In Episode 018, Taryn talks with Chris Nease from Celebrations at Home all about hosting a BBQ party! Chris goes over some great tips for beginners or those who need a refresher, as well as some creative ideas to take your cookout to the next level. She recommends some of her favorite side dish recipes for grilled food, as well as some fun and easy drink and dessert options that are perfect for a crowd. Be sure and listen in before hosting your next barbecue!
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, or your favorite podcast player. Or scroll down to read a full transcript.
GUEST DETAILS
Connect with Chris.
Website | Instagram | Facebook
Bio: Chris Nease is a digital publisher in the Entertaining niche. She’s been cooking and planning parties for over 20 years and shares her expertise and recipes on Celebrations At Home blog. She’s been featured in Woman’s World magazine, Celebrate magazine, BHG, Country Living, and more. Her passion is bringing friends together to enjoy food, fun, and cocktails!
RESOURCES MENTIONED
Many of the following are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
- Backyard BBQ Party Ideas from Celebrations At Home
- Mason jar lidded mugs with straws
- Handheld paper fans
- Mesh food covers
- Plastic serving bowls (fill with ice and put dishes in the ice)
- Cedar planks for salmon
- Weber gas grill
RECIPES MENTIONED
These are some of the recipes mentioned by Chris in the episode. They are on her website, Celebrations At Home, except where noted.
- Plank grilled salmon
- Side dish recipes for cookouts
- Grilled corn on the cob
- Grilled pineapple (Hot Pan Kitchen)
- Grilled peaches (Hot Pan Kitchen)
- Grilled zucchini (Hot Pan Kitchen)
- Grilled onions (Hot Pan Kitchen)
- Broccoli salad
TRANSCRIPT
Taryn Solie: Hello grillers! It is summer time and things are heating up! Which of course means it’s a great time for outdoor cooking. In today’s episode I talk with Chris Nease from the website Celebrations at Home all about hosting a BBQ party. Chris goes over some fun and easy tips to keep in mind when hosting, including some ideas to add a little bit something extra to keep things festive, which is perfect for upcoming summer holidays.
Her tips are great if you’re a beginner and haven’t done a lot of hosting, or even if you have I think there are still some really good nuggets of information to take away. And I don’t know about you, but I haven’t hosted anything in awhile because of covid and could definitely use a refresher on having people over! Chris also recommends a drink that I hadn’t heard of before, so be sure and listen for that.
Before we get started, if you like listening to the guests I bring on, I would love it if you would share this episode with a friend or family member who you think would be interested! As a newer podcast, it helps spread the word and I would really appreciate it.
Now, let’s get into the episode.
Taryn Solie: Today on the podcast. We have Chris Nease. Chris is a digital publisher in the entertaining niche. She has been cooking and planning parties for over 20 years and shares her expertise and recipes on the website Celebrations At Home. She’s been featured in Woman’s World magazine, Celebrate magazine, Better Home & Gardens, Country Living, and more. Her passion is bringing friends together to enjoy food, fun, and cocktails. Chris, welcome to the podcast.
Chris Nease: Hi, thank you. Thanks for having me.
Taryn Solie: Yeah. Thank you for being here. I’m excited for our conversation today, which is going to be centered around tips and tricks for throwing a backyard barbecue party. But before we get into that, I’d love to hear you explain a little about your food background and also how you started grilling.
Chris Nease: Sure. Um, I am from the South in case you can’t tell from, from the twang. Um, so of course, backyard grilling is huge for us. Um, so I grew up, you know, having steak dinner cookouts on Saturday nights with, with out best, uh, you know, family friends and things like that.
Um, and so obviously that rolls over into adulthood and, um, it’s just became one of the easiest ways to entertain and get together with friends. You can make it as casual as you want, or, you know, dress it up, make it a little more fancy. Um, So, yeah, my husband actually does most of the grilling, I will say. Um, but yeah, we’ve, we’ve accumulated a few favorite recipes, grilling recipes that are tried and true, like entrees or even side dishes. So, yeah.
Taryn Solie: Yeah. And then what is your- so entertaining is kind of your niche. So how did you get into that?
