Summer Seafood Essentials (Lobster Bibs Included)

We're all about collections over at Provisions -- and we don't want you to miss out on the fun.

Today: Don't be crabby! It's summer seafood season.

We crave seafood in the summer. Maybe it’s the heat, or the thought of the beach and the ocean, but all we want is lightly grilled fish with lemon and sea salt. Some of us are firmly in camp lobster, and think nothing of buttery lobster rolls for lunch and dinner. Some of us grew up in Maryland, so June through August means tables spread with newspaper and crabs and plenty of Old Bay.

We launched a collection today in our Provisions shop inspired by summer seafood -- here are some of the pieces that a seafood lover can, and should, put to use.

Seersucker Lobster Bibs: No one wants to dirty their summer whites when eating -- but eating lobster is a messy business, no matter how you prep it. We wanted something a little nicer (and less disposable) than those omnipresent plastic lobster bibs. So we enlisted the help of one of our talented Provisions partners -- Dot and Army -- to design our own. These are made of linen and edged in green cotton seersucker -- washable, relaxed, cute, and probably the most genius summer hostess gift of all time.

Gomasio Seasoning: If you are even remotely a fan of sesame or seaweed, you have to try this. Gomasio is a blend of flake salt, toasted black sesame, and seaweed -- it’s a replacement for salt but also just a brilliant combination of seasonings. It’s very, very good on light white fish like cod or sea bass -- but to be honest, we’ve been putting it on everything from buttered toast to popcorn.

Parchment Fish Bags: One of the simplest to cook seafood is en papillote -- in parchment. Just open one of these bags, lay out your seafood of choice with herbs, oils, seasoning, and vegetables, then wrap it up and bake. It comes out perfectly cooked every time, and all the flavors you include meld together nicely without the need for complicated sauces or sides. It’s the ultimate one-pan recipe.

Find other useful tools like a copper fish poacher and paper crab napkins -- and see the rest of the Summer Seafood collection -- over on Provisions.

Tell us in the comments, what’s your favorite summer seafood dish?