First Patio Dinner of the Summer

I love eating al fresco, and am lucky enough to have a sizeable patio suitable for summer barbecues and get-togethers. My friends and I kicked off this summer with our first outdoor dinner, and it was as casual and easy-going as the setting.

We started off with a fresh tuna carpaccio, drizzled with an Asian dressing of soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, chili oil and sesame oil and topped with some radish sprouts. This was very easy to make: Simply cut sashimi-grade tuna into 2-inch cubes, place them between two sheets of plastic wrap and pound until thin. I figured I could splurge a little on the appetizer since the main courses were so cheap and utilized much of what I already had in the fridge.

Case in point: Flatbread with barbecue sauce, Gruyere, caramelized onions and chives. I actually used half of a can of Pillsbury pizza dough for this. While I love the fresh pizza dough at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, I was in a hurry and this dough is already shaped into a rectangle and very easy to work with right out of the fridge (the other doughs require a bit of sitting out time so it becomes workable). It bakes up crisp and light and is great to have in your fridge as it keeps for a long time. I already had the onions, BBQ sauce, cheese and chives for this so it was more like a leftover flatbread, but it was absolutely delicious!

I used the other half of the dough for this basic flatbread: tomato, mozzarella and fresh basil. I had a bit of pizza sauce leftover from last week which I brushed on top of the dough as well. Excellent and very fresh. For both of these flatbreads, I recommend baking the dough first, with no toppings, for 5 minutes, and then adding the toppings and finishing off for another 6 minutes in a 400 degree oven.

We enjoyed a fabulous cocktail with our dinner, thanks in part to the folks at POM juice company. They kindly sent me a case of their delicious pomegranate juice, which is full of antioxidants and other good stuff. I made a cocktail using (in one pitcher) one bottle of champagne, 1/2 cup of cassis and 1, 8-oz bottle of POM juice. It was refreshing and a major hit with my friends, and really the perfect summer cocktail. And with all those antioxidants, it's practically healthy! (HA).

Thanks to my friends Stacy, Tawny, Steve and my sis Anne for a wonderful evening. We stayed outside well into the night playing Foodie Fight, with my sister winning the prize of a bottle of Absolute (which probably also goes great with POM juice!).