Steak with Winter Wheat Berry Salad with Figs & Red Onion and Fennel and Radicchio Winter Salad with Pecans.

Left out the honey (by mistake) in the farro salad and substituted two shallots for the red onion. I also tossed in some feta that was hanging out in the fridge — I’d guess it was about six ounces.

Lemon-thyme rubbed pork chop with spinach-walnut pesto. Very adjusted version of “Mustard-Roasted Potatoes” from Smitten Kitchen. Brussels sprouts with pancetta.

Leftover braised turkey and carrots remixed with udon. Brussels sprouts with fresh breadcrumbs and a little Parmesan cheese.

I almost ate cookies for dinner tonight. I was very close. But dinner is satisfying, even when I’m not particularly hungry and very tired — so I made dinner with last night’s leftovers and a brick of flash-frozen udon, which is a staple in my freezer. The broth — from when I poached a chicken this summer — was also from the freezer. The sprouts turned up while I was digging around for the parsley — quick steam; add butter, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper to taste.

Pork chop with herbed potatoes and green beans with shallots and mustard.

I don’t know how to make linguine, anchovies, parsley and garlic look good in a photograph but I can put them in a pan and make them taste pretty good. However, it’s hard to go wrong with this combination. It’s classic for a reason.

“End of summer” panzanella with heirloom tomatoes.

I’ve been documenting my dinners here since June of last year — I haven’t recorded each and every one and, in fact, I’ve gotten less disciplined about it because sometimes I just eat leftovers or I make clam sauce using canned clams and that’s really just one step away from pasta with butter or I eat a salad or something else better left forgotten. I began this project as a vehicle for teaching myself homestyle Chinese dishes but somewhere along the way — perhaps it was this summer — I think it became my own answer to the what-do-you-cook-when-eat-alone question. It’s sometimes difficult to cook for yourself though and I certainly feel like my motivation has been slipping this month. (Between you and me and the walls: I ate cereal for dinner one night last week.) I’m chalking it up to A Summer Thing. You know, it’s Hot and I Don’t Feel Like It. So on this very fall-feeling evening, I made what is hopefully the Last Summer Dinner and I’m making the imaginary toast to a new season (next week) and new inspiration for dinner tonight.

Dinner tonight is my “end of summer” panzanella using the stale leftovers of a sourdough boule, heirloom cherry tomatoes from the green market, cucumber, parsley in place of basil, shallot, capers and a sherry-anchovy vinaigrette. I haven’t been focused on dinner this week but I had the bread, the tomatoes and I really wanted to open up this jar of anchovies. It worked out well. Of all the panzanella I’ve eaten this summer, this one has been the best.

“Warm Fingerling Potato And Tuna Salad” from Serious Eats. Eaten over romaine and mizuna.

Dinner tonight was really good. If you were here and I was telling you exactly how good it was, I’d likely be shaking my hands and staring at you as though you had no idea what I was talking about, even though you too just ate the same meal. There would be expletives. But thankfully, you’re not here; I’m not interested in sharing this one.

I didn’t follow the recipe exactly. I discovered that I didn’t have any bay leaves, so I decided not to bother with the carrot and celery. I threw in a few peppercorns and called it okay. I eye-balled everything except the potatoes (which I actually weighed) and the vinegar but my eye tends to run on the big side, so I’d say almost everything was very unscientifically increased. I used a shallot instead of a red onion and completely skipped the olives because I’m pretty sure olives ruin everything. But as the recipe suggested, I used a high-quality tuna in olive oil; mine happened to be an Italian import, yellowfin. Finally, I used a very arbitrary but certainly less than a half-cup of high-quality olive oil.

If you like potatoes, tuna and vinegar, I’d definitely suggest trying this dish. All of the ingredients can be mixed while the potatoes boil, so it’s a very quick weeknight meal. It’s light but it’s also filling. The flavors are excellent and the texture is pretty nice too. Perhaps because I ever-so-slightly overcooked my potatoes, some of the smaller pieces broke down and the mixture got a little creamy. The lettuce gave it a nice crunch. Excellent summer dinner.

London broil with sautéed zucchini and sautéed mushrooms.

Dinner tonight was a very off-the-cuff. In fact, right before I was ready to prep everything, I dashed out into the rain and bought a lemon and some parsley because I decided these were critical ingredients and I hadn’t had the foresight to get them while it was drier outside. This was also my opportunity to pick up a corkscrew and well, I didn’t. More on that later.

I made the London broil with a flank steak from a grass-fed cow. It was marinated in a little soy sauce and then cooked over high heat in a cast iron pan instead of grilled or broiled. The zucchini was sliced into ribbons and sautéed with garlic. Once it was off the heat, I added the zest of a lemon, which gave it a nice “fresh” taste. The mushrooms were sautéed with garlic, then I added a splash of balsamic vinegar and some flat-leaf parsley. Simple, tasty, happy.

And then there was this bottle of wine. Tasty, yes. Simple? No. Happy? Eventually. If you ask the internet how to uncork a bottle of wine without a corkscrew, it has options for you. Several, in fact. The least invasive way is the “Hit Method,” which is harder than it looks. Or maybe I wasn’t trying hard enough — I have neighbors. Then we move into the “Household Implements” methods. Screwing a nail through the cork and pulling it out with a hammer was somewhat easier but not perfect. The bottle was now only two-thirds corked. I became disillusioned with these methods so I moved onto the “Push” method. There’s only one and all you have to do is push the cork back into the bottle. Brilliant! Of course, this is a one-way street; there’s corked and not-corked but nothing in between. Less brilliant and the internet doesn’t really answer that question. Let this be a lesson to you: own a corkscrew.

(Ten minutes I was reminded that there’s a cork screw on my knife.)