Ah, the weather.  We are steadily, right on seasonal cue, moving into the late days of summer.  Longer nights, cooler nights.  Sunny days with quite regular rain events.  And cooler days, as well, particularly in the late afternoon.  We now need long sleeves, and bare legs are no longer as comfortable as they have been.

Conditions that call out for a change in the dinner menu.  So I thought about a garden vegetable soup.  And set about preparing one for dinner.  Onion and garlic chopped into a deep pot to sizzle until transparent in olive oil.  Into the pot then went chopped celery, parsnip, carrots, mushrooms, and plenty of chopped field tomato.  That mixture formed the basis of our evening meal.  I had added a chicken-soup cube, a large bay leaf, salt and pepper and let it slowly cook for an hour, although it hardly needed that long on the stove.  A half-hour before finishing the soup I added a finely cubed new potato, a handful of chopped snow peas, and cupful of fresh corn sheared from the cob.  The soup was finished by the introduction of a quarter-cup sour cream in each bowl into which I ladled the steaming soup.  And it was delicious.

As was the polenta that I served with it.  A half-cup coarse cornmeal added to two cups of boiling, lightly salted water, stirred until thickened, then allowed to cook, covered, another half-hour under a low heat.  Then I added a cup of shredded medium cheddar cheese and a pat of butter, stirred, and dumped it all into a buttered casserole dish.  Which then went into the oven, its top sprinkled with Parmesan cheese, for a half-hour of baking, until the top had nicely browned.

Dessert was fresh raspberries served over Greek-style plain yoghurt.  And a few chocolate-chip cookies I'd baked earlier, in preparation for another family visit by cookie-loving adults who are our children.