Dinner Party Diaries: Volume 1 Issue 16
One of the challenges of hosting dinner parties on Friday nights is that the week often falls as it will with both expected and unexpected complications and deviations from the plan. In those time crunches, I turn time-and-again to some recipes that are super simple and only toss in something more involved if I know I can manage it. Time Budget friendly recipes are the core of this Easy Summer Pork Dinner Party menu and plan with a slightly fussier one thrown in for fun.
For a recent Friday night adventure, even the good plan had me out of town Thursday night through Friday afternoon. (Nikita came along for her first over-nighter; and she did great.) This meant that my usual prep time the evening before our dinner party wasn’t an option. To compensate, I shifted some of my prep back a day. For the purposes of the plan below, I still have it listed under “Day Before.” Then to add to the challenge, I was also prepping food to take with me for Thursday evening.
For situations in which your schedule is going to be tight, your best types of recipes are:
- Super simple with barely any prep required
- Able to be complete made in advance
- Amenable to staged prep that can just be finished off at the end.
I used all 3 of these types of recipes for this Easy Summer Pork Dinner Party.
My Somewhat Fussy Appetizer
My appetizer was my somewhat fussy recipe this time around. A picture of Keto Corn Dog Bites (from All Day I Dream About Food) was lodged in my brain, but . . . the recipe as written used coconut flour. Since we needed to avoid a coconut allergy, I wound up making an amalgam of two recipes to suit my needs. I also wanted to make a double batch so that I could take half of them with me. On the plus side, this meant that one way or another, I needed to make these in advance of my dinner party. As with all of my baking, things got a little messy, but they tasted great.
My Advanced Prep Friendly Side
So given at least one recipe that required experimentation and fussiness, the next dish that I prepped in advance was the Creamy Garlic, Broccoli, and Mushroom Spaghetti Squash side dish. This side is perfect for advanced prep because you can “slice and dice” the prep work to suit just about any chunk of time available to you. Said differently, you can start and stop this recipe at several points. So if you only have time to roast and shred spaghetti squash, that’s fine. You can pause after that and come back to another step later.
My Super Simple Recipes
Now onto the super simple recipes. For our second side, we had a Simple Caprese Salad. While you can get even simpler than slice and serve, not by much. This one just needed to be put together shortly before our guests’ arrival. Then, for the main dish, we made an Easy Herb-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin, cooking it sous vide.
My Slightly More Involved “Day Of” Dessert
Last but not least, we had Keto Berry Cobbler Muffins for dessert. This was the only more involved recipe that we made as part of our “Day Of Timeline.” Technically, these could have been made in advance as well. However, since Thursday night did not exist for the purposes of dinner party preparation, the “Day Of” is when this recipe had to happen.
All things told, it was a pretty easy dinner party to put together. If you want to have people over but aren’t going to have much time for prep work, this Easy Summer Pork Dinner Party menu is your friend.
Enjoy!
The Details
Number of People: 4 – 6
Serving Style: Family Style
Guest Arrival Time: 7:00 ish
The Menu
Appetizer
Main
Sides
Dessert
Wine Pairings
- 2017 Domaine Carneros Estate Brut Cuvee
- 2018 Twomey Pinot Noir Last Stop
Getting Ready
Advanced Prep (2 or More Days in Advance)
Notes:
As always, we’ll start with some standard prep that you’ll see each and every time.
- Make your Grocery List
- Go Grocery Shopping
- Pick up around the house (for any rooms / areas that will actually be seen)
- Plan out serving dishes & utensils (to make sure you have what you need, ready when you need it)
- Plan out eating plates & utensils (to make sure what you need will be clean and ready for guests)
Day Before Prep
- Creamy Garlic, Broccoli, and Mushroom Spaghetti Squash
- Roast the spaghetti squash (40 minutes inactive time)
- Chop the broccoli and mushrooms (15 minutes) – Do this while the squash roasts
- Shred the spaghetti squash once it’s cool enough to touch (15 minutes)
- Cook the sausage (10 minutes)
- Cook the broccoli and mushrooms (10 minutes)
- Make the creamy garlic sauce (10 minutes)
- Combine everything, allow it to cool in a 9 x 13 inch casserole dish, cover it, and store in the fridge (5 minutes)
- Keto Almond Flour Corn Dog Bites
- Slice the hot dogs (5 minutes)
- Make the cornbread batter (10 minutes)
- Assemble and bake the corn dog bites (15 minutes for assembly + 25 minutes baking)
- Cool and store in an airtight container in the fridge
Day Of Timeline – Guest Arrival: 7:00 pm // Dinner: 7:30 pm-ish
- 5:00 pm (T – 2h)
- Easy Herb-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin
- Set Sous Vide Cooker temperature to 135°F
- Pat dry and rub with Savory Herb Salt Rub
- Vacuum seal pork in bag with food safe weights
- Easy Herb-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin
- 5:10 pm (T – 1h 50m)
- Keto Berry Cobbler Muffins
- Preheat oven to 350°F
- Chop strawberries
- Make streusel topping
- Keto Berry Cobbler Muffins
- 5:30 pm (T – 1h 30m)
- Easy Herb-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin
- Put the pork in the hot water bath / sous vide container
- Keto Berry Cobbler Muffins
- Make batter
- Bake muffins in oven at 350°F (23 – 28 minutes)
- Easy Herb-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin
- 6:15 pm (T – 45m)
- Cover the Creamy Garlic, Broccoli, and Mushroom Spaghetti Squash with aluminum foil and place it in the oven at 350°F to heat through.
- 6:30 pm (T – 30m)
- Keto Almond Flour Corn Dog Bites
- If you have a double oven, place them in one oven on “Warm” or 180°F.
- If you do not have a double oven, wait until 6:45 and put them in with the Spaghetti Squash.
- Simple Caprese Salad
- Slice tomatoes and mozzarella
- Arrange on serving plate with basil leaves
- Cover with plastic wrap and store in fridge until ready to serve
- Keto Almond Flour Corn Dog Bites
- 6:45 pm (T – 15m)
- Keto Almond Flour Corn Dog Bites
- If you do not have a double oven, put them in now with the Spaghetti Squash.
- Set out appetizer plates, forks, and napkins
- Set out drink glasses (wine, water, etc.)
- Keto Almond Flour Corn Dog Bites
- 6:55 pm (T – 5m)
- Keto Almond Flour Corn Dog Bites
- Remove from oven and place on serving plate
- Set out with mustard and sugar free ketchup or whatever else you are serving for dipping them
- Keto Almond Flour Corn Dog Bites
- 7:00 pm (T)
- Turn the oven containing the Spaghetti Squash to “Warm” or 180°F.
- Welcome your guests
- 7:10 pm (T + 15m)
- Easy Herb-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin
- Remove from sous vide and bag
- Set on foil and wire rack lined rimmed baking sheet
- Remove other dishes from oven
- Broil pork for approximately 2 minutes or until you begin to see some browning
- Easy Herb-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin
- 7:25 pm (T + 25m)
- Easy Herb-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin
- Slice and place on serving tray
- Easy Herb-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin
- 7:30 pm (T + 30m)
- Enjoy Dinner!
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