These Fourth of July Party Recipes Will Make Menu Planning So Much Easier

For a nonalcoholic version, skip the tequila and add a little water to help blend the mixture.

This refreshing lemonade is just as much about the strawberries as it is about the lemons.

The key to making bartender-worthy concoctions: muddling fresh fruit and herbs, like in this blackberry pineapple mojito based on one at Scottsdale’s Deseo restaurant.

For these homemade lemon-drop cocktails, infuse lemonade with fresh rosemary and ginger and mix with citron vodka for a sweet-and-tart warm weather drink.

Make a classic cocktail that’s sure to cool you to your toes on a hot summer day.

Ryan Pollnow, the chef at the San Francisco Spanish restaurant Aatxe (“Ah-chay”), always has hard-cooked eggs on his tapas menu. This version–with its smoky, creamy filling and crunchy topping of fried chorizo sausage–is especially delicious.

Sticky sweet replaces blazing buffalo with these tasty wings. Serve them as finger food appetizers for an outdoor party or as the main course for a family dinner when paired with seasonal sides.

You can make these hors d’oeuvres even simpler: Without their scallion ties or lemon zest, the asparagus and prosciutto still taste terrific. To make lemon-zest strips, use a vegetable peeler to shave off the lemon’s thin outer peel, then cut this zest into strips.

Shrimp with lemon, parsley, and garlic echoes classic shrimp scampi, but here it’s a cooling salad. They’re juicy, so serve with napkins.

The pit crew at the Santa Maria Elks Lodge prefer top sirloin to tri-tip for its rich flavor, juiciness, and tenderness. Cuts of top sirloin (also called top block) usually weigh 10 to 15 pounds, so unless you’re feeding a crowd, freeze half for later. At home, most Santa Marians slice the meat into thick steaks to cook on a backyard-style Santa Maria grill. Your gas or charcoal grill will work too.

You’ll love the classic Italian flavors of this grilled chicken, and the caprese salsa with sweet, tart grape and cherry tomatoes is the perfect accompaniment to the charred flavor from the grill.

These maple-glazed ribs with a subtle touch of ginger are a mainstay at Odys + Penelope restaurant in Los Angeles. At home, chef-owner Quinn Hatfield smokes them using either a Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker or a Pit Barrel Cooker.

The black pepper in this rub picks up on the black-pepper notes in Zinfandel. The fruitiness of the wine and its juicy character cool the heat. You can coat the ribs with the herb rub and wrap in foil up to a day ahead of time; chill, then bring to room temperature before grilling.

Marinate shrimp in a combination of fresh herbs, juices, rum, lime zest, salt, and sugar for a fresh, tropical take on the classic mojito cocktail.

Six easy recipes and the secret to hamburger heaven.

Behold, the perfect meatball sandwich.

These big, bold, juicy sandwiches are from Morgan Robinson, chef-owner of Smoke Open Fire Cooking in Napa. He grills the sausages and melts the cheese on the grill too, in a small cast-iron skillet, then puts both on the table with crusty rolls and chimichurri–Argentina’s answer to pesto–so guests can serve themselves.

When cutting corn kernels from the cob, stand it in a bowl and slice down the cob’s sides; the bowl corrals the flying kernels.

Karen Hatfield, chef-owner of Odys + Penelope and Sycamore Kitchen restaurants in Los Angeles, calls this refreshing and slightly unusual savory-sweet summer salad a perfect example of the saying “if it grows together, it goes together.”

This is the salad to make with tomatoes from the farmers’ market or your backyard, ideally when they’re still warm from the sun. The surprise is the easy homemade cheese.

If making up to 4 hours ahead, don’t add basil; cover and chill. Add basil just before serving, and mix gently.

We think everything is better with bacon, and this bacony coleslaw will be perfect with BBQ ribs or chicken.

This light salad, based on one our reader had while vacationing in Germany, is great alongside grilled meat or fish. Squeezing out excess liquid from the fruit and vegetables keeps the salad from getting watery.

Cooking corn on the cob in its de-silked husk keeps the kernels moist and adds a nice grassy flavor. For less fuss, feel free to fully husk the corn and wrap it in foil.

Sunset reader Dawn McHenry needed an appetizer for a summer party, so she took her mom’s family’s potato salad recipe from Germany, grilled the potatoes, and stacked the rest on top.

This chunky potato salad is a cool summer version of everybody’s favorite garlic mashed potatoes.

You’ll need 32 bamboo skewers (each 8 in.); there’s no need to soak them before they go on the grill, because they won’t char with such a short cooking time.

Top a juicy cherry and blueberry pie with a pastry crust cut into stars and stripes for a festive 4th of July dessert.

Black pepper, nutmeg, and cloves play up the underlying spicy note of blueberries in this pie. Serve with whipped cream if you like.

Part chewy molasses cookie, part homey chocolate chip cookie, part spicy gingersnap: These cookies have it all.

Coconut cakes are always showstoppers at family gatherings. Package all that delicious dessert flavor into a pint-sized liner for a single-serving treat that’s a guaranteed crowd pleaser. Instead of paper liners, use the shiny kind instead to dress the cupcakes up.

Featuring fresh, summertime watermelon, the only other ingredients you need to complete this simple and stunning dessert is sugar, lime rind, watermelon, and lime juice.