Chris Nease: Well, when my husband and I were first mar- or, yeah, first married and we bought a new, our new house and we were in a new neighborhood, didn’t know anyone.
And I just decided let’s throw a party to meet the neighbors. And I literally went and knocked on the doors, handed my neighbors that I didn’t know a little invitation, um, to come. And it was actually Christmas. It was a Christmas cocktail party. And, uh, and they came. It was a huge success. And I was like, wow, I really enjoyed this.
Like, I really loved the whole planning of it and just combing through recipes and coming up with ideas for decorations and ideas to add those special touches. Um, so that, yeah, that just started this passion for entertaining. I am strangely enough, I’m a bit of an introvert, even though, even though I love to be social and have parties and be with friends.
So, um, I think entertaining at home and being the host is my way of being in control of social situations, which, you know, that’s comforting for me. Um, but yeah, it’s a passion I’ve developed over the past 20 plus years. And I will say my grandmother was a huge influence growing up. She would host, um, Christmas dinners and Thanksgiving dinners and they were always so, so elegant.
Um, we were eating very com- very, very much Southern comfort foods that you eat, same things you eat year after year at these holidays. But, um, the table was set beautifully and she had all the little accoutrements and yeah, and I just, I just loved it.
Taryn Solie: Oh, I love it. That’s so fun. So now have you done the same thing for like cookouts or barbecues where you just are like, Hey everybody, neighborhood party at my house.
Chris Nease: Um, Well, I think by the time we got into backyard parties, it was more of a curated guest list.
Taryn Solie: Gotchya.
Chris Nease: Um, you know, you, once you throw a few parties and you, I think a lot of people do go through that evolution of invite everybody you know, and that can be fun and it has its place. Um, but sometimes I think, um, you get to the point where, well, these, I want it to have this vibe and I know these people are going to be a lot of fun and they’re really going to be into this vibe.
So let’s just create this guest list for now and we’ll save like the cocktail party for, for maybe the neighbors and coworkers or, yeah.
Taryn Solie: Yes. No, I think that definitely makes sense. So I want to get into your tips and tricks for throwing a backyard barbecue party or a cookout. Cause I know in I’m Pacific Northwest you’re from the South. Backyard and cookout- or excuse me, barbecue and cookout are the same thing up here. They’re not the same thing in the south. So, so w- are you thinking a barbecue party. Are you thinking a cookout party?
Chris Nease: Well, it’s funny you say that because to me it actually means the same thing too.
Taryn Solie: Ok!
Chris Nease: I mean, I think maybe in Texas it may be a little different, but for me, cookout, barbecue, grilling, they all sort of encompass the same idea.
Taryn Solie: Yeah. I would love for you to tell people what some of your main tips and tricks are for throwing a great backyard barbecue party.
Chris Nease: Okay. So first of all, depending on whether it’s large or small, you really want to think about creating simple recipes, tried and true recipes, things that you can do and prep ahead of time. Um, obviously a lot of those, you know, if you think about side dishes and that type of thing, um, salads like pasta salads, potato salads, baked beans.
Things like that can all be prepped ahead, uh, put in the oven or put in a slow cooker to hold hold for later, put in the refrigerator, uh, to bring out later when you’re ready to serve. Um, so yeah, and, and if you have a variety of those type dishes, they’re sure to be something that people are going to love.
You know, you don’t have to worry too much about picky eaters. If you have a variety of things like that. Tried- those tried and true recipes.
Taryn Solie: And there’s also like you’re saying prep ahead, but there’s kind of two categories there, right? There’s like a cook ahead. Like a potato salad which you can make entirely out of time versus something like maybe a baked beans where you’re like you said, putting it in the crock pot and letting it go or putting it on the stove and letting it kind of marinate in there, or cook in there for like a slow cook sort of thing.
Chris Nease: Right. And it also relates to like the meat that you’re cooking on the grill. Right. Um, you can marinate or have your kebabs, beef kebabs, chicken kebabs, whatever it is. You can have those marinating already to just put on the grill when you’re ready. Um, as well as, you know, steak or salmon. Whatever it is, you want to cook on the grill, you can have that all prepped, you know, burgers, all put in the patties, just ready to go.
