You might want to make appetizers, but you can also serve simple foods like olives, radishes, and toasted almonds for nibbles. Add a good loaf of bread to your shopping list, and enjoy. As fall approaches, wild mushrooms should be hitting the markets. Try this menu, with a hearty mushroom risotto as the main dish. The salad and dessert are prepared well ahead of time, the ingredients for the risotto prepped, and you will finish off the risotto with guests around.
Risotto is a great dish for an open kitchen.
We have a few more weeks of peaches, plums and nectarines left, and the fruit is better than ever. Here are a couple of wonderful desserts. Also a pasta recipe for the last great cherry tomatoes of the summer. I'm sure they'd go with a number of other grilled foods, but so far this is what I've eaten them with. They keep well for several days in the refrigerator, and if you have one or both on hand, a meal on a hot summer day can be quickly thrown together.