There is a certain sound to late August evenings.
The air is still warm, but the cicadas are louder, as if they know their season is ending. The neighborhood kids stay out just a little longer, chasing the last minutes of light before school nights take over again.
I love this stretch of summer. It’s slower, somehow. The big trips are over, the garden has hit its stride, and dinner happens when we feel like it instead of when the clock says it should.
Last night, I made dinner with the back door wide open.
The air smelled like my neighbor’s charcoal grill, mixed with the basil I had just clipped from my own plant. The kids were in the yard, faces sticky from the watermelon I had sliced that afternoon. I could hear their laughter in between the sizzles from the skillet.
It wasn’t a complicated meal: grilled vegetables, a quick pasta with lemon and parmesan, and a loaf of bread I had grabbed from the bakery earlier that day. The kind of dinner that just belongs in late summer. No heavy sauces, no hours in the kitchen, just fresh, bright, and easy.
There’s a funny kind of gratitude in cooking this time of year.
Every tomato feels like a gift. Every ear of corn feels like it could be the last really good one. I find myself cooking like I’m trying to memorize it — the taste of ripe peaches, the sound of corn kernels hitting the cutting board, the way the evening light spills into the kitchen.
And yet, there’s also a hint of excitement. I start thinking about soup nights, roasted vegetables, and pulling my Dutch oven from the cabinet. I’m not quite ready to say goodbye to summer, but I can feel fall waiting at the edges.
If you’re like me, you want to squeeze every bit of joy out of these last warm days. That might mean:
- Having dinner outside, even if it means swatting a few mosquitoes
- Using fresh herbs with abandon, because they won’t last forever
- Letting dessert be a bowl of fresh fruit instead of something baked
- Cooking just enough to bring people together, not enough to keep you inside all evening
The goal is simple: enjoy what’s here while it’s here.
And when the season does shift, I like to carry a little of that summer ease with me into the kitchen. That’s one reason I enjoy my Special Delivery subscription. When the next box arrives, it always feels like the start of a new chapter, a nudge to try something seasonal, to add a new twist to my usual recipes, or to discover a tool I didn’t know I needed.
But for now, I’m keeping the back door open, slicing another watermelon, and letting the last sweet days of summer have their moment.