Taryn Solie: Yeah.
Chris Nease: There’s a lot of prep work that you can do ahead of time.
Taryn Solie: And you can even have people help you if you want.
Chris Nease: Exactly.
Taryn Solie: Which I think leads into your next tip. So why don’t you say what that is?
Chris Nease: Yes. I like to have what I like to call a co-captain. And who can man, the grill, like I said, my, that for me, it would be my husband. He’s, he’s really the griller I’m the, I’m the prepper. Um, but yeah. You know, don’t look at it as like a task or whatever, it’s, it sort of becomes a social station. If you will. I have found, um, whoever’s manning the grill, you know, you’ll, they’ll usually have a few people hanging around. You know, drinking a beer, drinking a cocktail, whatever. Um, and, and they’re just chatting it up and having a good old time.
Taryn Solie: I love that. That kind of like reframing of, not thinking of it as like a task or a job, but just like the social aspect of it. That’s great. I love it. So next, anything else with the co-captain? Or are we moving onto the next step?
Chris Nease: Well, you could also sort of look at that, um, as guests, if, I mean, if you could, you could turn this into a potluck, for sure. Backyard barbecue parties are perfect for potluck parties. So yeah, you can have friends, invite- your guest list and have each person or each couple, you know, bring it, bring a dish to share, bring a dessert, bring drinks. Anything to, you know, cause people are always, when they get the invitation, they’re always saying, oh, well, what can I bring? What do you need help with? So they’re like, sure. Bring that pasta salad everybody loves.
Taryn Solie: Yeah, definitely. And it’s so funny to me, this, this is something that like my family and friends, we all do naturally. Like, I don’t think I’ve ever been to a gathering where it wasn’t potluck because everyone just brings something. But I know that there are people who are, who like to host everything. Um, and people are always, you know, what can I bring? What can I bring? Which can help relieve some of the, kind of entertaining or even cost associated with hosting something.
Chris Nease: Exactly. And as the host, I usually like to obviously, uh, have the main entree or the protein. We’ll, we’ll supply that, we’ll supply drinks. Uh, I’ll always make one or two side dishes and make maybe a dessert. I told you I’m a control freak. I can’t help it. Um, but yeah, and then, but you know, guests, friends bring, bring things to fill in, it’s, it’s always great. And then they can also take home leftovers of whatever’s there. It’s that’s nice too.
Taryn Solie: Yeah, for sure. Okay. So I like, I really like that because I think that is, it keeps the load down on the person hosting. So I love that. What other tips do you have?
Chris Nease: Okay. Um, for drinks, I love to serve, or set up an area for self serve drinks. And that can be done in a few different ways, actually. Like obviously you could have a big tub of ice and, um, have beer, sodas, bottled waters, whatever, you know, just have it in a big tub of ice.
Um, another fun take on that is if you create a, you know, a favorite punch recipe or sangria or whatever, and you can pre-fill little jars like, uh, eight ounce canning jars and put the lid on and you can put those on ice. And those are cute because they act as the drinking glass for your guests and they’re already feel- filled and they’re already cold and they walk in the party, grab a drink. And they’re good to go, just pop in a straw or whatever.
Taryn Solie: Yeah. That’s a great, I hadn’t even, I mean, I know Mason jars are very popular drinking containers, but I hadn’t thought about like putting the top on and putting into the cooler and keeping it and people can just like grab and go. That’s a fantastic idea.
Chris Nease: Yeah. And they even have these little lids that you can find on Amazon or wherever that have like the little holes and like decorative lids. So you can just literally pop a straw through the hole and, and you’re good to go.
Taryn Solie: Oh, I love that. Now, and I’ve seen too, uh, Yeah, I think putting things in coolers is a fairly popular or, or, you know, ice buckets, like large tubs is fairly popular and I’ve also seen where people will segregate the alcoholic versus non alcoholic. So no, one’s like reaching in, especially kids aren’t like in getting something they shouldn’t be.
Chris Nease: Right. Exactly. Um, another fun thing, if you really want to sort of go a little extra mile and add up a fun, little detail to the- and really make it a party, so to speak, is you could set up some kind of fun drink station where guests help themselves.
