Now that the triple digit temperatures have arrived, wouldn’t you rather be at the beach? Lucky you if you have a beach trip in your future, but if you don’t, bring the beach to your house! There are lots of good ideas for decorations and recipes on the internet. Realistically, your beach gathering might just be your family, but what a fun way to spend time with those you love best. Maybe your whole family can be involved in the planning and preparing the food for your beach blast.
Here are some recipes that would be great for a beach party.
Tropical Island Chicken
Mix up the marinade which has soy sauce, garlic, ginger plus a few other ingredients, and pour into a resealable bag. Add your favorite chicken pieces and refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight. Grill over indirect heat for 45-60 minutes. The nice thing about this recipe is that you can do most of the prep the day before.
Summertime Fun Cookies
Basic sugar cookies with butter cream icing are the main ingredients here. You can make your own sugar cookies (the recipe is on this site), or you can use refrigerated sugar cookie dough or a sugar cookie mix. You can even buy sugar cookies to make these cute sweet treats. Tint vanilla icing (homemade or canned) ocean blue and ice the cookies. Now comes the fun part that the kids will love – decorating the cookies. Use bear or fish shaped graham cookies, gummy sour rings, airheads, little umbrellas to make these cookies very beachy.
Maryland Corn Pops
This is a version of Mexican Street Corn with a twist which makes it easier to eat. You brush the ears of corn with oil and grill for 10-12 minutes. While the corn is grilling, mix up a bowl of mayo, garlic powder and pepper. When the corn is done, cut each cob into thirds and insert a corn cob holder into each piece. Spread with the mayo mixture and then sprinkle with cheese, seafood seasoning and cilantro.
Teriyaki Shish Kabobs
This sounds so good. You make a marinade of sugar, soy sauce, ketchup, garlic powder and ground ginger in which you put beef top sirloin cut into 1 ½ inch squares. Marinate over night. The next day, thread the beef cubes and pineapple squares on several skewers. On some other skewers, thread fresh squash, mushrooms, green and red peppers and chunks of onion. Grill for 12-15 minutes and serve with the remaining marinade. Of course, you could easily substitute chicken for the beef and use any fresh veggies that you want.
Fruit and Cheese Kabobs
I don’t think this could be any easier! Prepare a dip of vanilla yogurt, sour cream, honey and cinnamon. The kabobs consist of halved strawberries, green grapes and cubes of cheddar and jack cheeses. Super simple, super good!
Frosty Watermelon Ice
All the deliciousness of watermelon without the seeds and sticky mess with this recipe. You need unflavored gelatin, honey, lime juice and of course, seedless watermelon. Puree in a blender, pour into a shallow dish and freeze. What a refreshing treat for a hot summer day.
All these recipes and more can be found on the Taste of Home website. Click here to access.
There are some great ideas for beachy crafts that your children would love on this DownHome site. Be sure to check them out here!
– Becky Lynn is a writer for EllisDownHome.com. She and her husband Bob enjoy spending time with their 8 grandchildren and traveling. Becky loves cranking up the music and heading to the kitchen to try out new recipes or cook for an upcoming party. She is passionate about continuing to be a life-long learner!
