1. Essential Summer Herbs & How to Cook with Them
2. 7 Seasonal Cookbooks to Own
3. How to Make Grilled Cheese in Bulk
4. 11 Fast & Fresh Meals in Under 30 Minutes
5. Coolest Cupcake Toppers You Can Buy on Etsy
6. God Feed the Queen! Her Majesty’s Favorite Foods

This is the latest installment of my Powernap column. The series where I share quick, easy food that can be made for all kinds of situations. Powernaps are short and sweet, and so are these recipes. These are the things I make in a jiffy when I need a quick snack, am in the mood for a recipe experiment, or simply need to clean out the pantry.

I could’ve made a dozen or so pies with all the strawberries that we picked last week. But in the interest of my waistline I decided to forgo that idea and diversify my strawberry based projects. Since my daughter did a lot of the manual labor it was important that she be included in some of the strawberry cooking decisions and her request was strawberry lemonade. She is a big fan of lemonade in general and her eyes lit up at the prospect of making it at home from scratch.

This summer I am introducing a new visual element to the blog: layouts! Instead of just blabbering on about my favorite tool for chilling wine or my awesome new watermelon knife I thought I’d spell it all out here for you in a cool easy-to-read layout. Today I am starting out with ten of my favorite kitchen gadgets for summer. These are the items that are quirky and a little unusual yet I find myself using on a daily basis all summer long. What can’t you live without in the summer months?

The Occasion: Strawberry picking weekend, casual weekend at home with lots of expected guests.

Number of People: Anywhere between 4 and 8

Menu: Strawberry-Rhubarb Slab Pie to have on hand for anyone/everyone!

Last week I took two little girls strawberry picking. Between the three of us we picked 23 pounds of fresh strawberries in under an hour. It was impressive, to say the least, and I was so proud of my little farmhands for be so discriminate in their picking. They actually followed my guidelines in the fields and only picking the brightest, reddest, strawberries they could find! Half of the loot went home with the playdate and the rest came home to our kitchen. With an exhausted child upstairs for a little quiet time I quickly set to work washing, hulling, and chopped the ruby red fruit. The first thing on my baking agenda? Pie!