You know summer’s really here when the Fourth of July rolls around. Although the weather’s been warm and muggy these last couple of weeks, it’s also largely been grey and rainy, so most of us aren’t exactly feeling the season (our AC is broken right now, so we’re feeling it, but not in ways that we’d like).

One of our plans for the weekend is to have dinner at The Cuckoo’s Nest out in Old Saybrook. They pretty consistently win awards for Best Mexican Food, but since Mexican food in these parts is usually mediocre at best, I’m not really holding out hope that it’ll be anything to write home about. Mostly we’re looking at it as an excuse to take the M3 out for a top-down spin along the shoreline. If there are decent nachos and a good margarita at the end of that, I’ll not complain. If it does turn out to be worth writing home about, I’ll do that. Or at least I’ll post something here.

Other than that, we’ll be staying close to home. I’m thinking there will be fresh berries on the menu somewhere, either in the form of shortcake, or perhaps adorning a bowl of homemade ice cream. Oh, and I’m going to do a jambalaya, complete with andouille sausage, chicken, and shrimp. It’s a Cook’s Illustrated recipe, and I will certainly report on that. I’m thinking it’d be nice to have some sauteed greens to go with it, or perhaps (or also) some corn on the cob.

Sometimes thinking about food is almost as good as cooking it.