What's on the menu for Father's Day?

I love cooking for Father’s Day (or any holiday really). It gives me an excuse to pull out at least some of the stops and make a special meal. Luckily for me, my husband likes almost everything so I have a lot of options when I want to make something I know he’ll love.

In past years I’ve gone the traditional route and cooked big, brawny steaks. While that’s usually a hit, this year we overdosed a bit on steak as I was developing five new steak recipes for iVillage. Our overdose is to your benefit, though. Any of these recipes would be great for Father’s Day (or any day). My favorites are the hoisin steak wraps, the strip steaks with tomato salsa, and the steak and arugula salad.

Still, we’ve eaten enough steak over the past few weeks as I tweaked those recipes. So, this year I’m going to prepare a traditional seafood paella for Father's Day. Thanks to my friend Sarah at paellapans.com I have a real paella pan to use!

And while it’s hard for me not to make a fruit dessert in summer, I’m going to bake the chocolate hazelnut cake from Nigella Lawson’s How to Be a Domestic Goddess. The cake consists of ground-up hazelnuts, bittersweet chocolate and an entire jar of Nutella, one of my husband’s favorite things. Whenever we have it in the house I catch him standing at the pantry with the jar and a spoon in his hand.

Photos to come after the big meal tomorrow, and I’d love to hear about your Father’s Day celebrations too.