The Space.
The weekend before your garden party, prepare the space by enlisting the help of a professional landscaper to brighten up the space. You don’t necessarily have to add a garden, but just tidy up and brighten up what is already there, adding some decorative bricks, stones, blocks, cleaning up unsightly weeds, etc. In Italy a beautiful outdoor brick oven style barbecue. You can find them here in the States. This is a unique touch and is great for grilling pizza.
The Decorations.
Nature creates the most beautiful decorations. So if you already do have plants and flowers, guests will be entertained by the scent of flowers in bloom. If you want to add any accessories be sure that they work in with the flowers that are there already. Or use those flowers as the theme of the decorations- working with the colors of the flowers already there.
Clay pots always add a beautiful touch to any outdoor party. They can be used for decoration, to place citronella candles in, or to use as wine buckets. They add a very rustic touch.
To add a bright summery feel choose heavy plastic plates, cups in beautiful, tasteful colors. However, to get that rustic European feel bring out the ceramic plates with rustic patterns (sunflowers, terra-cotta style, etc.) When I do parties wit the picnic in Tuscany theme I use these plates- it adds a wonderful, special touch.
Coming next is the most important part- the food. So stay tuned for recipes and more…
While we are waiting for more tips for your lovely summer garden party- here is a summertime cocktail that is beautiful as well as refreshing. This is versatile and can be served with or without alcohol- either way it makes a beautiful presentation. This is from my upcoming book on Outdoor Entertaining that won’t be out until next year. But we’d like to preview some things here.
Serves 4 people
Ingredients:
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4 large pears
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juice of one ripe lemon
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fresh mint leaves
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3 tbs sugar
Directions:
1. Wash pears well and cut off tops and set aside.
2. Hollow out the inside of each pear as much as possible and place pulp in blender.
3. Place in juice of lemon. Blend.
4. Pour juice in hollowed out pears and garnish with fresh mint leaves on top.
5. Place pear top back on top and serve with small straws.
6. If you would like to add alcohol- add in about 1/4 cup of chilled vodka before blending.
7. If you would like to make it low calorie substitute a sweetener for the sugar and don’t add alcohol.
If you try this recipe, please let us know how you liked it. If your tips, comments are selected- you will receive a limited edition The Basic Art of Italian Cooking specially designed gift tag.
Stay tuned for next entry with more ideas tomorrow!!
