Memorial Day Primer – Crank Out Those Grills!
When grilling on Memorial Day, the best way is to have a Barbeque party so you can enjoy amazing company with family and friends. There are many types of barbeque parties. You can go all out and extravagant or you can have a low-key casual get together. My personal favorite is low key and casual. Here are some tips to have a low-key evening with friends and family while grilling out some tasty BBQ chicken, fried potatoes, vegetables and great steaks with a Traeger grill. First thing first, you need to figure out how many and who will be attending the BBQ so you can send out casual invitations to everyone. You want to send out invitations to give people time in advance to be able to come. You also might want to put what time you will eat around so people know whether to grab a snack earlier in the day or wait until dinner. Don’t want your guest starving for two hours smelling the great food on the grill. The next thing you want to do is plan your menu for the event. Since this is a low key casual BBQ you want to keep things simple. You can just stick to hamburgers and hotdogs with potato salad. You want to be able to enjoy time outside with your friends and family. Make sure you have your friends RSVP so you can get enough food for the party. A fun way you can do is bring you own dish and have a mix of your guests’ favorites as sides, then all you have to worry about is the main course the meat. You also want to get an idea of drinks you will have at the BBQ. For non-alcoholic drinks, you want to keep cold water around and can have juices and soda in an ice chest. If you choose to have alcoholic beverages the basic to have is beer. But a fun choice is sangrias and even some
chilled white wine. Just keep all drinks cool and in an ice chest or in a pitcher with ice, because it will be hot outside and done want your drinks to get warm. Next thing you would need to do is plan some snacks to have while your guests are waiting for the main course. Try something simple like a vegetable platter, cheese and crackers or some chips and different dips. You can also keep the guests busy by having some outdoor games such as horseshoes and volleyball. Make the games easy to set up and take down so you’re not spending most of your time on the games instead of the guests and food on the grill. When it comes to plates, silverware and napkins, since this is low key, you can keep it simple with getting some cool design paper plates and plastic silverware to keep the clean-up simple and easy. Also make sure you have enough tables and chairs for everyone. You want tables for your drinks, food and utensils also. Put plastic covers over the tables to make clean up easy. When it comes to the food, keep in mind how long it takes to fire up the grill and how long the food will take to cook especially if it won’t all fit on the grill when planning your party. Music is always a fun way to keep everyone entertained so have some fun, chill music playing for your guests and if your party goes into the night make sure to have some tiki torches or lights so you can keep the party going well into the night. Barbeques are the best way to bring together family and friends. Whether you have an extravagant party for a special occasion or a low-key casual every weekend BBQ. You can try out different tips and mix it up each one you try. Keep it fun and entertaining for everyone and try out new recopies on the grill each time to switch things up. Hope some of these fun tips help you with your next BBQ.