The Naptime Chef

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!

What’s Going on Today: First day of no school (thank goodness for camp next week!) Basil plant is exploding.

Naptime Goals: Make pasta and leave to dry.

Tonight’s Menu: Basil Linguine, Garlic Chicken, Artichokes.

Once again, the summer herb pot is exploding. I don’t want to give myself too much credit, but man, I know how to manage an herb pot. The only problem is that lately it has been growing a little too well and now instead of tiny plants I have enormous bushes of fresh healthy herbs! Taking advantage of all this flavor goes beyond flavoring soups and salads. It means adding large amounts of big dishes which is why for our first day of summer vacation my daughter and I decided to make homemade basil linguine.

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.

Yesterday we had our first heat wave. It was miserable. In a just a few hours our gorgeous spring-like 70-degree weather was replaced with a sticky 90-degree afternoon. Pushing my daughter to school in the stroller felt like walking through glue, the driveway was suddenly too hot for bare feet. To perk myself up, while she was at school I decided it was time to break out a recipe my mom had shared with me a long time ago, refreshing homemade ginger ale.