The Swan Song of Summer

School starts tomorrow. And the air has taken a decidedly chilly turn. Summer is officially over. This last long weekend I wanted to send it out in style culinarily speaking. That is so not a word.

At any rate, besides baking a double batch of banana bread (because we have a ridiculous 20 frozen bananas in the freezer, in their peels and not really good for anything else) I also made three and a half jars of strawberry freezer jam, froze 10 roasted bell peppers and some 5 ears of wonderful summer corn.

We also started off the weekend with a bit of a feast with friends we hadn't seen in way too long. Not a bad way to begin.

And then, there were these lovelies just for savoring the last bit of summer...

For lunch, crackers with cream cheese, homemade chimichurri sauce (which is basically cliantro, vinegar, lots of garlic and some spices all whizzed together), cucumbers and tomatoes. So yummy.

For dinner, rice, beans, mango pineapple salsa and shrimp. Happiness in a bowl.

And for the last meal of summer, Daisy-head Maizy burgers.  You know, from Dr. Seuss? My oldest asked for them. It took all day to make the flowers. It was a lot of effort for the two seconds of "Hey, we have flowers in our burgers!" that actually happened. But, the boys did help to make the cookies, and so hopefully, they stored up memories. Hopefully, that day of effort will resound over the years as "Hey, remember that time we had flowers in our burgers?"

The grow-up' burgers were so good, with chopped caramelized onions, chopped garlic and chipotle pepper mixed in. Yummm.

And with that, summer is over. Here is to a great school year, and a beautiful fall...Mmm, already thinking about soups and pumpkin lattes and apple cider...