And I mean, that could really encompass so many, so many things, so many ideas. Um, I’ve done a lemonade bar before where you’ve got a few different flavors of lemonade and they’re just in pitchers and people can, you know, pour and go. Uh, you could also have, make your own beer shandies, where you pride- you’ve got the beer on ice and then you’ve got the, like the orange juice or lemon juice or lime juice. And they can, uh, make their own beer shandies with that.
Taryn Solie: I have never heard of a beer shandy, I’m going to be very honest. I don’t drink beer because I am gluten-free and so, and beer has wheat in it. Um, so I have, yeah, I have never heard of a beer shandy. So what is a beer shandy, for those who don’t know?
Chris Nease: It’s really just beer- like a light beer, you know, like an ale, I guess, um, or Pilsner.
Taryn Solie: Pilsner I think. I’m not a beer expert but we’ll go with Pilsner.
Chris Nease: The, the lighter beers. Um, and you just add a little bit of juice to it, like orange juice or lemon juice, lime juice. Um, and it just makes it refreshing. It- they’re really good. Refreshing is the best way to describe it.
Taryn Solie: I love it. Oh, that’s good. So those, those are some good. And I like the, uh, I really liked the lemonade because I feel like that could be a great thing. You could even have, you know, an a, a mixer, like an alcoholic mixer of some sort next to it so that people can do alcoholic or non-alcoholic to put, like the kids could have whatever lemonade they want. And then an adult could add a little bit of, you know, vodka or whatever, alcohol of choice that you have. So that’s, those are great ideas.
Chris Nease: And you can do the same thing with like an ice tea bar too.
Taryn Solie: Mmm-hmm, definitely.
Chris Nease: You can, you can, you know, you could have pitchers of, like, regular ice tea and then again, you could have like different fruit juice flavors on the side and add a little, little splash or whatever of the fruit juice to your iced tea and you get flavored iced tea.
Taryn Solie: Oh, I love that. That’s great. Yeah. Those are some really. And I think, I, I mean, my family tends to drink a lot of wine. Like they’re just like, oh, we’ll just have wine with everything. But I think that I love this kind of- I feel like drinks are an often overlooked area that can really add a sense of fun to a barbecue. And I think there’s a really fun and easy ideas that people could incorporate.
Chris Nease: Exactly. And these are fun. I know a lot of people are looking for graduation party ideas right now, whether it’s high school or college. Um, and you know, you could, like you said, you can tailor these ideas for- towards alcohol or non-alcohol and it just, it just elevates sort of that party experience. It turns, it turns a regular backyard barbecue into a party.
Taryn Solie: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I love it. Okay. So that was number three. What’s number, what’s your number four tip.
Chris Nease: Obviously we’re gonna want to decorate the party space, right. Um, and you know, you can, some of that. You know, it was going to be, um, just really beneficial, such as like, uh, string lights over, overhead, you know, for when it starts to get dark. Or having umbrellas to get up, you know, get in the shade, get out of the sun, um, the easy up or pop-up tents.
Those are great. Um, and then if you want to, you know, make it a little more celebratory, of course you can do balloons. Um, and you could set out, or setup little lounge areas and this way you’re sort of creating an outdoor room instead of just here’s the backyard. Um, and then you can think about comfort items for your guests, like sunscreen and, uh, like bug spray, um, and even fans like the, the panned fans.
Taryn Solie: Yeah, like the paper ones.
Chris Nease: Exactly. Like, um, like there’s woven like straw or yeah, like the woven straw type fans that are really sturdy and you can get those in packs of like 20.
Taryn Solie: Mm.
Chris Nease: Those are really great. Um, but yeah, anything that you can offer to your guests that lets them know, oh, you, you were thinking ahead about my comfort and thanks so much.
And some of those things, like the sunscreen or the, um, the bug spray, things like that. You can even put that in a little small, little bowl of ice or tub of ice. So, uh, you know, you get that cooling, refreshing feeling when you’re using it.
Taryn Solie: Yeah.
Chris Nease: It works for like hand, hand wipes too. You could have handy wipes and-
Taryn Solie: Oh yeah. That’s a good idea. Especially if you’re having like a, like a true barbecue with like ribs or something along those lines. It’s really messy.
