When the temperature in Dallas finally dipped into the mid-90s, signalling summer’s slow ease into fall, I figured it was time to stop whining about the heat and get out there and enjoy nature’s sudden and unexpected turn.  Which on a particular (and peculiar) low-humidity Thursday in late August, meant food truck night at Old City Park.

Chips and salsa have replaced chouquettes as my go-to mid-afternoon snack, and I’m liberally splashing Valentina sauce — available for about a buck fifty at the Mexican grocery stores — on everything I can. Tick-tock. I’ll be back in Paris soon, but while I’m here, I’m making melty orange cheese a daily food group.

I just taught my first class at Central Market in Fort Worth. To a sold-out crowd of more than 50. I had a staff (a staff, y’all!) of wonderful people — volunteers and Central Market employees — buzzing around behind me and putting everything together, as I walked everyone through four of my favorite recipes from my new cookbook. I chopped. I folded egg whites. I told silly stories. People laughed. When it was all over, I signed books and talked to everyone. I’m still sort of pinching myself.