happy birthday!

As it pertains to the meal, I made Chicken Parmesan with a side of cauliflower rice, a kale/beet/carrot/red cabbage salad, and slices of avocado on the side. I’ve been taking an online Paleo cooking class and the chicken dish was today’s recipe. Being Paleo, there are no grains so no bread for the breadcrumbs. In their place, pork rinds.

I kid you not.

It was absolutely delicious. You can learn a little more about the class I’m taking at this link. Today’s photo is my dad holding his dinner plate.

As an additional tribute to fathers, I include this touching video below. It’s of Steve Goodman singing a song, “My Old Man,” he wrote after his dad died of a heart attack in his 50’s. About Steve Goodman, many don’t know that they actually have heard of him. He wrote the song “City of New Orleans” made famous by Arlo Guthrie. He also wrote the song “Go, Cubs, Go” that Chicago Cubs fans were all singing on their way to their team finally winning the World Series last year.

Goodman, himself, died young, succumbing to cancer in 1984 at age 36. His best friend is another singer, a man named John Prine who is one of my songwriting heroes. To this day, Prine sings “My Old Man” in his concerts as a tribute to his friendship to Goodman. It’s how I first heard the song.

Dads, go figure.