Gumbo is an odd dish to make midsummer. Thick, rich, spicy, hot: it left our bellies heavy for hours and warmed us from within. We’d never have gone for that a few weeks or even a few days ago, when all we could stomach in the hundred-degree midday heat was salads and cold sandwiches.
But it doesn’t feel like midsummer anymore. Sure, the fall equinox is a few weeks away still, but on the cusp of September the temperatures are suddenly dropping. There are lightning storms in the forecast this weekend, and with them whole mornings in the sixties and afternoon highs in the seventies. We haven’t seen such mild days for months. It promises welcome relief.