Planning a Backyard Cook Out Party

Planning a Backyard Cook Out Party

 

If you regularly cook your meals on a barbeque grill, you are not alone. Grilling is a popular American pastime.  While many individuals end up grilling for their family, not everyone makes the decision to host a backyard barbeque party, despite the fact that it is a good idea.  If you are interested in socializing and sharing good food with your friends, family, coworkers, or neighbors, you may want to, at least, think about planning a backyard barbeque party.

 

Backyard barbeque parties, like most other parties, require planning. While the planning associated with a backyard barbeque may not be as large as most other parties, it is still important. The proper planning of a party, including a barbeque, will help to ensure that your party is the best that it can be. For that reason, you may want to start making party plans as soon as you make the decision to host a party.

 

Since backyard barbeque parties are centered on food, you will want to think about the food that you will serve.  To please all of your party guests, you will want to have a fairly large selection of meats including hot dogs and hamburgers. This will help to make sure that all of your party guests are able to eat the foods that they like.  In addition to meats, you may also want to think about side dishes.  Popular barbeque party side dishes may include, but should not be limited to, toss salads, macaroni salads, coleslaw, and fruit salads.

 

In addition to the foods that you are interested in serving, you may also want to plan how those foods will be made.  Of course, the purpose of a barbeque party is to grill the foods then, but most of the side dishes will need to be prepared ahead of time.  To ensure that all of your side dishes are prepared on time, you may want to start cooking them the day before your barbeque or earlier that morning.  If you are having a large party, you may need to make a large amount of food. If this is the cases, it may be a good idea to have party guests bring a small side dish.

 

Aside from the main food, served at your barbecue, you may also want to think about drinks and snacks.  For a reasonable price, you should be able to obtain a number of different snacks for your barbeque.  Great snack ideas include crackers and cheese, cookies, chips, and pretzels.  For drinks, you need to decide as to whether or not you want alcoholic beverages served at your party.  Regardless of whether or not you choose to serve alcohol, you should be able to purchase your party drinks from most supermarkets.

 

While backyard barbeques are center on food, additional activities may be a good idea.  At most department stores, you should be able to find a number of affordable toys or backyard activities. Many individuals, especially teens or adult males, enjoy playing sports. A football, basketball, corn hole, or horseshoe pit may be a great addition to your backyard barbeque.  One of the neatest, newest, most popular back yard games or activities is known as Corn Hole. What this consists of is bean bags which are thrown onto a deck that is angled and has holes in it. Each hole can have a different score and/or just being able to get the bean bag into any hole scores as a point. Typically, there are two corn hole boards set opposed to each other at a distance that can be adjusted depending on the skill level and age of the participants. For teenagers and young people with a good arm and a good eye, 50-60 ft. may be appropriate, but for toddlers and young children 5-10 ft. might be the correct distance. After all, the object of the game is to get satisfaction from getting the bag to drop into the hole. In order to maintain this level of enthusiasm, the distance must be adjusted according to the needs of the participants. Corn hole games can be bought online or at retailers such as Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot, or Target. However, if you are handy and have some basic tools, they are relatively easy to build. It is simply a matter of constructing a frame and legs so that the frame is held at the appropriate angle.  The only tough spot that needs a special tool is the hole. In order to make the correct 6” diameter hole the appropriate tool to use is a 150mm/ 6” diameter hole saw. These can be bought from numerous companies such as Klein, Stanley, Go Sports, Blue Boar, Hole Pro, Eliseo, Dewalt, and Tech Team  https://techteamproducts.com/. We have found the Tech Team item 756 https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=tech+team+hole+saw to be absolutely perfect. It is available online from Amazon, has the perfect diameter, and the perfect number of teeth per inch to make smooth efficient cuts on the plywood deck. In addition, it has an arbor with a drill bit so that the hole can be perfectly centered, and then cut through by using a simple and easy to obtain 3/8” variable speed power drill. If children will be attending your party, you may want to have child friendly games on hand.

 

If you have a pool, it may be a good idea to incorporate swimming into your backyard barbeque; however, it is optional.  If you are planning on allowing your party guests to use your pool, you may want to think about establishing some rules. These rules should focus on pool safety and children in the pool. While establishing rules at your barbeque may seem like a bad idea, it is not, especially when it comes to pool safety.

 

Of course, you will also want to invite your guests to your party. This can be done with formal invitations, a quick phone call, or a quick email.  In addition to informing guest of your impending barbeque party, a guest list may also help you prepare for the big day.