A Great Summer Meal

I recently hosted a few people to my house for a little dinner gathering outside in the garden before a party. It was 80 degrees, sunny, and I wanted to make something that was tasty as well as able to be prepared in advance. On the menu that evening was baked chicken stuffed with 2 lemons, rice salad, tomatoes and mozzarella with fresh basil, and for dessert angel food cake with fresh berries and homemade whipped cream flavored with dark rum. It was SUPER easy and all prepared and in serving dishes before any of the guests even arrived. Here's how and what you can do:

For those of you that know me, you know that serving a baked whole chicken is my go-to for any dinner party where I can't think of anything else to make. It is great because there are so many different ingredients you can stuff into the bird (perfect for changing seasons), and unless you have vegetarians, everyone eats chicken. A roasted whole chicken is far more impressive than a simple breast (which we will end up cooking later on), in addition to the fact that you end up with an assortment of white and dark meat. Yet another positive to serving a whole baked chicken in the summertime is that it can be prepared in advance, and when your guests arrive they walk into the aroma of deliciousness. It is easy to figure out how to carve it into pieces, and if you get scared you can always get a big butcher knife and just cut it in half, twice. More about arrangement below, here's how to do it:

Roasted Whole Chicken with Two Lemons

You will need:
-Whole Chicken (can be a fryer, broiler, whatever, as long as it looks like a miniature Thanksgiving turkey)
-2 lemons
-Olive Oil
-Salt and Pepper

Instructions:
-Set your oven to 350 and get out a roasting pan (one you would bake brownies in).
-Remove giblets (neck, livers, etc, usually are in a bag inside cavity) from chicken (if you are squeamish, I'd have the butcher do it) and throw out or freeze for chicken stock (more on that later)
-Drizzle olive oil on chicken. Don't drown it but you don't have to be too stingy, just make sure that guy is nice and lubed up for the trip to oventown.
-With a fork, poke holes in the lemons so the steam can escape during cooking. The lemon steam will slightly flavor the chicken from the inside out and it is very fresh and summery tasting.
-Put lemons inside chicken. Sometimes they won't stay in, it doesn really matter. If you want you can tie his legs together but I think this is unnecessary.
-Sprinkle Salt and Pepper on both sides of the chicken (you can also do this pre-lemon stuffing). Be generous but again, don't go overboard.
-Put the chicken in the oven for an hour and 20 minutes. IMPORTANT: the time it takes to cook a whole chicken varies based on it's size, stuffing, oven, etc. The chicken should be a nice golden brown, and when you slice into the breast the meat should be white and the juices clear.

To Serve:
-Cut off legs with thighs attached first. Place on platter.
-Slice breast meat off of bird, place on platter.
-Surround with slices of the lemon from inside the bird, add a parsley garnish if you have some from the garden.
-Put aside. This can be served room temp and is still delicious.


Side #1, Rice Salad

My mom used to make this when we were all up on the Cape for the summer. It is a great dish to serve at a dinner party because it is super tasty, doubles as a salad, and is really easy to eat (no knife required). In addition, it can be made in advance and makes a ton, so you will have great leftovers. Also an impressive one to have in the repertoire for pot-lucks. The original recipe is from the Silver Palate cookbook, although this is a slightly modified version. Side note: this is sort of time consuming (30-40mins) because of all of the chopping- make sure you do this early and stick it in the fridge. It can even be prepared a day in advance. I like to get things out of the way though, so it's fine for me!

