Artist's Palette: the colors of summer --easily.

Now is the time to indulge in the gloriously vivid colors of sunshine. You don't even have to do very much. Sometimes you can just put it all out there and it's gorgeous on its own. Celebrate the artist in you.

LIttle glass bowl is for creme fraiche, to dip into.

You can shake things up by varying the colors of the most traditional Provencal olive oil dish: ratatouille:

Getting different color peppers now when they're abundant and relatively cheap:

For unexpected company, I cleaned out the fridge by stuffing these with corn from one cob, bits of chorizo and poblano pepper, purple onion, chopped pitted Kalamata olives, 1 small over ripe tomato and fregola plus lots of olive oil. They were served heavily garnished with fresh chopped cilantro leaves.

Make jam out of something unexpected...like figs just coming in season.

3-4  4oz jelly jars can be filled by cooking:

1 lb fresh figs, cleaned and chopped
1 tsp anise seed
1 lemon, juice only
1 1/2 c turbinado, raw or mix of light brown and white sugar
pinch of ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp rose water

Put it all in a deep, heavy gauge pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Stir with a wooden spoon. Continue to boil and stir until it thickens. This will happen very fast! You will know it's done when the spoon goes across the bottom and the jam parts so you see the pot bottom. Ladle into jars bathed in boiling water and seal according to jar manufacturer's instructions.  You need to know how good this will taste in mid January on a croissant.