From nonalcoholic cocktails to Fourth of July desserts, this month’s recipe roundup has a little something for everyone.

Has it been a while since you’ve thrown a Fourth of July party? Or, really, any party? Not to worry; we can help you with the all-important menu planning for any summer soirees you plan to throw this month. We’ve rounded up some favorite recipes to serve all day and evening long, from drinks and cocktails to cool off with during the heat of the day to celebratory desserts to enjoy with fireworks.

Greet your guests with a refreshing drink as soon as they arrive. A go-to for us is an easily-batched cocktail we call the party starter; with a watermelon base it’s summer in a glass. This one can easily be made nonalcoholic by omitting the hard liquor, but consider mixing up a big pitcher of strawberry lemonade, too, to be sure you’ve got something for everyone. (We’ve got even more booze-free cocktail ideas here.)

For Fourth of July, our party menu is as all-American as you can get: burgers, corn, potato salad, coleslaw, and pie. But in true Sunset style, we’ve given just about everything a little twist: The corn is cooked on the grill. So is the potato salad. Coleslaw is made with Napa cabbage and dressed with a deliciously creamy soy sauce.

For dessert, we give cherry-blueberry pie a patriotic topper. It’s a star-spangled menu with all the fixings!

But don’t forget about red, white, and blue decorations. They’re not hard to find at the party superstore, but you could declare your independence from big boxes this year by making DIY multi-colored bunting.

Keep scrolling for all of the recipes we’ll be making this July. 

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.

“This is such a light summer salad to freshen your palate between barbecue dishes,” writes Oakland pitmaster Matt Horn in his cookbook, Horn Barbecue. “If you have time, I recommend chilling the salad for about 20 minutes before serving for the best flavor and most refreshing bite.”

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.

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

Sink your teeth into a delicious restaurant-style, hamburger recipe made from lean beef. Skip the prepackaged patties and take the extra time to craft up your own, and that little extra effort will be worth it. This recipe works equally well on both gas and charcoal grills.

“Grilled chicken is an excellent humble family meal, although the marinade in this recipe adds an incredible glaze worthy of a restaurant meal,” Matt Horn says in his cookbook, Horn Barbecue. “The brown sugar speeds up caramelization and deepens the flavor of the finished poultry.”

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 lbs., 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 (santamariagrills.com). Your gas or charcoal grill will work, too. For the signature red oak flavor, order logs from santamariagrills.com or chips from susieqbrand.com.

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.

With a dead-simple marinade, this chicken comes out tangy and sweet, with just the right hint of bitterness. The only trick is: turn it frequently, to keep the sugars from burning.

“Come fundraising season, you’ll start to see a lot of people selling tickets for huli huli chicken. Huli huli, which translates to ‘turn turn,’ is a local-style barbecue chicken that is grilled and basted on a spit. The sweet marinade burns a bit, so I recommend you grill out side to avoid smoking up your house and setting off the fire alarms!” says Alana Kysar, author of Aloha Kitchen: Recipes from Hawaii, from which this recipe was taken.

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.

If you’re looking for a guest-worthy main-dish salad, stop right here. This one delivers a blend of firm and tender textures and sweet-spicy flavors, plus make-ahead options and a time-saving method for browning shallots in the microwave. Tip: The leftover shallot oil can be used for a second salad.

These tasty sliders serve five or six as a main course or eight to 16 as an appetizer.

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 so guests can serve themselves.

A briny, flavorful marinade tenderizes and moistens the chicken and also serves as a dressing for the olive-tomato topping. Serve with sliced grilled potatoes if you like.

People flock to the Pollo Asado in Santa Fe for its mesquite-grilled chicken. The secret is the citrus and achiote seasoning, which co-owner Olivia Arizmendi learned from her sister in Mexico. They tuck the meat into telera rolls and add pickled onions, hot sauce, and shredded iceberg lettuce. We couldn’t resist adding mashed avocado. Achiote paste is available at well-stocked grocery stores and Latino markets.

We love this live-fire version of a recipe from our archives because it gives camp chicken a complex flavor with minimal ingredients. The key is the Mediterranean seasoning blend called zaatar. You can start marinating the chicken at home, and even freeze it ahead.

Tangy, fruity tamarind, popular in Latino and Asian cuisines, is the secret ingredient in our favorite new barbecue sauce for chicken wings.

Russell Moore, chef and owner at Camino restaurant in Oakland, gave us this technique for grilling chicken breast. It’s the juiciest version we’ve ever had, protected from overcooking by the bones and skin. “Don’t cook it too fast,” he adds. “You don’t want it burnt outside and raw inside.” We also like his clever way of producing an entire dinner over one fire, grilling everything in sequence. At Camino, he uses cherry and almond wood, but for the home griller, he suggests a mix of mesquite hardwood charcoal and either fruitwood or hardwood chunks (and lighting more charcoal partway through cooking).

