You guys are getting my mind organized and churning - thank you!
Latest thoughts also for the vegetarian (and everyone else!) : cheese enchiladas or roasted portobello mushrooms tacos.
If grilling, throw some mushroom kabobs on the grill for your vegetarian guest! Something like these:
Taco bars are our go-to for summer easy menus, as everything can be made ahead. I use crock pots to keep things warm to serve in.
This is a very easy and very good carnitas recipe that everyone loves. https://damndelicious.net/2014/10/10/slow-cooker-pork-carnitas/. It is mostly done in a slow cooker and then goes into the oven to broil for a few minutes at the end to get the crispy exterior.
Here are my favorite recipes for rice and beans: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/229279/marias-mexican-rice/ and https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/70312/refried-beans-without-the-refry/?internalSource=hub%20recipe&referringContentType=search. You can replace the water and buillon cube with vegetable broth in the rice so that your vegetarians can eat it. Both rice and beans are nice to have so the vegetarians can make burritos.
I usually do carnitas or asada, and also shredded chicken. I don’t really use a recipe for the chicken: Put 4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts in a pot covered with broth. Add salt and 1-2 sliced yellow onions. Simmer until the chicken can be shredded. Remove the breasts and onions and save the broth. Shred the chicken and return to the pot along with the onions. Add cumin to taste (2 teaspoons?) salt and pepper, a large can of diced green chiles, juice from 1 lime, and a tablespoon of cilantro. Add back in enough of the reserved broth to to make it really juicy. Simmer for another 20 minutes or so to blend flavors.
I do everything ahead so I don’t spend the day of the party cooking. I put out bowls of homemade salsa- both red and green-, chopped cilantro, cut up radishes, cotija and regular cheese, guacamole and cut up limes, along with warmed corn and flour tortillas, and let everyone serve themselves. The rice and beans can go in crock pots to keep them warm. Watermelon and pineapple slices add a refreshing touch.
I do pulled pork or pulled chicken enchiladas in a green chilli/sour cream base with corn and tomatoes. I cook the chicken in chicken stock or the pork butt slow roasted in the oven. I stir fry the Goya small white beans, corn and tomatoes, (roma-chopped small), then mix together with the pork or chicken and simmer in a medium green chilli sauce which I added some sour cream. Let simmer for about 20 minutes. Pour on top of tortillas in a 9x12 baking dish, cover with shredded cheese, fold over and pour a little more chili sauce and cheese on top. Cook in oven till cheese is melted, (we like our tortillas a little crispy, so I usually don’t cover dish with foil). I serve with my homemade guac and sometimes yellow rice. This does keep well for the next day if you want to make it ahead of time.
@thumper1, well you’d think so, but I am always amazed how often my SIL serves nothing but ham and my kids are very unhappy! I’ve gotten very wary about food, every one I know seems to have food issues. If I’m cooking for any kind of a crowd I always make sure I have at least one vegan gluten free dish.
I haven’t made them in a long time, but I used to make a vegetarian kebab. It had onions, peppers, tomatoes and mushrooms. You let it sit in Italian style vinaigrette for a while. Then cooked it on the grill. Always a hit. Slices of zucchini, and eggplant are great on the grill.
“one vegan gluten free dish.”
Rice noodles make this easy. Plus they taste great!
We are not a ham family either @mathmom. I do fix pork occasionally but more in the form of something like carnitas. My MIL always had ham for holidays and my kids dreaded having to taste some to be polite. Fortunately she always had enchiladas also so everyone was happy!
Beach pie is so good. How about a low country boil to go with it? Little prep required, easy to cook, everybody can pick out their favorites and it’s fun and social to eat.
Last night I had guests over and the menu was a hit.
Grilled tri tip, grilled boneless but with skin chicken breast with Penzey Galena spice blend, green salad, a Farro salad with roasted vegetables and a Mexican corn salad. Served with olive bread. Apple pie and coconut macaroons for desert.
The Mexican corn salad has been a hit out of the park both times I’ve made it.
Last week I made grilled chicken tacos, Beef flap steak and served it with whole black beans by Rosarita, a fresh homemade mango salsa. Wrapped corn tortilla in foil and put gem on the grill.
