All week Yum & I have been joyously celebrating salads. To fully celebrate salads in all their crisp, leafy glory, one must have the proper tools. Salad spinners, salad serving bowls, salad tongs, etc. As I was browsing the Yum Market on TeamSugar, I noticed that you too love to celebrate salads. From scrumptious recipes to sweet vegetable toys and fabulous oil and vinegar containers, you can find all the necessary accessories to create delicious and healthy salads in the comfort of your own kitchen. tdamji bookmarked this earthy set of salad bowls and I love how the different colors and sizes allow you to toss the greens in a larger bowl, whisk together the vinaigrette in a smaller bowl, and serve the finished salad in a medium sized bowl! Check out the rest of the salad finds below.

In case you still need more dessert ideas for your puppy paw-ty, a company in Japan has created ice cream for dogs. - Spluch

You didn't think I'd let National Watermelon Day go by without a few tips on how to select the perfect watermelon now did you? Here a some pointers to ensure that your watermelon will be sweet, juicy and perfect!

• Look for a melon that is symmetrical - the lopsided one might be cute and goofy looking, but the symmetrical one will probably taste better.
• Find one that is free of bruises, dents or cuts. This is where it's been dropped and possibly damaged.
• The outside of a ripe melon generally has a lovely sheen and a yellow spot. The yellow spot is actually a good thing, it means the watermelon was able to ripen in the sun (the yellow spot being where it was touching the ground).
• Make sure the melon you choose is heavy. A watermelon is over 90% liquid, so a light one could mean disaster.
• You want to get a watermelon that is firm. If it's squishy it could be rotten on the inside.
• If you're selecting a precut watermelon, find one that does not have any visible white streaks, looks juicy (not dry) and is bright in color.

Image Source

You didn't think I was going to let National Watermelon Day pass without featuring a watermelon cocktail did you?!? Watermelon, while wonderfully delicious in its pure unadulterated form, is also extremely excellent pureed and used as a basis for a cocktail. Combine it with lemon vodka, simple syrup, and fresh berries, watermelon makes this vibrantly colored drinkie perfectly refreshing on a hot summer afternoon. With a blitz of a blender, this concoction comes together in seconds. To get the recipe and salute watermelon, read more

My friend Becky recently visited her family in Pennsylvania and brought back a bunch of interesting treats. One of things that I found fascinating was the Amish-styled pickled watermelon rind. It was surprisingly sweet and tart and yet, strangely lovely. Now imagine my surprise when I visited my mom a few days later and she also pulled out a jar of pickled watermelon. She's currently on a brining kick and actually made hers herself - it was also sweet, tart and strangely lovely.

If all of this pickled watermelon talk has piqued your interest, I've got two great things for you. (1) a place where you can buy a 16oz jar of Amish-style pickled sweet watermelon rind for $4.59 and (2) a recipe to make yours. To check out the recipe, read more

How cool is this cutting board?? The ultimate clean cook's kitchen tool, this chopping block promotes cleaning while you cook - something I always encourage! Store diced vegetables on one side and the waste (stems, seeds, peels, etc.) on the other. The trays attach to the cutting board with magnets that allow for easy removal. I love that designer Peter D'Alessandro takes an ordinary, everyday kitchen essential and turns it into a sleek, modern, functional product. A special thanks to eruntale for bookmarking this fabulous find!

Source: Apartment Therapy

• Maybe if I had one of these hand pie crust bags I would make more pies. - Apartment Therapy: The Kitchen
• Tao Las Vegas is the highest grossing restaurant in the US. Want to know what the other 9 are? - Will Work for Food
• Have you ever wondered what self-rising flour is? - Baking Bites
• There's a lot of food in movies these days. Premiere lists the 20 most mouth-watering movie moments. - Slashfood
• Just two words: apricot dumplings. Now four more: pair with a riesling. How can you resist?- Culinate
• Do cooked vegetables have more nutrients than raw ones? - FitSugar
• Would you eat Spam for every meal? How about every meal for 30 days? - Serious Eats
• Oh when is America going to receive Fuji Apple Mentos? - Candyblog
• Here are 10 warning signs that your restaurant meal will turn out poorly. - Chow

You can make this rapid, healthy dinner salad in twelve minutes with ingredients from your pantry. Canned tuna and white beans get freshened up with cherry tomatoes, green beans, and lemon zest for a very Italian-style meal. Serve with a chunk of cheese, a hunk of crusty sourdough bread, and a chilled Pinot Grigio and finish it off with slices of cool watermelon for a relaxing and rewarding Friday night in. Make this tonight - you'll find the recipe when you read more

The second season of Alton Brown's travel show Feasting on Asphalt premieres this Saturday, and I must admit, I am really looking forward to it. Alton is one of my favorite celebrity chefs, mostly because of his geeky scientific approach to cooking. In his first book, I'm Just Here for the Food, AB delivers the goods just like you would expect. There are recipes, science, history and lots of detailed instructions and handy diagrams. Much like his Good Eats tv show, Alton's book helps you understand your food, not just cook it. There's science behind it all and he wants to help you figure it out. Although there are recipes in the book, what Alton is really providing to his reader is knowledge. Know how things work, and you'll be able to do it yourself. Oh and did I mention that he does it in a way that is technical and somehow still loads of fun?

If you're an Alton fan and don't own this book, you should definitely remedy that. And if you've ever found yourself wondering about the how and whys in the kitchen, then definitely check this book out. In the recently updated 2.0 version of the book, there are now 15 more recipes and 4 refrigerator magnets. If you don't have the first edition, skip straight to this one. If you do have the first edition, not a lot has changed to justify a new copy.