recipes

The last few weeks of August and the first of September are often bittersweet.

Much as I love to cook, I am unwilling to feel as though I am working inside the oven while trying to get dinner on the table. I’m all about keeping the cooking to a minimum but still prefer to make my meals at home rather than eating out during the work week. My solution is this compromise: rotisserie chicken.

PITTSBURGH — RandiLynn Frohnapfel hopes to land a job in the hospitality and tourism industry after earning her associate degree in business administration from Pittsburgh Technical College next year, which means she’ll work around those who prepare and serve food.

SEATTLE — Too many pears is a happy problem to have. At a sad time recently, someone sent a box of bereavement pears, not something to belabor here except to say that the gift — with one pear, mysteriously deemed special, wrapped in golden foil in the center of the cushioned box — actually helped in a small way, which is kind of all one can hope for at a sad time. We put them in a pretty bowl on the table and admired their curvy beauty; we ate them, the first few at ambient temperature, then chilled as they ripened all at once and it became apparent we had too many pears. It turns out that when it’s hot out, eating a juicy chilled pear while standing in front of the open refrigerator can be a small moment of pure joy, if you let it be.

If the past few weeks have taught us anything, it’s that the best meals in the dog days of summer come together quickly, without heating up the kitchen.

It’s this past August, and it’s my birthday, and the incoming voicemails are, as they have been for some time, inexplicably delayed. Today seems to be the day to consult the oracle: “How to fix …” The answer comes from the ether immediately: too much stuff from the past. Some of the old ones must be deleted.

My granddaughter, Greta, and I have a lot in common: We’re both always moving, easy to smile (if occasionally cranky) and love to be outdoors in the sunshine.

It’s peach season. Time to pull out your rolling pin and celebrate the juicy stone fruit with the free-form pastry known as a crostata.

With grocery prices at record highs, we’ve put together a guide for a week’s worth of healthy meals.