Dinner Party ideas?!

Lillibet_2

What about Mexican food, tacos or tortillas which everyone can fill themselves? Bowls of (mild or spicy) mince beef or chicken (both work in my experience, whatever you think people will eat), re-fried beans, shredded lettuce, fried onions & mushrooms, sliced tomatos, guacamole, soured cream, grated cheese etc. Everyone picks whatever combination they want to make up their own dishes.

HTH;)

Zazen999

Hi
If they eat fish they aren't veggie.
So, you have someone who only eats fish and someone who only eats lamb. Someone else who doesn't eat cheese.
Hmm.
One medium fish pie, one medium shepherds pie [both have mash for the topping] and accompanying veg.

Any good?

BlueFleur

Lillibet wrote: »

What about Mexican food, tacos or tortillas which everyone can fill themselves? Bowls of (mild or spicy) mince beef or chicken (both work in my experience, whatever you think people will eat), re-fried beans, shredded lettuce, fried onions & mushrooms, sliced tomatos, guacamole, soured cream, grated cheese etc. Everyone picks whatever combination they want to make up their own dishes.

HTH;)

You could also do quorn mince/chicken pieces for this- popular in my house.

Stephen_Leak

cupid_s wrote: »

At least for pudding everyone is easy to please. As long as we do something chocolatey

I can do chocolatey. Seriously chocolatey.

200g of dark chocolate
1 medium carton (300ml) of single cream
1 egg
1 drop of vanilla essence
A pinch of salt

S*d the expense and get the top rated 70% or even 85% cocoa cooking chocolate. The vanilla essence is essence, not extract or flavouring.

Break up the chocolate into pieces and put in a bowl. Gently warm the cream to boiling point. Pour over the chocolate and leave for 5 minutes for the chocolate to melt. Crack the egg into a cup. Add the egg, vanilla essence and salt to the chocolate and cream. Mix with a fork until smooth. Pour into cups, glasses or ramekins. The quantities specified should make 4 servings. Cool in the fridge for 3 to 4 hours.

If you really want to "go for broke", and if you have any, put a teaspoon of Cointreau on top. Keep a square of the chocolate and grate it onto the top. Get a big carton of cream and serve with the remainder of the cream, lightly whipped.

Paulie'sGirl

On a strange tangent:

Do a roast trimmed lamb joint, and cook a fillet of salmon in a parcel.

Maybe lemon and rosemary on the lamb and lemon and fennel (insert herb of choice) on the salmon.

Roast the lamb as normal. Cut some big pots into wedges, put in a pyrex or similar. squash a few garlic cloves and add to the pots. Squeeze in juice of two (ish) lemons and then chuck in the shells. Sprinkle with thyme or oregano. drizzle with olive oil and add (vegetable - marigold bouillion is good) stock 1/2 way up the potatoes. roast with the lamb (remembering they only need an hour ish)

put the salmon on some foil, sprinkle with herb of choice, add lemon juice and a little white wine. seal the parcel and roast for 15 while the lamb rests

serve both with the potatoes and a mixed salad...

taketwo

I third the mexican idea, fajitas, fry some chicken with fajita seasoning, and a huge pile of veggies separately - baby corn, mange tout, red onion, tomatoes, peppers (you can pick them out), mushrooms (OH can pick them out) carrots, courgette, anything else you fancy also with fajita seasoning, flour tortillas to roll it all in along with salsa, refried beans, cheese, soured cream, guacamole etc. Good for a party as all that has to be done at the last minute is the frying and a quick microwave of the tortillas.

Have fun

N9eav

Stephen_Leak wrote: »

Do you fancy beef curry, mushroom curry or chicken korma?

MEAT curry, not a korma. Sort of a Roshan or flavourful curry, heat is optional.
Thanks

N9eav

Ladygrim wrote: »

Hi N9eav

Im currently getting inspiration from this link:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=816965

HTH

LG

Thanks, bit basic...

cupid_s

Stephen_Leak wrote: »

I can do chocolatey. Seriously chocolatey.

200g of dark chocolate
1 medium carton (300ml) of single cream
1 egg
1 drop of vanilla essence
A pinch of salt

S*d the expense and get the top rated 70% or even 85% cocoa cooking chocolate. The vanilla essence is essence, not extract or flavouring.

Break up the chocolate into pieces and put in a bowl. Gently warm the cream to boiling point. Pour over the chocolate and leave for 5 minutes for the chocolate to melt. Crack the egg into a cup. Add the egg, vanilla essence and salt to the chocolate and cream. Mix with a fork until smooth. Pour into cups, glasses or ramekins. The quantities specified should make 4 servings. Cool in the fridge for 3 to 4 hours.

If you really want to "go for broke", and if you have any, put a teaspoon of Cointreau on top. Keep a square of the chocolate and grate it onto the top. Get a big carton of cream and serve with the remainder of the cream, lightly whipped.

I'm all excited by this thank you. Does it come quite solid or more like a chocolate mousse?
And would the lindt normal 70 or 85% cocoa chocolate work? I happen to have about 20 bars of this from when home bargains had it for 35p a bar! If so I would have everything for this so it would actually be a cheap dessert for me.
And I always have a couple of litres of cointreau handy for emergencies (its about the only alcohol I drink) so putting that on top sounds yummy to me.

taketwo wrote:

peppers (you can pick them out).

:eek: . Pick peppers out - oh dear you're in trouble now !
Night before last we went out for dinner, they brought me a side salad with peppers in and although DH ate them super quick I had to send it back to be re-plated as the dish smelled of them so badly it made me feel ill.
Peppers are absolutely banned in this house, I even feel sick when the neighbours cook them and I can't go down the salad aisle in any supermarket.

Paulie'sGirl wrote:

Do a roast trimmed lamb joint, and cook a fillet of salmon in a parcel.

I do like this idea, mainly because I have a giant lamb joint in the freezer that I bought a couple of weeks ago, and fish. This would make it super cheap.

I might wait until next week when I find out if I have the job I applied for, and if not do the cheap option, and if I do I'll just go a bit mad!

Stephen_Leak

cupid_s wrote: »

I'm all excited by this thank you. Does it come quite solid or more like a chocolate mousse?
And would the lindt normal 70 or 85% cocoa chocolate work? I happen to have about 20 bars of this from when home bargains had it for 35p a bar! If so I would have everything for this so it would actually be a cheap dessert for me.
And I always have a couple of litres of cointreau handy for emergencies (its about the only alcohol I drink) so putting that on top sounds yummy to me.

It's been a while since I've done this one, and my current special lady friend actually doesn't like chocolate, but it's sort of like a thick mousse. The texture gets you first, then the chocolate melts (this is chocolate's secret: it melts at less than body temperature). One particularly appreciative and eloquent recipient described it as like an angel having an orgasm on her tongue!

The Lindt bars should work fine. The higher the cocoa content, the better the "buzz" when the tryptophan and theobromine hits the brain! The only thing I would say is, as they were eating bars, check the ingredients label to see if vanilla has already been added.