Summer might "technically" be winding down as far as summer parties / travel goes... but I'm not ready to give up on those beautiful and easy sunday dinner parties! This Late Summer Dinner Party Menu is perfection and the entire menu can be sized up depending on how many you're feeding. Another bonus: the entire menu can be executed in less than 90 minutes if you're prepped!
Table of Contents
Why I Love This Menu
Here's the deal with summer - and I've said this before - the flavors that come from the ingredients like tomatoes and peas and melon just cannot be beat. This means that you don't have to make overly complicated recipes. Let the flavors shine and do the heavy lifting for you. This Late Summer Dinner Party Menu is exactly that!
Ingredients & Substitutions
- Assorted Melon and Prosciutto - no actual cooking involved just some knife skills
- Sliced Tomato Salad - no actual cooking involved! And feel free to get creative with different colored heirloom tomatoes to really make a statement
- Charred Snap Pea Salad with Feta (only 5-10 minutes of actual cooking involved)
- Balsamic Steak Skewers (your new fav way to make steak skewers that can be prepped ahead)
- Strawberries and Cream - no actual cooking involved and the cream can be prepped a few days ahead of time and stored in the fridge. Warning through - if you make this too early, you will absolutely snack on it and none will be left for the party. Consider yourself warned.
How to Make
- Assorted Melon and Prosciutto - this is truly just slice and serve! Wrap each piece of melon up with some prosciutto and you're in business.
- Sliced Tomato Salad - grab yourself a sharp knife so you can easily slice the tomatoes and voila, the salad is handled.
- Charred Snap Pea Salad with Feta - I'm obsessed with charring snap peas! The char brings out the sugars and flavor and it's perfect when paired with the briny feta. This is really easy to make right before your guests arrive. If you char it too early, the peas will start to look a little wilted and sad.
- Balsamic Steak Skewers - click over to this recipe to get the full run down. It's the most fun kind of steak skewer you could ever make!
- Strawberries and Cream - it's like we're at Wimbledon but we never have to leave our homes and brave TSA security / customs!
Timeline
Day before the dinner party:
- Shop for all the ingredients
Day of the dinner party (normally I start prepping a dinner party early in the AM but this menu is so approachable, everything happens in the afternoon with the exception of the steak prep!)
- 8:00am
- prep the marinade for the steak
- slice the steak and skewer
- marinate the steak all day until ready to grill
- 4:00pm -
- clean the strawberries and dry
- make the whipped cream and refrigerate
- prep the snap peas + vinaigrette
- slide the tomatoes and assemble the salad, keep on counter covered with a dry paper towel.
- 6:00pm -
- 5 minutes before people arrive, slice the melon and wrap with prosciutto
- guests arrive
- add burrata to the tomatoes and serve
- remove the melon from the fridge and serve
- char snap peas and assemble the salad for dinner
- grill the steak skewers
- enjoy!
Recipe links are above! Click through for the full printable recipes
