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Keep it simple, Summer!

Feed the gang and have some fun without a leghold trap
food_glenda1

Yay! It's official! That time of year we poor deprived Canucks have all been waiting for. The time when, as we're reminded by the Perimeter Institute — the Canadian heartland of theoretical physics located in Waterloo, Ontario — we bask in the radiant heat of a 4.5-billion-year-old sphere of searing plasma that fuses 620 million tons of hydrogen per second.

In other, more down-to-earth words, summer's here! Time for fun in the sun! That means finding cool — in the total sense of the word — meals that satisfy and keep us out of the kitchen as much as possible, unless your kitchen is open air.

I follow a couple of tips for happy summer eating. Number one: keep things simple. That usually translates to using the stove as little as possible and certainly not turning on the oven, unless it's late at night.

That leads to tip Number Two: keep things fresh, fresh as an edible flower. That means availing our fine selves of all the superb fresh produce out there this time of year — from your kitchen garden, your full-on garden, and all those fine farmers' markets.

For the latter, here's your guide in one quick take. Rip it out and post it on your fridge with a beat-up magnet; copy it electronically and post it on your Facebook page. Whistler's farmers' market is every Sunday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. until October 12, and every Wednesday 3 to 7 p.m., starting July 2, in the Upper Village (4545 Blackcomb Way). Pemberton's: every Wednesday 4 to 7 p.m. until October 8 in the lovely new market barn, 7437 Frontier Street, right in the heart of town. The farmers' market in Squamish is 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Saturday to October 25 at Cleveland and Victoria in beautiful downtown Squamish. North Van, West Van and Vancouver proper have so many farmers' markets you'll have to source the ones you want yourself at the B.C. Association of Farmers' Markets website here: http://markets.bcfarmersmarket.org/market-search?region=7.

But don't confine your fresh-eating vocabulary to tossed leafy greens in salads and loads of fresh fruits, like those strawberries from the Fraser Valley and, coming soon, delicious local tree fruits.

One of the smartest and most nourishing things you can do in summer is cook to perfection a pot full of veggies in the cool evening when you're locked into your best summer reading. When they're done to perfection (use barely enough water to cover them, little or no salt; a sharp knife pierces them easily when they're just done), drain and save the pot liquor for a summer soup. Plunge the green beans, potatoes or whatever into cold water to stop the cooking process. Let them sit a bit at room temperature, then pop the lot into the fridge for days of royal summer dining.

A platter of nice greens topped with cool cooked green beans, new potatoes, carrots or baby beets is yummy unto itself and halfway to a salad Niçoise. Add a hard-boiled egg, some olives and a nice clump of sustainable fish all dressed up with some good olive oil and vinegar and you're all the way there.

Tuna fish is the salad Niçoise classic and Raincoast Trading — ranked by Greenpeace as the No. 1 sustainable canned tuna — makes sure your fish is properly caught and cooked without you barely lifting a finger. I love Raincoast's products, and not just because they're so sustainable. Their fish is super tasty. Note that I would never suggest this with any other canned fish I know of, but if you buy Raincoast Trading tuna or salmon (I prefer the unsalted versions) don't dump the juice when you drain the tin.

Save it in a little jar in your freezer that you can keep adding to from all those great tuna or salmon salads you can whip up in a hurry with some mayo, good herbs and a little imagination. Then when you're ready to make a fish chowder with those delicious pot liquors you've also been saving from your freshly cooked veggies, pop your "fish liquor" into the microwave on low for a few minutes to thaw it then add it your fish soup.

It adds a wonderful bass note that's so deep and complex it would take you hours of simmering a dozen fish heads to reproduce it. A single coho steak and four ounces of this magical fish liquor can anchor a fish chowder to feed four.

My final tip, though, for summer feeding is the best one of all — have fun! That goes for all things food year-round, but it doubles up in summer when "playfulness" is the byword and we don't need the psychological warmth of "The Hearth" or the complex casseroled carbs and all that.

Fun is also key when you're trying to teach kids to cook, or they're trying to teach you. It was my goddaughters, aged nine and 10 at the time, who taught me how to make fresh fruit pies years ago and, yes, it was a lot of fun!

Kids are experts on summer and fun and they'll tell you in a hurry that barbecuing hits the right note all summer long because it's super fun and simple, almost as good as a weenie roast. Once you grill the meat, fish, or whatever, all you have to add is some buns and a watermelon.

I love the tip Barb Mclean shared a few summers back. Barb is a guest relations host at Whistler Blackcomb with two kids at home to feed after she gets off work. She and her hubbie Harry both like to bar-b, and their specialty is little barbecue boats made out of aluminum foil.

Just make a boat-shape by folding up the sides and pinching the two ends. It's easy for veggies or fish (cook it until it's just tender to the touch; no turning needed), plus it holds the juices. Now those are fun to make — and eat out of.

As for that 4.5-billion-year-old sphere of searing plasma, it's out there waiting for you to soak it up and enjoy.

And if your name happens to be Summer — after all it was the 51st most popular girl's name in B.C. a few year's back — more power to you! This is your time in the sun and we're all the better for it.

Glenda Bartosh is an award-winning journalist who takes her summer seriously.