You Will Need:
-White rice, enough to make 8 cups cooked. I prefer the boil in bag kind, each bag is 2 cups, it's easier. DO NOT cook 8 cups of raw rice or you will have to open a chinese food store.
-1 red bell pepper (diced into little pieces. When I say dice into little pieces, don't make it baby food but make them small enouch so that you don't get a big chunk at once in your bite.)
-1 green bell pepper (diced )
-1 red onion (diced)
-6 scallions, chopped (make sure you pull the wilted parts off first)
-1 cup craisins
-1/4 cup chopped italian parsley (I still don't know what the difference is between Italian and regular parsley but I've tried both and it tastes the same)
-1/2 cup chopped fresh dill (save a little of the leftover unchopped for garnish)
-S and P
-2 cups of the vinaigrette below

Vinaigrette (Just whisk the following together, save what you don't use in a jar.):
-4 tablespoons dijon mustard
-16 tablespoons red wine vinegar or balsamic
-4 teaspoons sugar
-2 teaspoons salt
-2 teaspoons pepper
-2 cups olive oil

Instructions:
-Put cooked rice into a large mixing bowl, add 1 and 1/2 cups of the vinaigrette dressing to it and toss. Wait for it to cool to room temp.
-Add the rest of the vegetables and ingredients above, toss.
-Add more vinaigrette if you want (I usually do) and add more S and P if you would like as well.

To Serve:
-Put whatever amount of the salad you want to serve into a nice bowl or serving dish.
-Wipe dressing off of the sides.
-Stick a piece of dill in the top of it as a garnish.


Side #2, Tomatoes and Mozzarella Salad

This is probably the easiest and tastiest summer salad out there. If you want, you can even put chopped lettuce or arugala under the tomatoes so that people can have some lettuce with them. It also looks nicer. If you don't have fresh basil in a pot or garden, you can buy it easliy. Also, you can use some of the salad dressing above from the rice salad to drizzle on top, or you can just do olive oil and balsamic, or bottled Italian from the grocery. Anything goes!

You Will Need:
-Tomatoes (I find the vine ripened ones are the best for this)
-Fresh buffalo mozzarella (the big ball of it, and yes it's $6 a container but well worth it)
-Fresh Basil
-Salt and Pepper
-Vinaigrette or olive oil and balsamic
-Lettuce, whatever kind you like (optional)

Instructions:
-If you want to put lettuce underneath the tomatoes (it looks nice and then it appears as though you are serving a lettuce salad as well), chop it and spread it on a plate or platter.
-Slice the tomatoes (about 1/2 an inch thick, thinner or thicker depending on how many you have), display them on top of lettuce on plate.
-Slice the mozz (again, thin or thicker depending), lay a piece on each tomato.
-Chop the basil (use scissors, it's easier) and sprinkle all over the mozz covered tomatoes.
-Sprinkle S and P.
-Drizzle with dressing RIGHT before serving.


#3, Angel Food or Pound Cake with fresh berries and rum flavored whipped cream

Ahhhhhhh, Dessert! My Favorite. Although by dessert everyone is usually about 6 glasses of wine deep and therefore will not care about it, I love dessert and so usually serve it. This is a really easy one, also can be made in advance. I mean bought. Note to my friends and previous guests: Sorry that I lied and told you I made the cake. Sometimes you just have to cut a corner!

You Will Need:
-Pound Cake or Angel Food Cake (found in the bakery section of the grocery store)
-Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, or whatever looks good that you like
-Whipping cream (small container is fine)
-Sugar
-Rum (optional)
-Vanilla extract (optional)

Instructions:
-Cut berries/fruit into bite size pieces (obviously that doesn't apply to small berries)
-Put whipping cream in a bowl, whisk until it forms soft peaks and is "whipped cream." Add sugar, rum, and vanilla extract to taste, you won't need much of any of them. (you can also just buy reddi whip if you want to prepare these desserts in the kitchen)

To Serve:
-You can serve up the bowls/plates in the kitchen yourself with a piece of cake, fruit, and some whipped cream on top of each.
-You can put the slices of cake or whole cake on a different plate/platter, surrounded by the berries with the whipped cream on the side, get creative.


I hope that this menu and these recipes all make sense and are something you will try and get comfortable cooking for yourself and others. The best thing to do is experiment by yourself so that you become confident making a few basic things. Once you are able to master a few of those, it's party time!!

Do NOT forget the wine. Side note: your guests will always drink more than you anticipate, and you don't want to run out!

Love and Happy Hostessing!!!