Episode 111: Hosting this fall? Four inviting menus for cooking at home with ease

Food Friends: Home Cooking Made Easy

Are you ready to simplify your fall hosting while still impressing your guests, whether for holidays, potlucks, or casual dinners with friends?

Fall gatherings can be overwhelming, from multi-course holiday dinners to last-minute potlucks. This episode provides you with 4 easy yet sophisticated menus with recipes and hosting tips, so you can delight your guests without stress. Whether you're hosting for Rosh Hashanah, going to a tailgate, or just cooking a casual dinner at home, this episode helps you create a relaxed, festive vibe in your kitchen.

By the end of this episode, you will learn how to:

1. Create stunning, low-effort appetizers that can be assembled in advance, and made almost entirely with store-bought ingredients.

2. Choose a main course that will impress guests, like a seasonal salad that’s hearty enough to be a main, studded with fresh herbs and jewel-toned pomegranate seeds, or a delicious one-pot braised beef and aromatic rice dish

3. Enjoy the comfort of make-ahead desserts, like Kari’s crowd-pleasing chocolate sheet cake that travels well, or the spiced cookies that Sonya makes that taste better the next day

Don’t miss out on this essential fall hosting episode — press play now to make your next gathering unforgettable!

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Links to from this week’s show:

Menu #1

Yotam Ottolenghi’s fig, radicchio, and hazelnut salad for the Guardian

Sonya’s beef plov and plum frangipane babka

Sonya’s honey sesame cake and one-bowl tzimmes cake

Menu #2

Baked brie by Ina Garten

Ottolenghi’s quinoa and fennel salad for Bon Appetit

Pear slab pie with sour dried cherries from Martha Stewart Living

Menu #3

Sonya’s smoked fish platter

Colu Henry’s sheet pan roasted chicken with shallot and roasted grape for NYT Cooking

Sonya’s apple + walnut spiced cookies in her recent Substack

Menu #4

Classic cheese ball recipe from It Tastes Better From Scratch

Fried chicken from your favorite place

Texas Chocolate Cake from All Recipes

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Sign up for Sonya’s free Substack, or order her debut cookbook Braids for more Food Friends recipes!