Oh my goodness. Yesterday was yet another hot day here in San Diego. I'm not sure how hot it actually got, but it was hot and humid enough to make us all miserable. Don't get me wrong, it isn't that it's unusual for summer arrive in July and last until late October. "Indian Summer" is basically just "summer" in California. The only thing truly unusual about the heat here, is that it seems more relentless than usual. Due to our proximity to the ocean, we rarely have more than a few hot days in a row before the marine layer moves in and cools us down for a day or two. Very little of that going on lately. Today is finally a bit cooler, but I'm afraid it won't last.
The heat makes Hamilton sad. He has been lounging on the cool linoleum of the kitchen or on the plywood chairs under the fan in the dining nook, or sometimes he just gives up and flops in front of the fan:
Poor baby.
With all this heat, it's been way too hot to cook. But for way too long. There comes a point in an autumn heatwave when a girl has to stop eating out, can't handle one more salad, and must break down and turn on the oven.
We reached that point a couple weeks ago. We've roastd a chicken 3 weeks in a row. Now we've moved on to turning on the oven AND cooking on the stove. Nothing complicated, just one of our staples, now that we're getting beets again from our CSA (did they ever really stop?). Ha! Looking back I see that we made this same dish on the same night last year. But last year it was nice and cool, and the meal was a celebration of that. This year it was in defiance!
So yeah, it was still delicious. And we have enough leftover for breakfast tomorrow or Saturday. But I don't think I'll be bringing myself to cook with the oven and stove together again until the heat breaks for good. Tonight: Matt can cook. I'll just chop veggies.