We recently hosted our neighbors over for a late summer dinner on our back patio. Since they have two boys, I wanted to do a menu of finger foods that were easy to snack on as we chatted. The menu worked perfectly and everyone was free to just help themselves to whatever they wanted and it was so easy to put together. And dessert was as awesome as it sounds!

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Menu – Grilled Chicken Skewers, Pepperoni Sauce, Cherry Tomato Mozzarella Bites, S’mores Bar

Grilled Chicken Skewers

This was an incredibly simple recipe to make for a crowd as I skewered organic chicken tenderloins on bamboo skewers (soak the wooden skewers in water for about 5 minutes to prevent them from burning on the grill). I simply added salt and pepper and then grilled them over high heat on the gas grill for about 4-5 minutes per side.

Pepperoni Sauce

This sauce paired perfectly with the grilled chicken skewers. Toby and I discovered this sauce a few years back when local D.C. chef, Mike Isabella was a contestant on Top Chef and he made this dish towards the end of the season, which went over very well with the judges. The Washington Post posted the recipe following that Top Chef season and this is the perfect addition to simple grilled chicken and would also go great with pork chops. This recipe make a lot and a little goes a long way with this sauce, so it does freeze really well.

T0mato Mozzarella Bites

These simple appetizers used up some overflow cherry tomatoes and I found some teeny mozzarella balls to add to each skewer. If you can’t find these teeny balls, halved small balls will work great too. I added a smoked balsamic vinegar as a dipping sauce, but regular balsamic or a fig balsamic vinegar would work great here too.

Brie cheese with lemon thyme peach jam and spiced cherry tomato jam

Prosciutto-Wrapped Stuffed Figs and Hibiscus Tequila Cocktail

My love for these is real and I need to make use of fresh figs while I can. And these cocktails were the perfect accompaniment to a late summer evening.

S’mores Bar

The weather was supposed to be a bit on the cool side in the evening so I thought making s’mores over our fire pit would be a perfect sweet note to end on. While the heat didn’t subside, I’m so glad we followed through with this s’mores bar idea. I kept the usual graham crackers and marshmallows, but added Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate to the regular Hershey’s bars and added peanut butter and Nutella as delicious spreads for the s’mores. It was great for everyone to be able to customize their own dessert and was a hit with both adults and kids alike!