Eating

What's going to be on your plate this 4th of July? If it's meat, read this before you go shopping: results from a Harvard School of Public Health study and from my grill. Halve your meat and double your fun.

This Way is about shopping as much as cooking. Shopping for whatever's phenomenally fresh right now. And adding a two-minute trick to your dinner preparation time in return for a great version of a simple dinner.

It was 95 F. Felt like 105 with the humidity. It's cool not to cook. It's cool to take a chilled bowl of refreshing, slightly spicy soup out of the fridge. A 15-minute job, start to finish. No sweat. Just seasonally ripe, cheap vegetables in your blender.

Super creamy. Brilliant green. Lots of spinach. Zero cream. But all that fresh, raw, chopped spinach is slicked with a Bechamel sauce that's creamier than cream. All together, the most luxurious Way to eat your spinach.

If you don't know Paella, it's the great traditional rice dish of Spain. If you don't know the Three Sisters, well, let me tell you a short story. It's beautiful, aromatic, luscious, and deeply flavorful. And I'm pretty sure you'll like the photos.

Sure, it’s all relative. You put yourself in places that are mindblowingly huge and you’re bound to feel kinda small. Small in size. Small in time. I’ve been walking through some of the biggest examples of big. The oldest examples of old. Go take a walk someplace big this summer. For a refreshing perspective.

The exception that proves the rule. Free, fresh asparagus soup for lunch. Great hot. Even Better chilled. Better than Cheap: free. Here's how and why.

Massage cabbage with salt for a few minutes. Get the best sauerkraut you ever had. 4th of July, your hot dog's gonna be thrilled to be in a bun with this. You'll be even happier. Even if you think you don't like sauerkraut, good chance you'll like this.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Popsicles. 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. Welcome to summer.