Chris Nease: Yes, exactly. Exactly.
Taryn Solie: Oh, I love that. That’s such a good idea. Okay. Next step, what do we have?
Chris Nease: Okay. Uh, sort of getting back to food. Um, we like to think about buffets and desserts and things like that. And, uh, obviously it’s so easy to set up buffets for, for a backyard party. Um, and of course, if you’re the host you’re going to make, want to make sure you’ve got a, like probably a folding table, those are great. And so easy to store when you don’t need it, you know, have a, have a, have your buffet table set up, ready for people to bring their dish and put on and whatnot. Um, and one fun trick that I like to use is if you do have something like a potato salad or, or, uh, anything with that mayonnaise or cream or what- base to it, I like to have like a big bowl, fill that with ice and a little bit of water, you always want to have a little bit of water. And even like, if you shake in some rock salt that’ll help keep it from melting too quickly.
Taryn Solie: Yes.
Chris Nease: So you’ve got your, your ice bath and then you put your bowl of like the pasta salad on top of that ice, or set it right inside that ice bath. So, so you, you’re keeping that cool and not having to worry so much about, oh, uh, mayonnaise in, uh, 80 degree, 90 degree weather.
Taryn Solie: Right. Especially if you don’t have an area where you can set it in shade and it’s in sun that like an ice bath, like that, it’s going to be essential.
Chris Nease: Yeah. And then also those, um, those bug- oh, what do you call it? Food tins.
Taryn Solie: Like, covers kind of thing.
Chris Nease: Yeah, that keep the bugs out of your food. Those are great to have. Those are really, yeah. Those are a fun, little addition to your, your party, party closet.
Taryn Solie: And then what about dessert? Because I think you have a couple ideas that are, they keep desserts simple, but fun.
Chris Nease: Exactly. You don’t want to bother with like plates and bowls and, uh, forks and spoons and that kind of thing outside, right? So this is just all out fun and nostalgia. Uh, bring out the fire pit roast, roast your marshmallows makes s’mores. Everybody loves it, you know, and you can elevate that experience, you know, by just by adding different types of chocolates and different types of cookies. Um, and let everybody make their own, again, you’re sort of going back to that beverage bar idea.
You can do the same with like a s’mores bar. Um, and you could also, uh, do ice cream sandwiches. Do like a little, make your own ice cream sandwiches and obviously bring the ice cream out at the last minute.
Taryn Solie: Don’t have it sitting out in the sun. Nobody needs that.
Chris Nease: So yeah, you could, you could actually make up a bunch of those if you want ahead of time. Um, or let guests make up their own, again with different types of cookies and different flavors of ice cream. Yeah. Those can be a lot of fun.
Taryn Solie: Or you could even, you know, if you were really short on time or didn’t want to like make an ice cream sandwich, you could buy ice cream sandwiches and just have like different sprinkles or chocolate chips that guests could like roll their, the outside of their sandwich in to make it a little more, just something added, a little extra fun, a little extra something for guests.
Chris Nease: Exactly. Exactly. Anything to turn the regular into something a little more special, elevated.
Taryn Solie: Right. And even, and I think too, kind of going off of what you just said is, you know, even if you’re getting, you know, popsicles, which I think are a very common, you know, backyard barbecue kind of dessert. They’re really easy.
You could get a whole variety instead of just a typical, you know, like cherry and grape or something along those lines, or have it, you know, if you have a theme you could go with like a theme of the, get the popsicles within like a tropical theme or whatever you want to do. There’s different ways that that can be very easy to make it just extra fun.
Chris Nease: Exactly. And you can pop those popsicles right into a glass of champagne and it’s really nice.
Taryn Solie: Oh! I have never done that. Oh, that sounds interesting.
Chris Nease: Yeah. It’s sort of a mimosa type idea.
Taryn Solie: Yes. Oh, that’s that is really fun. I’ve never, I might have to try that. So what are some while we’re kind of like talking about food. What are some of your favorite kind of like backyard barbecue recipes that your family loves or that have gone over very well in that type of scenario?
