Do you like cooking up a storm and spending time with family and friends? Cooking a simple meal for one and snuggling into the sofa while watching your favorite program can be fun, too. But breaking bread with people you enjoy spending time with is a worthwhile experience.
If you don’t have a lot of space in the kitchen, den, or living room, you may find it hard to accommodate as many guests as you’d like.
Photo by Maarten van den Heuvel on Unsplash
That’s one reason to consider investing in an outdoor living space that’ll expand the usable square footage of your home. Cooking and eating outdoors, when the weather’s appropriate, can up the fun factor versus being cooped up indoors.
Whether you use a fully-equipped outdoor kitchen, an outdoor pizza oven, or a Dutch oven, there are many ways to cook outside. Keep reading to see how these three outdoor cooking options can enhance your dinner parties.
1. Outdoor Kitchen
The outdoor kitchen market was worth $21.81 billion last year and is on pace to reach $38.6 billion by 2030, according to SkyQuestt, which works out to a compound annual growth rate of 8.5% from 2023 to 2030.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, when people spent much time at home, interest in outdoor kitchens skyrocketed.
And while things are closer to normal, homeowners remain interested in improving their outdoor living spaces for enjoyment and higher property value. An outdoor kitchen can include a built-in grill, cabinets, sink with running water, counter area, and more.
You can go as basic or as comprehensive as you want. One source says an outdoor kitchen can cost between $6,000 and $50,000. So, checking out some outdoor kitchen ideas before taking the plunge makes sense. It’ll be easier to make informed decisions when you know what’s out there.
2. Pizza Oven
When looking at the data, it’s clear Americans love their pizza! In fact, it’s rare to find someone who doesn’t like pizza. Do you know anyone who doesn’t like it? Consider the following stats:
- 3 billion — the number of pizzas Americans eat every year;
- 59% — the percentage of Americans who prefer eating pizza at home over in a restaurant;
- 350 — the number of pizza slices sold every second.
If you want to plan a dinner party, why not make it a pizza party? You won’t need a full-fledged outdoor kitchen for such a gathering. But it won’t hurt to get an outdoor pizza oven.
An outdoor pizza oven can reach temperatures as high as 1,000 °F, while the average kitchen oven can reach up to 500 °F. So, if you want to keep the hungry hordes fed without too much time spent preparing the food, consider how an outdoor pizza oven can facilitate entertaining.
Having an outdoor pizza oven also means your guests can create their signature pizzas.
Photo by Kajetan Sumila on Unsplash
3. Dutch Oven
Another way to cook outdoors for a dinner party is with a Dutch oven. For one thing, it’s versatile when cooking for a group. You can cook meals like lasagna, steak and potatoes, soup, and more. A Dutch oven setup will also be cost-effective for outdoor cooking.
You can place a Dutch oven on a campfire cooking grate or suspend the Dutch oven over a campfire using a tripod.
If you like entertaining, consider moving the party to the patio deck and cooking the meal outside. These three outdoor cooking options will allow you to prepare tasty meals.
But there are other outdoor cooking methods you can try out as well. A simple BBQ grill will do. The goal is to take your dinner parties to the next level by cooking and eating outside.
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