J. Kenji López-Alt, managing culinary director of SeriousEats.com and author of The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science, adapted this sandwich from recipes by his colleague Daniel Gritzer. It’s an excellent way to use grilled-chicken leftovers. López-Alt chooses a soft, mild bun that lets the fillings shine and adds crunch with potato straws, an ingredient borrowed from cooks in Colombia, who put them on hot dogs (López-Alt’s wife is Colombian). Seed the chile if you’d like a milder sauce.

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.

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

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 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.

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

“Once you’ve tried this recipe, you’ll never go back to plain corn on the cob,” writes Trisha Kruse.

Serve this crunchy cabbage slaw as a side item or on a sandwich.

Grilled Yukon gold potato halves combine with a mixture of tomatoes, capers, oregano, olives, and anchovies for a Mediterranean-style potato salad side dish.

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

You can make these hors d’oeuvres even simpler: Without their scallion ties or lemon zest, the asparagus and prosciutto still taste terrific. Note: You can substitute chives for the green onions if desired. 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. Prep the cups up to one hour ahead; assemble just before serving. They’re juicy, so serve with napkins.

We came up with this sauce for chicken wings but found ourselves slathering it on ribs, burgers, and hot dogs too. It even works as a dip for potato chips and shrimp. The magic ingredient is tamarind, a tangy fruit popular in Latino and Asian cuisines.

“Everyone needs a versatile barbecue sauce,” Matt Horn says in his cookbook, Horn Barbecue, noting that you can use it as a marinade before cooking, mop it on while smoking, apply it after cooking, or serve it on the side for dipping. “Whip [it] up when guests are on the way, or even just for everyday meals to make them more special. Mine is this easy recipe, which uses two sweeteners—brown sugar and honey—to create a complex, rich taste. Try this sauce on ribs, chicken, or mixed into juicy pulled pork.”

We’ve shamelessly put the flavors of Zinfandel into this sauce: dried cherries, anise seeds (Zin often has faint licorice flavors), black pepper, and lots of the wine itself. You can make this sauce up to three days ahead of time; chill airtight, then bring to room temperature before using.

This recipe comes from Kelly Liken of Restaurant Kelly Liken in Vail, Colorado. Don’t forget to pack a heatproof brush for basting the chicken.

Have this spicy, tangy sauce with grilled chicken or ribs.

Summer peaches and savory spices are delicious in this versatile barbecue sauce. We used it on grilled pork chops, but it would be fantastic on chicken or ribs as well.

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

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.

We couldn’t resist loading up on multiple kinds of seeds—plus nuts and coconut—to create this crunchy, addictive streusel. For the filling, Flavor King pluots, which ripen in late summer, are one of our favorites, rich, floral, and musky. To keep the juicy filling from spilling into the oven as it bubbles and thickens, set a baking sheet on the rack below (not directly underneath the crisp, or it won’t bake evenly).

Baking this buttery cake in a big, shallow tart pan ensures that the cake doesn’t get soggy, even as the fruit slices remain juicy. For the best texture, make and serve it on the same day.

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.

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.

Serve the cobbler warm, with sweetened whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. You can make it up to one day ahead; cover airtight when cool and let stand at room temperature. Reheat in a 350°F oven for about 10 minutes.

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.

Thicken the blackberry mixture with cornstarch and tapioca and top with a buttery-rich biscuit mixture for this top-rated cobbler recipe.

We created this elegant, elongated version of strawberry shortcake by stacking cake layers with berries and whipped cream.

When it is warm outdoors, the last thing you want to do is heat up the house with the oven. Try baking on the grill using indirect heat. Assemble the simple crisp featuring two types of apples, Golden Delicious and Granny Smith, top with the buttery crust and bake.

Every cook needs a ta-da moment. Come to the table with crackly meringues layered with satiny homemade caramel and the season’s best peaches, and you’ve got yours. You can make most of it one day ahead.

We use Mexican limes (the West Coast name for Key limes) to create these creamy pies.

At a little bakery in the eastern Cascades, you’ll find this amazing pie, which has a shortbread-like crust and a Northwest berry filling.

A cross between plums and apricots, pluots have an explosive flavor that only gets better when you accent it with spices. The crisp crust tastes like it took all day to make but requires no special pastry skills.

The rose water is subtle here, just enough to bring out the fruit’s floral quality. You’ll need popsicle molds and sticks.

“We make a lot of classic flavors, but we’re always thinking about how to make them better,” says Anne Walker of San Francisco’s Bi-Rite Creamery. This mint ice cream, for instance, isn’t fluorescent green because it’s made with mint leaves, not food coloring. And instead of waxy chocolate chips, it has ultra thin shards of chocolate, which instantly melt in the mouth.

Cream cheese and vanilla beans give these treats an extraordinary depth of flavor. Just as amazing? The time saved by making the sandwiches in a big pan rather than assembling them individually.

The large size and easy portability of slab pies make them ideal for barbecues and big gatherings. This one features three types of berries and a stars-and-stripes crust to make it especially patriotic. You’ll need a small star-shaped cookie cutter and a ruler to make the stars and stripes.

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