Chris Nease: Well, you know, you can never go wrong with hot dogs and hamburgers. I mean, it’s such a, it’s such a cliche, but it’s so true. I mean, everybody, everybody loves it. And now, uh, with like the veggie burgers options that, you know, that’s great for vegetarians. Um, So that’s always great. And also if, if, if you have a mixed age groups, you know, hot dogs and hamburgers is great for kids and adults, both.
Um, we actually, if we’re doing something like a small dinner party or something like that with, with more adults, we love to do salmon on plank, plank boards, down on the grill. That’s fantastic.
Taryn Solie: Do you use, are using it like on a gas grill? Are you using like a wood pellet grill or what kind of- or charcoal?
Chris Nease: We, we use the, the propane gas grill. Yeah, the Weber. My husband swears by the Weber.
Taryn Solie: Okay!
Chris Nease: We’ve been through a few duds over the years. And when he found the Weber, he’s like, we’ll never, never get anything else. Yeah.
Taryn Solie: And I mean, we have a Weber that we love, so I do get it. I definitely get that. So what, like, what would you, what do you typically serve with the salmon?
Chris Nease: Um, oh gosh. Well, keep it simple. Um, if you could, if you can do like a, an entire meal on the grill, if you want, grilled vegetables is fantastic. Even grilled fruit.
Taryn Solie: Yes.
Chris Nease: So nice. Um, and grilled corn on the cob, I mean, so easy.
Taryn Solie: But good. It’s it’s good. And it is easy because you really you’re just kind of like heating it up, but it’s not really, like, it has, doesn’t have to cook to a certain temperature or anything.
Chris Nease: Right. And then I’ve got like, um, some nice, like a, like a good broccoli salad type thing. It’s, you know, that’s, you know, nice and healthy ish. Yeah.
Taryn Solie: Oh, I love it, good. Okay, well this is, I think this has been so fun. I love these tips. I think they’ll be really helpful, especially for anyone who might be newer to entertaining or, uh, you know, hosting a back- backyard barbecue. Um, but before we end, I really want to know what is something you’re grilling now that you love, or maybe you’re looking forward to grilling this summer.
Chris Nease: Well, I will go back to the salmon planks. Uh, I’ve I’ve got a recipe on the blog. It’s it’s a barbecue brushed plank- grilled salmon. Um, and it’s, it’s just so good. I mean, we, we can end up doing that like once a week in the summertime.
Taryn Solie: Yeah.
Chris Nease: It’s one of our tried and true recipes for just at home or entertaining.
Taryn Solie: I do, I love salmon. So you’re after, you’re after my own heart with that, I love it. Well, this has been so fun, Chris. I do want to give you a moment to let people know where they can connect with you online.
Chris Nease: Well, my website, celebrationsathomeblog.com um, and I am on, I am on Instagram and Facebook, but quite honestly, I, I don’t spend a lot of time on there. You know, algorithms and all of that. I just, um, but yeah, every- most of, uh, my tips and ideas and everything are going to be on the website.
Taryn Solie: And then do you have an email newsletter that people can sign up for as well?
Chris Nease: Yes. Yes. It’s right- yeah. It’s easy to find. It’s right on the, on, if you go to the website, there’ll be on sign up spot.
Taryn Solie: Perfect. Great. Well, this has been great. Chris, thank you so much for coming onto the podcast.
Chris Nease: Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Taryn Solie: Did you come away with some fun ideas for your next barbecue? Because I certainly did! And am I the only one who had never heard of a beer shandy before? Even though I can’t drink beer, it sounds delicious!
Chris shared so many fun and inspired tips for throwing a barbecue party that I know would be great for next time you’re hosting a cookout. If you were listening in the car or out on a walk I’m going to provide a link to a blog post Chris wrote that lists many of the tips she mentioned. That link will be on the show notes page, along with links to some of the items she talked about and some of the recipes she thought would be good for a barbecue.
To get to the show notes page, you can either visit my recipe website at Hot Pan Kitchen (dot) com and click on podcast in the main menu or just click the link that’s provided on whatever platform you’re listening to this podcast on.
Thank you for tuning in today and until next time, keep grilling like a mother.
Leave a comment