This summer, why bother spending all your time slaving away in the kitchen when you should be chilling outside, getting your vitamin D on and sipping cocktails with your friends....

I'm a firm believer in prepping food super early in the morning make ahead items the night before to make serving time simple and easy.

So this fourth of july let me point you to a few of my favorite crowd pleasers on the site. These recipes are perfect for groups and are meant to be made ahead of time.

Potato Salad, Fried Fish, Banana Pudding, and strawberry ice cream cake. There, I made your menu....

First up is Bucktown PVD chef Ashley Faulkner's delicious fried fish and potato salad. The Potato Salad can be made the morning of or day before your party and the fried fish can be breaded and frozen flat on a sheet tray a week ahead and fried directly from frozen. These southern family recipes from the young female chef killing it in this New England digs were shared with us last year and you can watch the how to recipes on The Inherited Plate you tube channel or right here on the site.

Banana pudding is a classic southern treat made with Nilla wafers, bananas, jello pudding and whipped cream. Made in a bowl or trifle dish and set it aside overnight so the flavors of the cookies, vanilla pudding and bananas meld and soften, my recipe is super simple and dummy proof.

A second great summer treat is my 4 ingredient strawberry shortcake ice cream bars. They sort of taste like that great american good humor bar from yester year and the recipe is totally fool proof and kid friendly. Feel free to be creative and use the method while changing the flavors to your liking! I would totally try a coffee, chocolate version with chocolate wafers.

You can also go for my ferrero rocher ice cream pie for a sort of high brow low brow dessert moment. Both of these were part of a food52 roundup on great recipes made out of bodega only ingredients, cleverly put together by author Charlotte Druckman.

Ferrero Rocher Ice Cream Pie Photo by: Danielle Rehfeld

For a healthier, more refreshing dairy free dessert, I'd like to sneak in this clementine and cardamom sorbet or granita. It's a fantastic way to put your bag of clementines and cardamom pods to use.

Let us know if you tried any of these recipes and please enjoy! We'd love to hear from you.

From my Kitchen to yours!

Danielle

Red Potatoes made delicious in this potato salad by chef ashley faulkner