1 roast chicken, 3 meals: Make the most of your kitchen time as fall begins and life gets busy

Every year, right after Labor Day weekend, I get this sinking feeling in my gut. The days are getting shorter, and the reality of a new season is settling in. I’ve had this knot of anxiety for as long as I can remember. Even though I haven’t been a full-time student in decades, I can’t shake the feeling that the official end of summer means all the fun is over.

I try to remind myself that crisp fall days and cold nights simply mean there’s a shift. Not the end of one thing, but the beginning of something else. In terms of cooking and time spent in the kitchen, it means a renewed interest in turning on the oven again and roasting dinner or simmering up soups and stews. But during the early fall what I don’t have, like many others, is a lot of time.

This is the season when kids go back to school, activities resume, work kicks up a notch and the word “busy” comes