Many years ago, my husband became friends with Senator John McCain. He worked for him on his presidential campaign, and has always admired the Senator’s independent and principled stands in the Senate. Earlier this week we gave a dinner in his honor, and I wanted to make the meal as straightforward as the honoree.

Dinner was built around Senator McCain’s favorite two foods, hot dogs and chocolate. This gave me the perfect opportunity to put together a menu of easy comfort foods.

Guests chowed down on American favorites for hors d’oeuvres: bite-sized chicken-and-waffles, miniature BLTs, and mini lobster rolls.

For dinner, we had an iceberg lettuce and bleu cheese wedge followed by hotdogs and cheeseburgers, with baskets of French fries and onion rings placed around the table for guests to help themselves.

We finished with a trio of desserts: homemade oreos, ice cream bonbons, and chocolate cupcakes with a whipped cream center.

Not the healthiest meal in the world, but very satisfying. The casual food helped to create a relaxed atmosphere, which led to a fair amount of cross-table banter, and it wasn’t long before the menucards (which were folded to look like the old A-4 fighter jets that John McCain famously flew in Vietnam) were being lofted across the room.

John McCain has a great sense of humor, and his spontaneous zingers kept the guests laughing. He likes to joke about his age. (He says his social security number is 8.) When he introduces my husband to people he says, “This is Wayne Berman. He’s the reason I lost.”   Hmm…

He’s an inherently youthful individual because he’s never lost his sense of optimism about the country, and he lives his life, every day, in service to the nation. It was a pleasure and an honor to host such a remarkable American. With many thanks to John McCain for a memorable evening…