Outdoor Entertaining

By Heather Dunphy

It's summer. The sun is shining, the weather is warm and our thoughts turn to the great outdoors - the great -forentertaining outdoors that is. There is an inherent casualness about outside entertaining that is hard to resist and, whether you have a balcony, a rooftop deck or a landscaped garden, open-air gatherings should be as carefree as summer itself.

Start with the menu. Think summer flavours and - this is key - minimal host involvement and maximum guest enjoyment; after all seasonal foods are best enjoyed simply prepared - why complicate things when you could be enjoying your own party?

The idea is to spend as much time with your guests as possible, instead of stuck in the kitchen or on the grill for hours, and that means planning ahead. There are so many seasonal menu options - from Mediterranean inspired summer salads; pizza cooked on the grill and topped with asparagus, baby tomatoes, fresh herbs and chèvre; classic corn-on-the-cob; or meat, seafood and/or vegetables that you can marinate and skewer beforehand and simply put on the grill when your guests arrive (if using wooden skewers remember to soak them overnight so they don't burn). Grilled vegetables prepared ahead provide a perfect starter for your meal. Lay the vegetables out on a platter just prior to your guests arriving and place some herbed olive oils nearby. Toast olive or tomato focaccia on the grill upon the arrival of your guests and then let them help themselves - easy and delicious.

Beautiful as the summer sky may be the stars alone won't provide enough illumination, so next on your list is lighting. One option is to string Christmas lights around balcony railings or in trees, as they look great while providing ambient light. Citronella candles or torches that can be stuck in the ground do the same while repelling bugs, and candles, lots and lots of them in wind-protected containers, provide the perfect summer evening atmosphere. Indoor floor lamps are a creative option that follows the current trend of moving the indoors out, but most of all they create beautiful pockets of light around them when moved outside for the evening.

Depending on the space you have you may decide to serve the main course on platters set up on shaded tables or straight from the grill. Either works well as there are few rules when entertaining outside, however draw the line at using plastic or styrofoam dishes. Casual as entertaining in the summer should be, reusable plastic dishes are for camping, not entertaining, and food doesn't taste the same on styrofoam. Besides, using your indoor dishes adds a nice contrast to the informality of alfresco entertaining, is better for the environment, and dishes have just as much of a chance of breaking outdoors as in.

Buckets or vases, weighed down with stones to keep them from tipping over in the wind, and filled with an array of flowers or even fresh herbs; alongside a stack of dishes with a few containers - mason jars work well - holding cutlery; a bowl or tray filled with linen napkins weighed down with napkin rings; and you're ready.

But what if the weather doesn't cooperate? Smile, stay relaxed and enlist your guests help to move your outdoor set-up in. Or, you could be like my sister and her boyfriend who, when faced with torrential rains on the day they were hosting a 'goodbye-we're-moving-to-another-country' barbeque, decided that the weather wasn't going to bring them indoors. Instead they set up a large tarp that they had from a camping trip, made some mulled wine to keep the damp evening chill away, and smiled. They stayed relaxed and had a great time, as did their guests, and that's what entertaining is all about - indoors or out.