Naptime Entertaining: Delicious Make-Ahead Recipes & Ideas for Family Entertaining

When good friends come over we love to entertain with soup. With familiar faces at the table we have no problem slurping away while making conversation. In the winter we prefer hot, substantial soups. These can easily be served with a side of roasted vegetables and sandwich to make a complete meal. The other day I decided to make this soup in order to use up the excessive amount of cheese and beer we seemed to have in our fridge. I still can’t figure out why we had it all, it must have accumulated over the course of a couple of weeks.

I have to finish off the slow-cooker challenge with something that the adults will love: slow cooker cocktails. I mean, who doesn’t love a good cocktail in the middle of winter? I know I do. I love to keep hot punches warm in the slow cooker when we entertain, mulled cider and mulled wine work particularly well. Knowing this I decided to winterize one of our favorite summer drinks and have it waiting for dinner guests on evening.

Today’s webisode showcases how easy and fun it can be to make a batch of Caprese no-knead bread, or any kind of no-knead bread for that matter. I swear, once you get this technique down you are golden. Anyone can do it, even the busiest parent on the planet! As you’ll see, I make mine with a lot of love…and neglect. I pull the dough together after my daughter is asleep for the night, let it rise overnight and bake it in the morning. There are nearly infinite variations of no-knead bread and this recipe is a tried and true favorite. It contains sun-dried tomatoes, sweet basil and is topped with melted mozzarella. We can’t get enough of it and I’ve even taking to make it for friends when they come over for soup and sandwiches.

When I entertain there are usually at least two kinds of cheese dishes on our table. I typically make up one basic cheese plate, hot cheese dip, or baked brie for a savory pre-dinner nibble, and feature cheese somewhere in the dinner course. This may seem like overkill, but it actually works out well. There are so many varieties of cheese it is fairly easy to use it several times in one evening without overdoing it. Also, tasty cheese does not have to be expensive, so drawing up a cheese-focused menu can be quite budget friendly. With a few dinner parties on the horizon I recently decided to focus on a few new entertaining recipes featuring cheese, starting with this terrifically strong, fresh Roquefort.

Meyer lemons have dominated my kitchen this month. They are finally in season (I wait all year!) and my friends at Duda Farm Fresh foods kindly sent me a big boxful to work with. For Christmas dinner this year I decided to make a Meyer lemon cheesecake instead of my usual eggnog version. My family, especially my father, adores cheesecake and anything lemony so I knew he would be especially enthusiastic about this addition to the menu.

This week I am talking about some holiday favorites. These are the favorite dishes we like to serve year after year at our holiday table and I think you might like them too. To add to the fun this week my friends at Big Kitchen.com are generously donating a gorgeous purple 6.25 quart Staub Cocotte. I swear, these cast iron dutch ovens are the best for roasts, soups and even no-knead bread. I especially love the little tips on the lid that are designed specifically for braising! Entry rules are below so be sure to leave your comment. In the mean time, let’s talk about one of the holiday favorites recipes I use this gorgeous Staub for: pork roast!

I am filing this under “naptime entertaining” because flavored dipping oils are one of my favorite things to have on hand when we entertain. I love slicing up a baguette and pouring little pools of oil in various shallow bowls for people to sample while we wait for dinner to be ready. I’ve come to love coming up with new oil flavors based on what is fresh in my herb pot which is, by the way, thriving in our bedroom for the winter months. These oils are so simple to make and poured into pretty glass bottles they make beautiful gifts!