This season seemed apocalyptic, and not just because of the pandemic. The sun shone orange through skies smoky from wildfires. So did the moon. Record heat. Snow. More heat. Illegal drag races tore around the neighborhood after midnight. Other nights, coyotes howled in the nearby open space.

I felt sapped and trapped, especially with all our windows closed tight against the unhealthy air.

During yet another suffocating week, I flipped through our “work in progress” recipes pile in a bid for mental escape. There were the sweet potato cakes from Yotam Ottolenghi’s vegetarian cookbook “Plenty.”