Below is my recipe for Heriloom Tomato Bruschetta, one of my favorite summer dinner party starters. Its perfect because you can mix up the tomatos and slice the bread in advance, then just before your guests arrive you can throw it all together and leave it out for everyone to enjoy. Make sure you put out some plates or napkins, these can be very messy (in the best way).

Recipe:

Take two boxes of heirloom tomatoes and slice them all into quarters so they can absorb all the good flavors you're about to add.

Drizzle the tomatoes with two tablespoons good olive oil, three tablespoons balsalmic vinegar, and one tablespoon honey. Summer tomatoes are sweet- so play up that flavor.

Dice up one or two cloves of garlic- depending on your taste, and add that to the mix. Finely chop two green onions or scallions (the white and the green parts) and add that too.

Gather about a half cup of fresh basil leaves and slice these into nice thin strips and toss them into the bowl. Salt and pepper the whole thing to taste, give it all a big stir, and let the whole thing sit in the fridge for a bit. You can let it sit for a few hours- but try to give it at least twenty minutes to let the flavors amalgamate.

When you're ready to serve, Slice a baguette into thin diagonal slices and spread them out over a baking sheet. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and some salt and pepper, and put it under the broiler for just a few minutes. Broiling the bread gives it a nice crusty texture that soaks up all the tomato flavor (it also keeps the hot oven sweat-inducing time to a minimum). Watch these closely- the line between golden brown and smokey black is a very thin one.

When the bread is all toasty and golden, plate it up and top with the tomato mixture. If you want to get fancy, drizzle the whole plate with a bit more olive oil and some chopped up basil. Serve these with a bit of chilly white wine and a big bowl of grapes and you will have some very happy guests.