Well, folks, face it: Summer is over. Labor Day has come and gone, and supposedly, the “ceremonial end of summer” has happened.

But really, it isn’t officially over till Sept. 23, at 1:32 a.m. EDT. I really hope I’m not awake when it happens. Ugh. I hate lying there in the middle of the night thinking about stuff like that. It makes me nervous – time passing.

At the risk of sounding like an old lady (insert trepidation emoticon) “Oh my! Where does the time go?” As I think this thought I imagine the WHOOSH sound my phone makes when I send an email.

Anyway. On Labor Day I was walking through Singing Meadows around noon, and I was starving. I hadn’t eaten lunch. It had been a busy day so far, but I had slept like 10 1/2 hours (I needed that), and got up raring, or rearing, to go.

I Googled “raring” and “rearing” and still don’t know which is correct. If it’s important to you, YOU figure it out and let me know.

So okay, I was walking through Singing Meadows with my little pooper, Elliot, thinking about the new refrigerator that was delivered that morning. I had plugged it in, and when it got cold enough I’d have to transfer everything over from the old one.

I also thought about the case of wine that was delivered while the refrigerator guys were there. I love that, getting a case of wine handed to me by the UPS guy. Maybe it’s just about having guys showing up delivering things. Just kidding. ADD.

I had sold a painting a couple days before, too, so yeah, I was in a pretty good mood overall.

Where was I? Oh yeah – walking through Singing Meadows, starving.

Anyway blah blah blah. I start thinking about corn on the cob. I virtually take a bite of the buttered, salted ear. It’s turning into afternoon, now, so I may just skip lunch and have a huge early dinner, starting with a manhattan on the deck. Sipping a manhattan while a steak sizzles on the grill.

I've been getting corn from Spears’ stand in Waldoboro, and from Hannaford in Damariscotta, which gets Spears’ corn daily.

It has been okay — pretty sweet — but not quite as tender as I like it. I like the kernels to practically jump into your mouth when you bite into it. I got some yesterday, and the candy-sweet kernels did just that. It was the perfect native corn on the cob.

I got a dozen ears. They were five for a dollar. Crazy. I cooked them all because I don't think fresh corn should hang around in the fridge for more than a day. If you boil it for like 10 minutes you can keep it for several days, heat it up, and it's good as new.

When corn is this good I can easily eat six ears in a sitting, with butter and salt of course. My friend Nancy and I used to gorge ourselves on corn this time of year. I swear to god we would each eat eight ears, or more.

Okay, so dinner: Corn on the cob, steak, and good bread, grilled, dribbled with olive oil and salt. And wine. Duh. And because I got the new refrigerator and a case of wine and sold a painting I decided to celebrate. I would get a filet mignon.

I headed to Damariscotta. I stopped at Rising Tide market just to see if they had anything of interest to add to the meal. I walked in the door, and there was a small box with the cutest little eggplants I’ve ever seen. Fairytale eggplants, the sign read. $10.99/lb. I didn’t care. They were adorable, and I was celebrating :-)

Of course, after splurging on the eggplants, I couldn’t bring myself to spend $19/lb. on filet mignon, so I got a boneless sirloin, on sale.

I also got some strawberries and heavy cream for strawberry shortcake. I had some Bisquick in the old fridge, and, sorry chefs and professional bakers, but I like shortcakes made with Bisquick.

On the way home I stopped at Head Tide Oven for a loaf of white sourdough bread. That stuff is good.

Course, when I got home, I discovered I was out of charcoal, so I cut the steak up into chunks and threw it into a marinade of soy sauce, vinegar and sugar, and made shish kabobs to grill inside on the Jenn-Air®. Love that old stove.

I skewered the steak and stabbed a Fairytale eggplant, rubbed with olive oil and salt, on the end of each.

Then I made a manhattan and relaxed on the deck as the sun went down, too early. Dinner could wait.

Happy fall.

See ya next week.