🍅Welcome, Summer!

6 recipes to refresh your routine. Plus: the summer produce storage guide.

Hello, friends! I hope it’s been a good week for you. We’re about to turn the corner into June (sunshine, no more school, my birthday…), and I am already excited about the first cherries and “good tomatoes” appearing in the market.

I admit I got a little overenthusiastic and went overboard buying rhubarb at the farmers market this week. Seriously. It looked like I was stockpiling for the apocalypse. Oops. But rhubarb is one of my favorite spring ingredients—pink and tart and easy to work with—so I’m going to use it for the recipes you see below. Grab a few stalks and do the same!

I’m also featuring some summertime essentials and, for paid subscribers, a quick, essential guide to storing all that good summer produce — no more grainy tomatoes, mealy peaches, or swampy basil!

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone. Thanks for being a part of Unpeeled Journal. — Lisa

Greek Pasta Salad

A distinctly un-boring Greek pasta salad recipe loaded with plenty of Greek feta, olives, lemon, herbs, and tomato. Fun and simple to make, and the perfect side dish for spring dinners, picnics, and barbecues.

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Baked Summer Squash Parmesan

Sliced squash layered and baked with breadcrumbs and gooey mozzarella is the most gorgeous, satisfying way to enjoy all that yellow squash and zucchini this summer.

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Grilled Ginger-Lime Flank Steak With Noodles

This Vietnamese-inspired dinner, layered with crunch, fresh herbs, and perfectly funky-salty-tangy flavors looks like it took hours to make (and tastes like it, too!), but can be ready in under an hour. This is so good.

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Strawberry Rhubarb Crumb Bars

These jammy bars combine a pink, gooey, sweet-tart filling with a buttery-crisp crumble that serves as both base and crumb topping (so easy).

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Old-Fashioned Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Nothing says spring dessert like this classic recipe: sweet strawberries, tart rhubarb, and an all-butter crust in one perfect pie.

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Ultra-Moist Blueberry Pound Cake

This moist blueberry pound cake recipe topped with a simple vanilla glaze folds plump, juicy blueberries into buttery pound cake for an easy dessert that also makes a lovely breakfast bake. Plus: Learn how to make sure your blueberries don’t sink!

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Guide: How to Store Summer Produce (So It Stays Fresh and Perky Longer)

Once upon a time, someone bought a gorgeous—we’re talking GORGEOUS—big bunch of basil at the grocery store. She put it in a plastic produce bag, tied it up tight, and stuck it directly in the fridge when she got home.

The next day, dreaming of pesto and a perfect caprese salad, she reached for the basil and pulled out a black, swampy science experiment.

To make matters worse (read: embarrassing), this person then walked to the grocery store with the basil, dumped it at the customer service counter, and tried to return it, insisting she was sold a rotten bunch. The manager took pity on this clueless customer and gave her another bunch, but told her that basil can’t be stored in the fridge.

Reader, ‘twas I who ruined the basil. ‘Twas I.

I know I am not the only one who has hauled home a bag of gorgeous tomatoes or a handful of cucumbers, then found that two days later, the tomatoes are grainy and the cukes coated a thin slick of slime. Summer produce is peak-season magic, but we want to prolong it. A few simple storage rules make the difference as we head into summer.

🍑🍒🥒Here’s your guide to how to correctly store the most popular summer produce: tomatoes, basil, peaches and plums, cherries, corn on the cob, berries, and more. 🍅🌽🍓

• 🍅Tomatoes: Store these on the counter. Full stop. Cold refrigerator temperatures break down the cell walls of tomatoes and seize up the juices; this causes that grainy, mealy texture. Store them stem-side down at room temperature, preferably out of direct sunlight, and eat within 3 to 5 days. Go-to recipe: Southern Tomato Sandwiches