I have a new summer salad. I say that every year, and I try to share them with you whenever I can. This year my salad is inspired by Melia Marden’s new book. It is one of those “this is so simple I can’t believe I didn’t think of it myself” salads. It has just two main ingredients but is packed with flavor and texture, and every bite tastes like summer. It is also healthy to boot, a welcome side note, but I don’t even eat it because of that! Honest. I just pick the tomatoes from our plant on the porch and whip it up whenever I have the chance.

Merrill always comes up with the best recipes. It’s not that I don’t love all the recipes on Food52, I just always seem to gravitate toward Merrill’s, or her mother’s, every time I am browsing the site. The two of them know so many little secrets to improving some of my favorite foods. In the years of cooking experience between them they have figured out that little touches like pressing sugar designs into cookies, adding a touch of cream to bolognese, or stirring butter into strawberry jam will make an already excellent dish so much better.

My herb pot yielded its first batch of basil large enough for making pesto. Needless to say, I already have one batch in the fridge and a small container stashed in the freezer for later this winter. As my husband pointed out, never doubt how much Kelsey loves homemade pesto! The kick off the pesto party this summer I made up an easy summer recipe for pesto grilled chicken. It is perfect for a quick weekend meal and comes together in nearly an instant.

1. 20 Meals You Can Make Without Turning on the Oven

2. 7 Salty Potato Chip Recipes

3. 10 Egg-Free Ice Creams

4. 12 Fun & Clever Ways to Serve Ice Cream

5. 25 EasyWays to Flavor a Burger

6. 10 Simple Summer Jam Recipes

7. 6 Refreshing & Simple Homemade Popsicle Recipes

8. 6 Delicious Ways to Flavor Lemonade

I have a secret to share. I LOVED our cool, slightly rainy, June weather. I know I always moan about the cold, but a cool 70 degree summer day with no humidity, and the occasional sprinkle, is just fine with me. I am SO not looking forward to the crazy heat and humidity (and potential droughts!) of August. The survive that month I mostly submerge myself in Lake Otsego and do my best to keep the kids cool. This also means I turn on the oven as minimally as possible and employ all of my favorite “stay cool” strategies. The other day I broke out the first item on this list and whipped up a batch of ice cream. It was so refreshing to eat outside after dinner! Rest assured I’ll have plenty of stay cool recipes this summer. But, to get me started, I am tuning up all of my favorite kitchen equipment. I am thinking about giving away one of these items soon. Any requests? Let me know!

1) The ice cream maker is our summer kitchen workhorse. Not only is it perfect for ice cream and frozen yogurt, it is also great for granitas, and wine slushies!

We’ve made some new friends here in suburbia and the other day I wanted to bake them a seasonal treat to thank them for a kind gesture they recently did for us. (More on that good gesture soon, I hope!) This week we were going strawberry picking but I’ve also been able to get local berries at our local green grocer. Needless to say, they are AMAZING! I can’t get enough of the ripe fruit that is glistening red straight to the core. Since I had a quart in hand already I decided to pick up some rhubarb and make our friends a simple season strawberry rhubarb crisp.

It is pretty rare these days that I get time to myself. With two kids and a busy household the four of us are always running to and fro to activities and commitments. However, on rare occasions, I find myself at home with both the kids in bed and a little extra time on my hands. This typically happens when my husband is traveling for work or at the office late into the night. When this happens the first thing I do is make myself a nice meal. It is not about cooking anything fancy or involved, just something easy and nutritious to finish the day off right.

Cooking for one might not be the top priority for most people, but I love it. I usually pull something out of the freezer and serve it over some pasta and fresh vegetables. I also use it as a time to try something new that I don’t know if my husband would enjoy or not. Last month I received some samples of the delicious Bumble Bee SuperFresh™ salmon and was psyched to give it a try.

As part of my ongoing author series, today I am interviewing my friend Jaime of Sophistimom about her new book, Celebrate Every Day: Recipes for Making the Most of Special Moments with Your Children. I love how she approached cooking and family life as a whole, suggesting music, books, and activities that are both beloved and educational for children in each chapter. Not only were her recipes mouthwatering, she reminded me of a lot of the books I enjoyed as a child as well as a few new ones I need to check out for my daughter. Be sure to enter the give away below so you can win your own copy of this amazing book!

My year as a flavor correspondent exploring the food truck trend for Sargento has been a revelation. The food truck trend is clearly gaining traction across the country and the reason it is doing so is because a lot of the food they are serving is so good. I’ve eaten quite a range of food truck cuisine in my local area – crepes, pizza, lobster rolls and, now, meatballs – and the cooks really know what they are doing with their specialty. Also, food trucks are taking on all kinds of different forms. Last month I tracked down the Skinny Pines pizza truck and found it is actually a wood-burning pizza oven towed by a large van. This month I had to pleasure of finally indulging in The Local Meatball food truck only to discover that it is a Fiat pulling a portable meatball stand!

I am psyched to be participating in the Whole Foods Berry Bash this month. It is berry season here in Connecticut and our local Whole Foods is stocking all kinds of organic berries from near and far. This means it is finally the time of year when I can get my hands on all the berries I can stand! It also means I can start making the favorite Strawberry Vanilla Jam recipe from my book. For the berry bash I went to the store and picked up a fresh container of strawberries to make some rich, buttery breakfast muffins.

Father’s Day is right around the corner and it is time to drum up something really awesome for Dad. If the man in your life is anything like my husband he doesn’t want anything expensive or fancy, he just wants a really great family day with some good food thrown in. Here are some of my top picks for Dad this year. I hope you have a delicious one! (p.s. – here are some of my yummy ideas for Father’s Day food!)

A delicious Bloody Mary mix to start the day off right.

When my mother came to visit a couple of weeks ago she brought some lightened up breakfast muffins. She knows I am working on getting the old bod back in shape but also understands I need to indulge in a touch of sweetness now and then. She came up with this recipe when she accidentally picked up a giant container of chocolate Greek yogurt during a hasty grocery shopping trip and needed to use it up.