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

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! *** 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 *** We love hearing from you — follow us on Instagram @foodfriendspod, or drop us a line at foodfriendspod@gmail.com! Or give us a CALL on our kitchen phone! 323-452-9084 Sign up for Sonya’s free Substack , or order her debut cookbook Braids for more Food Friends recipes!