September

I welcome September. I have always found September to be the month of new beginnings and fresh starts. It's  time to emerge from the torpor of summer. One notices that each day is just a little bit shorter than the one previous, the slight nip in the evening air, an early turning red of the errant leaves littering the deck.

The anticipation of fall brings with it the desire to stop procrastinating and to get going. The fall harvest introduces heartier foods to the table, different methods of preparation from summer grilling and raw salads to thoughts of roasting and braising. And no more guilty pleasure of afternoon iced coffee. In the morning I like my coffee hot and black, but on sultry summer afternoons I indulge my need for caffeine by making my coffee sweet and thick with sugar and heavy cream.

As I look forward to a brief visit to Nantucket this week and the promise of a busy fall, we will be celebrating the unofficial end of summer much the way we began the it--with hot dogs! In June we celebrated summer at John's favorite dive bar for hot dogs and onion rings.

And tonight on Labor Day we will be celebrating with Chili Dogs and Creamy Coleslaw with a recipe adapted from Tyler Florence.

Happy September!