Happy first day of summer!!! We love summer especially because all the things we can do outside.  Our family loves to do barbecues and have dinners on the patio whenever the weather is nice. For Father’s Day yesterday the weather was more than perfect so of course we had to have a barbecue and dinner on the back patio. We wanted to share our cute ideas on decorating an easy summer outdoor table and give you two of our go to summer barbecue recipes.

Our outdoor table decorations first start with the table. This is a table my mom found at a second hand store and painted this awesome teal color. She has had it for three years now and it’s hosted a lot of dinner parties and barbecues. For the decorations on the table we created this lavender centerpiece. We found this old wooden toolbox at an antique store and painted it white. We clipped a bunch of lavender from the yard and loaded the tool box up with it. We then placed some greenery next to the toolbox that also came from a bush in the yard.

For the place settings we started with a wicker place mat. We found ours at multiple stores. Some are from Pottery Barn, IKEA, and Walmart. They make the perfect neutral place mat for any dinner. We then used our white dishes to match the light summery color scheme. We placed grey napkins on the plates and these awesome wooden silverware that we found at amazon. We then used pewter goblets that my mom has been collecting for years. She has found them at thrift stores, antique stores or gift shops.

 

Around the table we placed colorful mismatched chairs to add some different color and variety.

For fathers day on the menu we had Beef Tenderloin, roasted potatoes, a green salad, and watermelon. We wanted to share with you our beef tenderloin and potato recipies. They are so yummy and will impress any guest you have over. Here they are!

Beef Tenderloin

• Montreal Seasoning
• Celery Salt
• Lemon Pepper

Lay your tenderloin in a pan or on a piece of plastic wrap. Rub all three seasonings on the meat very generously. You will then wrap it up and place in the refrigerator for 6 hours.  Pre- Heat the barbecue or Traeger grill. If you are using a Traeger or a smoker you can smoke the meat at 200 degrees F for 1 hour and then barbecue it for 20min at a medium heat. You can then check the meat with a thermometer to make sure it is done to your liking. The center cuts of our meat were cooked to 130 degrees F and were about Medium Rare. If you are just using a barbecue you can barbecue it on Medium heat for about 20min on each side.

Roasted potatoes are a staple at our house. Here is the simple recipe that we use.

Roasted Potatoes

• 5 small red potatoes
• 1 Red onion
• Montreal Seasoning
• Olive Oil
• Fresh Thyme
• Fresh Rosemary

Grease the bottom of a cookie sheet with olive oil. Cut the red potatoes into bite size pieces and place on the cookie sheet. Cut the red onion into bite sized pieces and also place on the cookie sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with a desired amount of Montreal seasoning. Toss to get all the potatoes and onions coated with the seasoning and the oil. Place a few sprigs of thyme and rosemary in with the potatoes. Bake in an oven at 425 degrees for 30min. Your house will smell AMAZING.

I hope you try out these two summer barbecue recipes and let us know how they turn out. We loved getting together as an entire family to have this fun barbecue for fathers day. It was delicious, pretty, and a funny atmosphere with us all there. We would be talking and laughing and randomly Maylee would laugh louder than any of us to let us know she was there. We sure do love our family and the fun we get to have together. We hope you have many fun barbecues this summer!