One Valentine’s Day, I called my friend Nancy to check out the amount of parsley in her friend Joan Goldberg’s dip. She wasn’t home, and when I asked her husband, Steve, for a dip idea, he suggested I ask his 5-year-old son, Joey. Here’s Joey’s dip. I am sorry I don’t have the ability to reproduce the conversation, replete with Joey’s at-once serious and exasperated tone.

2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter (Jif)
½ pint ice cream (“maybe vanilla or chocolate or both”), softened in the microwave till it’s mushable
Small splash of milk (“I use whole milk,” says.)

“Put everything in a bowl and mush it all together,” instructs Joey.
“What would you dip in it?” I ask.
Cookies,” he says, a bit irked, as if it’s obvious. “Christmas cookies.”
“What if it isn’t Christmastime?” I ask.
“Well, then,” he says, “big, medium, and little hearts. Or stars, for nighttime. Paint them with a little frosting,” he adds. “Pink for Lauren [my daughter] and blue for Ben [my son].”
“What about for you?” I ask.
“Yellow for me.”
“And what about for Charlie [Joey’s brother]?”
“Blue. Charlie likes blue too. Okay, bye.” And he hangs up.
Serve immediately.

From Party Dips! 50 Zippy, Zesty, Spicy, Savory, Tasty, Tempting Dips (The Harvard Common Press, 2004)