Easy Entertaining: 4th of July

The 4th of July is upon us! While summer is in full swing, many mark this weekend as the official start of summer! So with that we mapped out a super fun and delicious 4th of July backyard plan!


Table setting: the 4th should be all about ease and simplicity, so utilize red, white, and blue in your napkins and glassware to add punches of color. Go easy with the decor - here we used large dinner napkins and folded them into thirds, splayed across each plate. The take home favor is a cute silver shell decor ball - purchase from any craft store and spray with silver spray paint (great to use for any holiday).




We made the paper "flags" a little differently, with navy stars to stand out. How to: create a word document and insert several long, rectangular text boxes horizonally. Fill in with red paint. Create as many stripes as you like; do the same with a fresh document; here we insterted star shapes that we made navy. Print out the pages and cut to size - we created 7" x 9" flags. Attach to a ribbon or twine using double-sided tape. Use any excess for some fun curly-q pieces by taking long, thin strips of red paper and winding them tightly around a pencil. Toss on the table for some added pop of color.

Food: So easy and delicious (and all-American!); grilled flank steak sandwiches with aoili: Marinate steak (for 2 hours) in sea salt, pepper, and olive oil and grill 1/4 lb. of steak per guest. Thinly slice the steak, grill up an onion and garnish on top of the steak. Prepare ciabatta rolls with a spread of aoili; wrap the sandwich in white butcher paper and cinch with cute red-and-white striped twine. Pair with red potato salad, some grilled corn sprinkled with cayenne pepper and sea salt and a fun drink and you're good to go!

Drink: Here we have a vodka lemonade spritzer (feel free to omit the alcohol); 1 cup of fresh lemonade or Italian sparkling soda, 1/2 cup of good vodka, ice as needed. Prepare: fill an 8 oz. glass 1/2 way to the top with ice; pour in about 2 oz. of lemonade, 1 oz. of vodka, and top with club soda for fizz. Garnish with a candied lemon peel or a rosemary sprig.

Have a Happy and safe 4th of July!