Here's to a hand-held Fourth of July. No disposable plates and utensils for the landfill. No washing dishes. Just your hands. Start with a really good hot dog on a fresh corn tortilla. Add some Salsa Verde. Fireworks in your mouth.

The squash is Summer sweet. Still a little crisp. The crust is crunchy and chewy. The thyme is intensely aromatic. The mozzarella is gooey and rich; the parmiggiano is nutty and slightly salty. A beautiful Summer meal for $2.

Raita is a refreshing yogurt dip that's usually served with spicy Indian foods. It cools things down. When you freeze it in a popsicle mold, things get turned around. And really cool. Now it's something you dip in your mouth. Something delicious and refreshing on its own.

No exercise balls. No balance boards. Just crank up the tunes. If you have trouble getting motivated to exercise, put on some music that you can't not dance to. Fast. Aerobic. Get your heart rate up and sweat. For one hour. Burn about 350 calories.

My White Pine Time Machine's growing like crazy again. Press Play and give it a try. Gets you to be here. Now. No other place. No other time. The White Pine Time Machine. Transports you to ... now.

Rhubarb's everywhere right now. Ripe and Cheap. The season for a tart but luscious Upside Down Cake. Takes about 10 minutes and $4 to prepare. Makes 10 -12 happy people.

Five miles that remind you Manhattan's an island. Unless you're on the shoreline, you always feel like you're smack in the middle of the city. Unless you're on The High Line, you're on the sidewalk. Here's a refreshing new point of view. With great food.

A big salad posing as a pizza. A huge mound of exceptionally fresh flash-baked greens on a hot, fresh pizza crust. Delicious. Another example of pizza crust as the perfect platform for almost everything fresh and tasty. Dinner for two - for less than $2.

On the first day of summer, my corn stalks sprouted tassels. Tiny green tomatoes are hanging everywhere. The beanstalk's outgrown its trellis, so beans aren't far away. For those who prefer to just watch, the day lilies are popping.

Long as they get. Compared to those short Winter days, these Summer days give you about six extra hours of daylight. You can do a four-hour walk or hike before high noon. Use 'em or lose 'em. Here's how.

Stretch and strengthen your core, back and leg muscles while you bend and flex. Strengthen your shoulder and chest muscles by squeezing this really big $12 exercise ball between your hands. You use many, many muscles. Very time-efficient. And burns calories faster.

Pancakes. The perfect Slower Sunday activity. Just stand and watch and inhale. You may be eager. But not impatient. They're getting there. Just a few more minutes. When we were kids, my dad used to make pancakes for me and my sister on Sundays

Massage cabbage with salt for a few minutes. Get the best sauerkraut you ever had. Come Fourth of July, your hot dog's gonna be thrilled to be covered with this. You'll be even happier. Even if you think you don't like sauerkraut, good chance you'll like this.

Four mountains in Acadia National Park. Yours for the Walking. Five miles, two or three hours, 1,000 calories burned. A ten or fifteen minute drive to the lobster pier for 400 calories of the best lobster roll you'll ever have.

Every June. I lose five pounds. I don't try to. It's all the shockingly flavorful greens we get when our CSA farm share kicks in. There's not much room left on the plate for everything else. So you eat a lot less of the high-calorie stuff. And you get inventive with lettuce.

A salad cross-dressing as a soup. Lettuce and herbs with milk. Amazing how flavorful it is. 96 degrees when I made this perfect cool, light meal. Better. Cheaper. Chilled. No oven, no stove, no sweat. Use a food processor and get it done in three minutes. Less than $1 per serving.

Tart rhubarb. Really ripe strawberries. So sweet you won't even think about adding sugar. A deeply sweet and wonderfully refreshing Way to end a meal on a hot day.

Stretch and strengthen your core, back and leg muscles while you stand and twist. Strengthen your shoulder and chest muscles by squeezing this really big $12 exercise ball between your hands. You use many, many muscles. Very time-efficient. And burns calories faster.

... in slow motion. The New York Botanical Garden says they've got more than 4,000 varieties here in The Rose Garden. Which is in peak season right now. Must be a million roses. Press Play for the tiny preview. Might be enough to push you over the edge, to find one near you.

Nothing better than a handful of fresh strawberries, with the possible exception of Strawberry Shortcake. You can make the shortcake biscuit dough in five minutes flat. Seven to ten minutes in a 450-degree oven and you've got a killer dessert for $1.

Not one of those strenuous 10-mile hikes that leads to one astonishing view. No, you can drive right up to Old Faithful and gasp. And Walk two or three hours and six miles past hundreds of geysers, hot springs and multi-color pools that gurgle, bubble and steam.

Nope, not a cooking technique or a recipe. The wolf is the wolf at the door. M.F.K. Fisher wrote How To Cook A Wolf at the tail end of the last Depression. The wolf was hunger. Or, more generally, scarcity. Or just anxiety about scarcity. Something that's very right now for a lot of people, don't you think?

I love wild salmon. I really love it grilled. But there was always this problem: when you flip a filet over on the side without skin, a lot of the salmon sticks to the grill. Wastes salmon. Looks ugly. Here's the solution.

With basil dressing. Wow, this was delicious. Luxurious in your mouth. When your fork hits the egg, the yolk runs into the basil and magically makes a rich but light and bright sauce for the asparagus. Ten minutes to prepare. $2.50 per serving.

Stretch and strengthen your outer thigh and butt muscles while you lift your leg. Strengthen your core and back muscles by supporting yourself with just one hand on this really big $12 exercise ball. You use many, many muscles. Very time-efficient. And burns calories faster.

Pure blue sky. Bright, creamy white flowers. If it's not too early for eyes wide open, it'll clear your head. Press Play. Practice for a minute. Then go out for the real thing. Feel your eyes work.

Started life as a hamburger bun. Found its true calling in a pan. This light, bright zero-sugar-but-nice-and-sweet fruit glaze and puree is fantastic with the luxurious souffle-like toast. Less than a buck for a great little breakfast.

On Mt. Toby. Never hiked the Robert Frost Trail before. But I'd already been here a million times. A tiny speck moving through a vast landscape that's been here forever. A vast forever that makes you understand you're just passing through. Briefly. But this was different.

Big week in the garden. First week some of it comes into the kitchen for real meals. Just picked the first ripe strawberries. The basil's going wild after the first week of hot sun. I'm thinking about a very fresh pesto tonight. Maybe a few of the season's first Basil Rolls.

Get a really ripe banana. Ripe strawberries. So sweet you won't even think about adding sugar. A deeply sweet and wonderfully refreshing Way to end a meal on a hot day.