Fragrant Dishes for your Outdoor Dinner Party

I enjoy entertaining outdoors on a warm, summer evening, when the sweet fragrance of blossoms from my garden drift across the evening breeze. Dinner music is provided by nature, courtesy of crickets and frogs. Lightning bugs light up the yard and the trickle of water the lily pond sings a lullaby that erases the stress of the day. Good friends, good conversation and laughter make for an enjoyable time.

To make the evening unforgettable, delight your guests by using your garden's bountiful blooms to flavor and garnish dinner dishes. Many flowers are edible. The Chinese have used steamed and dried daylilies and tiger lilies to flavor their food for centuries. In Ancient Rome, marigolds, violets and roses were incorporated into the cuisine.

It is vital that you know which flowers are toxic and which are edible. Poisonous flowers include rhododendron, wisteria, crocus, azalea, oleander, lily-of-the-valley, iris, buttercups, narcissus, foxglove, clematis, calla lily, periwinkle, bleeding heart, lupine, petunia, monkshood, delphinium and sweet pea, just to name a few.

You must be certain that flowers used in food dishes have not been sprayed with pesticides or herbicides. Therefore, never purchase flowers for food preparation from a nursery or garden center. They really should be taken from your own garden, so you are assured of their purity.

Be sure to taste the flowers you add to dishes to be sure they appeal to you. When using lilies, remove stamens, anther and pistil.

Wild violets and johnny-jump-ups are especially tasty. Use these along with fresh strawberries to decorate a cake that is out of this world. You can also "candy" violets by using a camel hair brush to apply slightly beaten egg white and berry sugar. Dry these on wax paper and store in air tight containers. These are especially tasty on chocolate mousse or chocolate cake.

To make a delightful punch bowl, freeze pansies in a decorative ice cube tray. Use a jelly mold or a small bowl to freeze water in layers. Add a variety of colored pansies to each layer. Add to the punch bowl just before serving.

Calendula adds natural color to soups when heated. Also known as "pot marigold," it was once used to color cheese.

Herbs such as purple chives, basil flowers, fennel, dill and oregano blossoms add fantastic flavor to salads, mashed potatoes, soups, pasta, sauces and flavored vinegars.

Borage blossoms have a slight cucumber flavor. They make a great addition to salads and also provide platter garnish. Before using borage, remove the hairy sepals.

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