Grazing Table Dinner Party Plan

A day by day guide to make a Saturday dinner party feel like a breeze

When putting together this dinner party I knew that the best use of my time would be to make dips/jams/etc ahead of time, so on the day of the party I would only have to worry about putting it all together. This honestly was perfect, because during more dinner parties I find myself forgetting to do my makeup, or get my hair how I want it. When you’re putting on elaborate dinners like we do every month, there is never a good time to do that stuff except for in the morning, and likely, I’ll have sweat it all out by the time people start showing up.

That’s why I thought it might be handy to keep track of what I did on which days in order to share with all of you what you might need to put together your own Girl Dinner! Below are the days I made the recipes, the recipes I used, and how it all came together:

Sunday:

Bacon Jam - I love a SeriousEats recipe and this one for bacon jam is no different. I have never made bacon jam before but I was excited to give this one a try. I made it while on Discord with my sister watching Love is Blind UK and it turned out to be super amazing!

Baguette Testing - I decided to test the baguette recipe I wanted to use on Sunday so that when my other party planners came over on Monday there would be some things for them to try. I went ahead and used this recipe, as I was looking for an overnight dough as it had a yield of 3 baguettes and seemed relatively simple.

Monday:

Taste test/finalize menu

Finalize decor plans

Start decor building

On Monday I had the other party planners come over so that I could confirm the menu with them, and we could gather all of the supplies we had for decor and ensure everything fit well together. I made some little bites that I was wanting to serve (including the Bacon Jam and Baguettes) and I left that night feeling like everyone had something delegated to them and that the workload wouldn’t be too much.

Tuesday:

Matcha Ice Cream - I used this Pandan Coconut Ice Cream recipe as a guideline, as I knew that I wanted to make a dairy free ice cream and we had used this recipe for a previous dinner party. I’m glad that I ended up starting this recipe on Tuesday, as I ended up accidentally using coconut cream which made the ice cream essentially inedible.

Wednesday:

Blueberry Jam - This might be blasphemous, but I have never made a jam with pectin before. I don’t know why, I just feel like I have done it without for so long that I don’t see the point in going back. I liked this recipe in particular because it mentioned a specific temperature that the berry-mixture should get to in order to ensure perfect jamification.

Muhammara - I used this recipe from The Mediterranean Dish as a guideline, but substituted red peppers for some Red Pepper paste we had from the last time we made this delicious middle eastern dip. I love Suzy’s recipes, and our Greek dinner party was almost exclusively recipes from her website!

Remake Matcha Ice Cream - Used the recipe above, just actually followed it and used coconut milk!

Thursday:

Roasted Garlic Hummus - Another goodie from the Suzy over at The Mediterranean Dish! I tested a garlic recipe where I only used one head of garlic but it absolutely wasn’t enough, so the two heads she recommends is a must! I ended up cutting some cloves of garlic thinly lengthwise and frying them up for an extra garnish.

Beet Hummus - Similarly to above, I decided to use two beets instead of just the one as I really wanted that rich color and flavor to shine through! I also drizzled a little bit of pomegranate molasses into this one to up the sweetness/acidity a bit.

Friday:

Make Baguette Dough - I used the same recipe as above but instead decided to double so that I would have enough baguettes for the charcuterie board and the crostini’s.

Make Crackers - I decided on these Rosemary Sea Salt crackers as my boyfriend had a huge bush of rosemary that needed to get cut back a bit. Making crackers is honestly the easiest, and I mean, the easiest way to impress people with a charcuterie board. You don’t need to be a yeast master, you just need to mix some stuff together, roll it out, and then cut them out and bake them. This recipe from Fox & Briar mentions using a pizza cutter to make rectangles, but I just went ahead and used some cookie cutters for uniformity.

Trader Joe’s Run - I went and got some classics on Friday night. I left this until a little later so that I could take myself out of the house and get excited about the next day! I’m not ready just yet to divulge my top Trader Joe’s charcuterie picks just yet, but here is generally what I look for:

• 2 soft cheeses - 9/10 this is a Brie of some kind and a goat cheese

• 2 hard cheeses - I try to look for aged cheese that have those salt crystals in them because I’m a sucker for umami. It’s also fun to look for cheese like Manchego, that can be cut into triangles and made into a zipper

• 1 hard salami - easy & classic

• 2 soft meats - prosciutto is always a must, but the ones they sell at Trader Joe’s aren’t for everyone, so I would asses your groups taste buds for this one. For example, when I would make a charcuterie board for a friend’s birthday party as a pregame to going out to bars, I would use the prosciutto from TJ’s, any other time, I would go to a different grocery store/Italian market to pick it up.

• nuts - I typically look for a candied or flavored nut of some kind, they are GREAT for filling in the gaps and are some of my friends favorite part of my boards!

Saturday:

Ricotta - This was one of the first things I learned how to make that broke down barriers to cooking for me. Making cheese feels so extravagant, but if you have a gallon of milk, a lemon, a thermometer, and some time of your hands: you’re in for a treat.

Dairy-Free Ricotta - Okay now this might sound like the most unappealing and confusing thing to try and make, but let me explain. I had a guest who was coming who can’t have dairy, and the main food options here are cheese. Thus, I decided to at the very least offer some dairy-free ricotta, so that I could make a version of the crostini’s for her. I didn’t have any nutritional yeast on hand, so I substituted this for MSG and it tasted great!

Pita - Super easy same day pita, AND from our queen of all things Mediterranean Suzy?

Farmers Market Shop - From the farmers market I was looking for the following:

• Berries for the board - in this instance I just got some strawberries, and the raspberry selection was a little sub par

• Peppers for ice - we made ice cubes for each Ghia drink, so we bought some cute red peppers to embed in the ice in the morning so that they were set by night time.

• Peaches/Nectarines - whatever felt the most ready to be eaten that night.

Assemble Crostini’s - This step included slicing your baguettes and baking some of the pieces so that they were a little more crisp, frying your peaches or nectarines, and assembling.

Put that the board and your drinks section together and there you have it! The dinner party of your dreams where you can actually greet each guest and enjoy yourself without being stuck in the kitchen all day!