Prepared for us by my guest writer today the amazingly creative  Christina Lucas of the  Blog Entourage, home of the popular, Crazed Fan Weekend Hop. http://thebogentourage.blogspot.com

I really appreciate Christina’s expertise because I will be hosting numerous book pre-release parties!  Thank you so much Christina:)   I hope you all enjoy!!

I love hosting dinner parties, but I have to admit I’m always at a bit of a loss during the summer. I gravitate towards hearty meals like Italian, Hungarian, and southern dishes. In the summertime, those cuisines don’t go very well with outdoor entertaining. But I can only take so many summer salads and grilled meals.

When I hosted a going away party for some of our dear military friends this weekend, I was just dying to serve Italian. It’s delicious and cheap! I adapted some of my favorite dishes into finger foods and appetizers.

Here is the menu.

Appetizers:

A tray of dried fruits and nuts and dates.

Crostini with Olive Tapenade and Prosciutto

Tapenade is made with finely chopped olives, eggplant, artichokes or capers. Here is a recipe for the kind I made, minus the parmesan.

Antipasti Platter

Antipasti is essential in authentic Italian entertaining. You need cold meats like salami and prosciutto, olives or peppers, cheeses and bread. It’s important to serve olive oil for bread dipping with the antipasti.

*Before I sliced the bread, I sprinkled it with garlic salt and parmesan and warmed it in the oven. It was a huge hit!

Main Course:

Roasted/grilled Artichoke Hearts

Start with canned artichoke hearts (unflavored), drizzled with olive oil, sqeeze over some lemon juice, and sprinkle with parmesan cheese and garlic salt. Grill until the cheese is crusty and slightly browned. So yummy and so easy. It’s healthy and cheap too. Can’t beat that!

Lasagna Roll-Ups

Simply boil and drain the lasagna noodles. Then fill with raw spinach and ricotta cheese. Roll them up and bake at 350 for 20 min. (optional-top with cheese or tomato sauce)

Bow-tie Carbonara

Use one box of bow-tie pasta (cooked and drained), one package of bacon (cooked and chopped) and toss wth olive oil, parmesan and garlic salt.

Dessert:

Strawberries on Ricotta w/Balsamic-Honey Reduction

Slice the strawberries and soak them in the reduction overnight. Layer the ricotta then strawberries on a butter cracker then drizzle with balsamic reduction. Click here for a balsamic reduction recipe.

Individual Strawberry Trifles

I layered pre-made pound cake with defrosted frozen sliced strawberries (the kind that comes in syrup) and whipped cream. I made half with chocolate cake and chocolate whipped cream and half with vanilla cake and regular whipped cream.

The dinner party was a huge success. Everyone loved the food and especially loved the concept of Italian tapas. For drinks, we simply had some great beer and wine. If you want to spring a little on the drinks, I’d suggest Peroni Italian beer, Prosecco, Limoncello. If you want to spend a bit less on drinks, serve any moderat priced red wine, like Ecco Domani.

I don’t know about you but I cannot wait to try these recipes.  Thank you again Christina for sharing with us!!

Doreen