• Serve up a casual
ice cream bar with a self-mixing twist.
Instead of the standard candy additives, offer up a variety of summery fresh
fruit pieces that will freeze when you stir them into your icy dish of ice
cream or sherbet. A tip: lime sherbet
with fresh raspberries is a tasty seasonal combo that is already icing down my
summer.
• Instead of soda or your regular iced tea for weekend
dinner guests, mix up three different kinds of lemonades, limeades, or flavored
teas and serve from frosty carafes. Toss
in thinly-sliced lime or orange rings for added flavor and a fancy drink
top-off.
• Using regular ice trays or the slender straw versions
for plastic bottles, fill with a couple of blueberries, raspberries, or mint
sprigs per section, top off with sparkling water or juice, freeze, and drop
your decked-out ice cubes in tall glasses of chilled tea or punch at a
gathering, showing you really pay attention to detail when entertaining.
• Go all-summer with a dessert selection, opting for
popsicles and watermelon wedges instead of heavier brownies or cake to
accompany a backyard barbeque. Fill
smaller metal or plastic tubs with crushed, shaved, or tiny ice, and stick
popsicles and watermelon wedges right in just before serving. Don’t forget the napkins nearby!
• Skip the stovetop, and feast on a selection of cold
salads: pasta, potato, chicken or tuna, garden, and fruit. Lay out your spread with crackers, and enjoy,
minus the heat.
• When roasting corn on the grill, go beyond
butter. Why not go the way of the baked
potato and offer up a “corn bar” with butter, cheese, crumbled bacon, chives,
sour cream, and the like? Have a serving
area prepped for cutting corn off the cob (it’s harder to eat on the cob in
front of others, isn’t it?), so all those decadent mix-ins can really blend in.
• It doesn’t take a wedding reception to enjoy a “candy
bar.” Serve your own version at a 4th
of July party or other summer gathering.
Serve loose hard candy and retro favorites like rock candy in a
scattering of plastic beach pails instead of dressy apothecary jars, scooping
with small plastic sand shovels into little takeaway baggies. Skip the chocolates for an outdoor
event. Why melt?
• Go carnival for a weekend and rent a popcorn popper
and a snow cone machine for a party - one for your appetizer and one for
dessert. They would make perfect
bookends to a memorable night in the backyard, giving your guests a little
throwback to summers gone by.
Beat
the heat and stay stylishly cool this sizzling summer!
DesignInMind column; appeared in the Valley Morning Star June 24th.
