Are you ready to simplify your fall hosting while still impressing your guests, whether for holidays, potlucks, or casual dinners with friends?

Fall gatherings can be overwhelming, from multi-course holiday dinners to last-minute potlucks. This episode provides you with 4 easy yet sophisticated menus with recipes and hosting tips, so you can delight your guests without stress. Whether you're hosting for Rosh Hashanah, going to a tailgate, or just cooking a casual dinner at home, this episode helps you create a relaxed, festive vibe in your kitchen.

By the end of this episode, you will learn how to:

1. Create stunning, low-effort appetizers that can be assembled in advance, and made almost entirely with store-bought ingredients.

2. Choose a main course that will impress guests, like a seasonal salad that’s hearty enough to be a main, studded with fresh herbs and jewel-toned pomegranate seeds, or a delicious one-pot braised beef and aromatic rice dish

3. Enjoy the comfort of make-ahead desserts, like Kari’s crowd-pleasing chocolate sheet cake that travels well, or the spiced cookies that Sonya makes that taste better the next day

Don’t miss out on this essential fall hosting episode — press play now to make your next gathering unforgettable!

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Links to from this week’s show:

Menu #1

Yotam Ottolenghi’s fig, radicchio, and hazelnut salad for the Guardian

Sonya’s beef plov and plum frangipane babka

Sonya’s honey sesame cake and one-bowl tzimmes cake

Menu #2

Baked brie by Ina Garten

Ottolenghi’s quinoa and fennel salad for Bon Appetit

Pear slab pie with sour dried cherries from Martha Stewart Living

Menu #3

Sonya’s smoked fish platter

Colu Henry’s sheet pan roasted chicken with shallot and roasted grape for NYT Cooking

Sonya’s apple + walnut spiced cookies in her recent Substack

Menu #4

Classic cheese ball recipe from It Tastes Better From Scratch

Fried chicken from your favorite place

Texas Chocolate Cake from All Recipes

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Sign up for Sonya’s free Substack, or order her debut cookbook Braids for more Food Friends recipes!