Paul Prudhomme Barbecue Shrimp. (It isn’t actually barbecue, but who cares?) This a fabulous, messy and delicious dish to eat outside with hunks of good baguette to soak up the incredible sauce. Forget the idea of serving it with rice: that’s ridiculous. This is a elbows on the picnic table kind of thing. I have the cookbook, but I found the recipe online:
http://casualkitchen.blogspot.com/2007/02/most-glorious-meal-so-far-this-year.html
Oh, and while I’m being opinionated about food, the ONLY way to make good pulled pork is hours on the grill using lots of smoke and indirect heat. Bah, humbug on the crock pot! >:)
This is a great salad that is served at room temperature. I redid the measurements for my S when he was living in France, but it should be easy enough to translate back.
Rice, Corn & Bean Salad
750ml cooked rice (about 250ml raw)
500ml cooked, drained black beans (If using canned, drain and rinse well)
400ml cooked corn (Frozen is okay, but barely cook.)
125 ml chopped scallions
2 jalapeno peppers, fresh or pickled, seeded and minced
Dressing:
80ml corn or vegetable oil
2 TBS lime juice
1 TBS brown sugar
1 heaping teaspoon chili powder
1 heaping teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
Combine first 5 ingredients in bowl.
Combine dressing ingredients : whisk in small bowl or shake in jar until thoroughly mixed.
Pour dressing over salad and mix well.
Note that the proportions do not need to be exact. I often increase the chili and cumin. If you want to double the recipe, you do not need to double the oil, just increase it a little and double the other dressing ingredients.
You all are making me hungry! That shrimp sounds delicious! - but my brother is a big fisherman so has a freezer full of walleye and salmon we can use so that will trump shrimp!
And someone at work mentioned the low boil this morning- which I may consider for another meal! My co-worker told me you can buy mesh bags at the store to separate all the low boil ingredients and then add them to the boil at appropriate times - and pull out if needed - sounds like a great idea!
@Sabaray I did use pickled red onions. I make them often in the summer because they are so good.
Red onions are a favorite at our house too, with just about anything. I’m not sure how good they would be with the barbecued shrimp Consolation posted, but those sound delicious. I love shrimp. I need to get through my fasting bloodwork tomorrow before I can have those! See what you started, @abasket? I don’t have a family dinner to plan for but I think I’m having a casual feast at my house this weekend!
If you do make the low country boil, maybe you could try one of the good vegetarian sausages as a substitute for the traditional kielbasa. I had a fantastic vegan “chorizo” taco last night that had better flavor than regular chorizo; I’m not vegetarian so have no incentive to like stuff like that unless it’s good, either. But if you did substitute a veggie sausage, the only meat in the boil would be the shrimp, which makes it a bit more friendly to the vegetarian crowd.
If it’s going to be hot out and you wanted to serve something cool and that could be prepped in advance, I’d also think about serving Gazpacho as the main course. If you put out the big bowl of Gazpacho with some amazing sides - anything from shrimp to various cubed veggies to pickled peppers to salmon to cubed cheeses and of course various hot sauces - people could dress the Gazpacho to their tastes. Friendly to vegans and the gluten free as well.
I made this salad and I thought it was good. https://www.skinnytaste.com/white-bean-caprese-salad/
The key was the balsamic glaze. I found it at Walmart and put it on the top of my individual portion.
^^ I bought a balsamic glaze and then found out you can make it using balsamic vinegar and brown sugar. It’s delicious on tomatoes, especially tomatoes from the garden!!
a fish “tangine.” We had this last week with saffron rice. fragrant fish tangine bbc.goodfood.com. We had it with cod, not tilapia.
LOL, I don’t make pulled pork because I agree it needs hours on low heat. Easier to get take out! But I’m not a purist about other things.
Kebabs…
Meat Kebabs
Veg Kebabs
Fruit Kebabs that taste good grilled…pineapple, cantaloupe, peaches or cold
Who cares what I’m making on Sunday anymore - there are LOTS of good things here!!! 
Deb922 that looks good. Funny because another recipe I was looking at called for a balsamic glaze and I wondered how easily I’d find it at the store - now I know I can also make my own!
And IF I did the low boil I’ll just do that on a day when the vegetarian is not here! We have a Polish meat market here that makes some outstanding kielbasa!