Planning a BBQ party can be hard work and sometimes you’ll be wondering why what seemed like a great idea last weekend when you were full of enthusiasm now appears to be a bit of a chore. Remember the definition of character. Character is what’s left after the enthusiasm for a project has died away.
Now I’m not suggesting that organising a barbecue party should be a test of character, I’m just trying to point out that it is the same for all of us but if you break it out into it’s component parts it’s really not too much trouble. And there are a few sneaky ways of making life easy.
The first challenge is to prepare the invitations and you can make these really funky by downloading free
BBQ Clip Art and simply copy and paste onto your Word document. If you not sure how to do this, follow these instructions:
Internet Explorer:
1. Right click on
barbecue clipart with the mouse.
2. Select from the menu window “save picture as”.
3. Choose your folder where you want to save the
BBQ Clipart.
4. Click “save”.
Netscape:
1. Right click on
bbq clipart with the mouse.
2. Select from the menu window “save as” option.
3. Choose your folder where you want to save the
Barbecue Clipart.
4. Click “save”.
Macintosh:
1. Place your cursor over the
clipart that you want to download.
2. Hold down the mouse button until a menu screen pops up.
3. Choose the appropriate selection from the menu.
Once you’ve downloaded the
Barbecue Clip Art and prepared your invitations get them mailed out and then it’s time to think a but the menu and again it’s the internet that’s going to help you because there are some great websites out there offering
Free BBQ Recipes and menu ideas. Smoking meat is a great way to take the pressure off because there’s a wide time variation between when it’s cooked and when it’s overcooked so provided you’ve got everything going on time, you don’t need to worry if your guest are a little late.
On this basis consider smoking the main course but do the appetizer on the grill. This way you can have a really fresh tasting
barbecue appetizers that won’t take anything away from the smokiness of the main course. It also maintains this philosophy of flexibility in that the smoked main course can be allowed to rest before carving whilst you grill the appetizer.
The other way to take the pressure off is to prepare some BBQ dips such as Tzaziki or Humus. Get some celery and carrot and cut them up into sticks (the technical term being Julienne) and place them upright in a bowl. Folks can then pick up a stick, dip it in the humus and nibble away and again you’ve got a flexible way to keep your guests happy whilst you continue to prepare the food.
Follow all the points above and you’ve got a serious chance of having a stress free barbecue party but inevitable there may be other external factors that can still throw you – the man of the house of course! In these situations then it’s best just to accept the situation in a spontaneous manner, uncork a bottle of wine and just let the party atmosphere take over!
Resources:
Barbecue Clip Art - Ideal for your party invitations.
Free Barbecue Recipes - Outdoor grilling tips.
Homemade BBQ Sauce - Easy homemade recipes
