Summer Picnics

My sister just had a potluck picnic in the park near her apartment.  The theme of the picnic was "local": every guest had to bring a dish that included at least one local ingredient.  My contribution was a quinoa salad with local cherries (the ones I picked a few days ago!) and mint from my friend's garden.  It also had feta, shallots, and toasted pecans:

My sister made a delicious pasta salad with orecchiette and pesto (using basil from her own container garden):

A prize was offered for the most "local" dish... and guess who won?  :-)  I got a cute little package of three decadent truffles by a local chocolaterie called Honest Chocolates (www.honestchocolates.com).

Cooking summery dishes is fun in and of itself, but how much more fun would it be to do it in style?

I came across these completely cute aprons at a little shop called Wisteria Chic. Made by Funktion, they are one hundred percent cotton, and would be appropriate to wear while baking summery tarts or cupcakes. They are thin cotton, though, and therefore are best suited to gentle kitchen work. If you want an equally-cute, heavier-duty apron, I recommend this painterly canvas one from Anthropologie: