Appetizers: Veggies with dip, chips and salsa, cheese and crackers.
Veggies (you can get the peppers already sliced at the salad bar, mini carrots and most stores already have celery sliced),
Dip: hummus, tzatziki, some dips from Harris teeter.
Cheese: Get Havarti and some wheat thins.

Dinner: Pulled pork sandwiches, potato salad and green salad.
Get Pulled Pork and Potato Salad from red hot and blue. You can order them by the lb and they give you rolls. 1/3 lb per person.
Buy a mixed green salad from Bucca di Beppo. Family size for 6-8 people.

Drinks:

You need white wine and red wine.
You need beer. Get 1 pilsner (stella artoiis), 1 light (amstel light) and something else (dc brau if you friends are hip, sam adams if they are just normal)
I would have Vodka and Gin available with tonic and orange juice. You need limes.
Make a pitcher of water and throw some lemons in it (wash the lemons first).

You should at least have coke, diet coke and sprite to offer.
Kids should drink water or you can get some gatorade - i don't let kids have soda - I am mean like that. I put the gatorade in a pitcher so it looks nice.

Serve all your drinks in nice glass (not crystal but nice) - I even put non-alchoholic drinks in wine glasses or rocks glasses sometime to look more festive.

You need ice for drinks.
You need to put the beer on ice.

If you put everything in nice bowls it looks like you made it all yourself. Everything can be picked up by noon.

You need utensils, napkins, and plates. (1 size for appetizers, 1 for dinner)

NP - I have the same issue except I don't want to to BBQ. DH thought we could do pesto pasta and a nice salad and bread, but that doesn't seem like enough. What else can we add to this? (Want to avoid red meat.) I'm good with the apps. as suggested above. Thanks!

If you are a bad cook, and really want to do bbq, just pick up the meat from some place like Famous Daves. If you are a really bad cook, they even even have sides you can bring home.

If you want to cook something, make an appetizer (hummus, salsa & guac are easy and popular), salad (see other posters) and a desert (EASY peach cobbler--dump 2 cans peaches & syrup into 9x13 pan, dump 1 box yellow cake mix on top, slice a stick of butter and place on top of cake mix, cover w/foil, bake at 350 for around 30 minutes until bubbly, remove foil and bake for 10 more minutes or until golden, serve warm w/vanilla ice cream).

Get some good beer, a couple of bottles of wine, and some great music. Buy some fresh flowers for the table and make sure everything looks pretty. Replate the bought meat on some nice platters. The weather is perfect right now. Your guests won't care if you cooked the main dish or had it catered.

I love to cook but have a very easy and popular pasta salad that I make often. Cook 1 lb of Bowtie/farfalle pasta. Drain and add: 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved, one log of mozzarella cheese, diced, a bunch of scallions, diced, and some basil. Dress with bottled Caesar dressing (usually about half the bottle does it). Easy and delicious. Good luck!

If you're truly a novice, I would recommend not doing chicken. Chicken on the grill can be tricky -- getting it fully cooked without burning it.

If you really want to do chicken BBQ, my advice is to use all the same cut (legs or thighs), then grill until the juices run clear (low heat for longer time is best). You could even BBQ early in the day (or the day before) and then put them back on the grill during party time just to warm through.

I think the pulled pork idea is the best. You can do that the day before, let it cool overnight. Shred in the morning and warm it up before serving.

Another idea is brats and chicken sausages. These are fully cooked, so you have only about 10 minutes of cooking to warm them up and toast the rolls.

Pulled pork in the crock pot....Cook it, shred it and then pour in a bottle of sweet baby rays. I discard the cooking liquid bc it makes it too watery. Then make some cole slaw, have a coup,e other side and you are done.

Unlce Julio's party packs. greatest thing ever

Thank you everyone! All great ideas. I can do this.

For apps, as PPs have said, chips and salsa, chips and hummus, or if you want something a bit fancier, some finger-food apps from Trader Joes that you can put out.

If you're not great at cooking, don't really "cook". I make a pasta salad that contains 1 lb short fusilli pasta (the curly ones), a bag of frozen peas, some diced tomato (I use fresh -- canned could get mushy), and a tub of refrigerator case pesto. Boil pasta -- about 2 minutes before it's done, throw in the peas to defrost/heat them up. Drain and add to a bowl with the tub of pesto and the diced tomatoes. Toss. Refrigerate. It sits at room temperature really well. Very hard to mess up, and just double if you have a larger group.

BBQ sounds great! Something easy could be a spinach pesto pasta salad. Cook any kind of pasta, I usually do bowtie just for fun.

In a food processor measure 2 cups of fresh spinach, 1 cup of shredded parmesan cheese, 1 (meduim to large) garlic clove, 3/4 cup of olive oil, a pinch of salt, 1/2 tablespoon of black pepper. Mix until smooth; taste to see if it needs more salt or pepper, toss with cold pasta. If you want to dice up some celery and cut up some mini pearl tomatoes, it will look fabulous and taste great. This is something you make ahead of time an store in the fridge.

Thank you PPs. I'm feeling less anxious already.

PP here - Also I'd put out bottled salsa (in a bowl) and tortilla chips for people to snack on while dinner grills - or else hummus and pita chips.

I agree with the above poster - casual is best - and prepare and prep as much as you can ahead of time, so that when your guests arrive you can have a glass of wine and enjoy them, instead of racing around cooking! I'd keep the barbecue menu simple - just chicken, or maybe chicken and sausage (just need some buns for the sausage). There are lots of simple marinades you can find online, or just buy bottled barbecue sauce (we like KC Masterpiece). Make a pasta salad ahead of time (google some Rachael Ray ones). Boil corn on the cob while the chicken is grilling (I'd even shuck it ahead of time). Cut up some watermelon ahead of time. Serve the grilled chicken, pasta salad, corn and watermelon for dinner. Use paper plates. Have cold beer and a couple bottles of red and white wines (make sure you know how to open them or buy screw top!). Also have a pitcher or water and juice boxes if kids are coming. For dessert I'd get a box of ice cream pops for kids and buy a cake from the supermarket, and put out with the left over watermelon or maybe even some washed berries. Have fun and remember that your guests are there to hang out with you, not to get a gourmet meal!

Nothing wrong with BBQ chicken, corn on the cob, pasta or potato salad or a green salad, and some watermelon. Buy 2 or 3 6 packs and a bakery cake and you're all set. Doesn't need to be fancy to be fun.

If you are going to BBQ several different things make smaller portions (mini burgers, sausage cut up, chicken thighs) so that people can try more than one without feeling like a pig .

I am a terrible cook. I get so anxious thinking about people eating my food. Even my husband would rather have take out.

I'm trying to get better at hosting, so I've invited a few people over, and they have said that they will come.

Now, what do I feed them? I suppose BBQ would be easy since it's going to be so nice this weekend.
Does anyone have any easy and good recipes that they can share?

What would you do for apps and drinks? Do I need beer and wine and liquor? I'm such a novice.

Thank you.