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!

Summer Fun

It has finally stopped raining in northern New Jersey, and not a minute too soon. I felt as if we had been living in Seattle, Washington instead of the Garden State. But after a pleasant Friday evening spent on the deck and having our first grilled pizza of the season, we decided we would leave early Saturday morning for our first day at the beach--or go down the shore as we say in New Jersey.

Grilled pizza with mozzarella, campari tomatoes and arugula

And what a glorious day it was.  Not a rain cloud to be seen.  Nothing but pure blue sky dotted with an occasional para-sailor or white streaks of condensation from unseen jets or those ubiquitous prop planes pulling their advertisements behind them. The early morning chilly breeze soon gave way to a pleasant heat and a lovely day at the beach.  

I pray every day that I live fully and joyfully, and this weekend I accomplished just that.

Packing for our first picnic of the season which is always better on the beach

My summer reading nook

We were lucky enough to spend Saturday evening in J & L's garden

As our son lives in California, I treated John to his favorite hot dog dive for Father's Day