An elegant summer backyard dinner party featured these two easy to do menu items

Yellow Pear and Red Cherry Tomato Salad

The key to this simple and simply beautiful salad is slightly roasting the tomatoes. Though usually flavorful, little tomatoes left whole are somewhat difficult to bite into and their skin prevents the dressing from permeating the fruit. One solution, cutting them in half, releases too much of the watery juice. By lightly roasting the tomatoes they soften allowing the dressing to more fully flavor the tomatoes and make them bite-friendlier in their whole size.

Toss the tomatoes lightly in olive oil and fresh chopped garlic and roast in an oven at 425 degrees for three to five minutes. They should be in a pan that allows them to sit in a not too crowded single layer. Your goal is to soften the tomatoes without having them collapse. Cook the yellow pear and red cherry or grape tomatoes separately as they cook slightly differently. Chill for at least an hour in the refrigerator. Toss the tomatoes lightly with some additional olive oil, a little balsamic vinegar or lime-juice. You could add a little additional garlic if you didn’t use much in roasting and you like garlic. We added bronze fennel torn apart from my backyard herb garden, but you can add nearly any fresh herb. Add kosher salt and fresh, coarsely ground black pepper.

(Insert White bowl with Yellow Pear and Red Cherry Tomato Salad)

Grilled Pineapple with Pink Peppercorns and Lavender Ice Cream

This simple yet exotic dish combines two of summer’s delights – fresh fruit and grilling! In this case the fruit we use is not a local seasonal fruit but one of the super sweet pineapples available much of the year from lands far away. The pink peppercorns add a note of exotic spiciness. By grilling the fruit the pineapple is slightly softened and aggressively marked by the grill, but not burned.

To prepare:
Remove the tough skin and core the pineapple. Cut the pineapple into sliced about 1/2” thick. Marinate with a little honey, olive oil and lightly crushed dried pink peppercorns. Grill on a hot grill until marked and seared. Turn to grill on both sides. While the pineapple is grilling brush with it some of the marinade including the peppercorns.

Serve while the pineapple is warm. Place the pineapple on good-sized plate. Add a scoop of lavender ice cream. Sprinkle the top of the ice cream with pink peppercorns as well as add some pink peppercorns to the pineapple if not enough have adhered to the pineapple. For an extra treat drizzle some caramel over the plate in a loose zigzag pattern and serve chocolate biscotti on the side. Garnish with fresh mint.

Vanilla ice cream is fine if you cannot get lavender. For a real treat make your own lavender ice cream. Lavender ice cream is also sometimes available locally from Assouline & Ting. They are located at 2050A Richmond Street. Phone: 215.627.3000. www.caviarassouline.com.

Note about pink peppercorns. Pink peppercorns are not actually peppercorns. They are the dried berries of a South American rose plant. They have a rose color; a slightly bitter pine like flavor, and are available either pickled or dried. Pink peppercorns are available in specialty food stores.

(Insert Grilled Pineapple with Pink Peppercorns)