Dinner Party ideas?!

jcr16

hubby and i always go to the same resturant for anniversaries ( date first met, date first got together, wedding anniversary ) but for when we just want a romantic meal together. once the kiddies are in bed we often will have a 2 or 3 course home made meal. Candle lite.

we like garlic mushrooms , or stuffed mushrooms as a started. main meals sometimes are something just as simple as a lasagne, but might have a steak. it all depends on what we fancy we plan it the night before. were buy a nice bottle of wine. We don't spend a fortune, but it quite nice to do. also means don't have to worry about a baby sitter, taxi's etc. and we get some quality time together.

hermanmunster_3

flea72 wrote: »

if im looking for a nice meal at home, i must admit i tend to buy the M&S meal deal, or the tesco finest one

for £10 you get 2 courses and a bottle of wine, and it also means i can enjoy the occasion too, and not have to slave over a stove. its usually a case of bung in the oven for half an hour, and serve

i cant manage 3 courses, but even if i added in a ready-made starter, it wouldnt add more than £5 to the bill

so £15 for 3 courses including wine, sounds good to me

F

snap - I was going to suggest this! Deffo less stress.....

Other option is to find one new course eg a never made before starter or pud rather than doing the whole thing. rest of the meal could be courtesy of M&S

lostinrates

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Eh, I don't think that is the point, really. I would have thought that the whole reason for cooking a really lovely meal for your partner would be the effort and love put into making it.

That, the enjoyment of the cooking...and having good low effort recipes to fall back on too...which is how I manage it often, and did every day when we lived together. A low stress high reward meal for us is souffl!...they are not deserving of their reputation as difficult to make and we have free eggs, so for us this choice is a no brainer...and can be a starter, a main or a udding depending where I need a hole in the menu filled.

Likewise, there are dozens of pasta dishes than take under ten minutes to cook but are ''special''..linguine with vongole for example, takes as long as it takes the pasta to cook plus about two minutes.

A fondue eating ''a deux'' is a good cop out to a full menu..especially if you have sent kids to a friends house I guess..there are so many ways to cook with love and in a special way that I'm always rally sad to read people thinking its all really hard work.

edit: dh's[izza tonight was probably comparatively hard work as he likes to knead himself and not use the bread maker,and needs some planning for the dough to prove....more thought than my souffle main course suppers certainly!

Penelope_Penguin

We often do this - we have a group of 8 of us

It's our turn this month - we'll be cooking a 3-rib of beef, Yorkshire puddings, braised red cabbage, plus othre vegetables.

I love to cook puddings, so often make 2 of these, plus a cheese board, and a low GI pudding (for those with diabetes).

We've stopped doing starters, and usually make HM nibbles (I have a lovely recipe for cheese buttons which are always popular) though I might well try :

lostinrates wrote: »

A low stress high reward meal for us is souffl!...they are not deserving of their reputation as difficult to make and we have free eggs, so for us this choice is a no brainer...and can be a starter, a main or a udding depending where I need a hole in the menu filled.

claret1980

I cook for others quite a lot; for friends, the husband and at family occasions. I love playing the host! The problem is that I tend to go a bit OTT, as I always want to be the best. Quite often, for me, a meal at home will cost the same as a meal out. I generally pick a theme and then go the whole hog, whether it be sushi and sashimi or a full 4 course Italian meal.

I love it though, so justify the cost of it.

I have started watching what I'm spending on food recently and will try more unusual, and cheaper cuts and then writing about them on my new blog! http://love-to-live-to-eat.blogspot.com/

doelani

thanks for replies everyone. Going to see what the next fiday or saturday night is we have " free" and do a bit of a meal, I do not mind the cooking as long as I do not have to do the washing up lol

natlie

Hi
Try your local library for new cookbooks - Jamie's 30 minute meals is easy to follow or any Delia. Look at the Come Dine With Me Recipes too. You can alter the meals to make them as cheap as you want using chicken thigh fillets instead of breast for example, or using cheat ingredients like bought puff pastry.
Nat

mulled_wine

doelani wrote: »

*Not sure where to post this but if wrong I am sure a nice board guide will move it lol *

We love going out for a meal but it is so expensive. We went out with another couple last night for a meal and it cost us £135+ tip for 4 people. This included 2 bottles of wine at £14 a bottle and we split the bill half and half. This was a one off as we would never pay this much for a meal but got me thinking.

I would like to cook a special meal maybe once a month, the whole works, starter, main course, dessert. I know we could do it for a fraction of the price but wondered if anyone else ever does this? We do have nights where just hubby and I at home so not bother finding a "child free" night to do this.

I wondered if anyone else ever does this and makes a special meal at home rather than going to a restaurant. If you do would you make somethign different and not the normal pie and chips lol

For example last night we had soup, I had steak and chips , hubby had sea bass and mash ( I have never made fish at home ) and I had chocolate cake for dessert. Although it was lovely I could probally have made the same ( apart from the fish )

If you were making a meal at home for just yourself and partner what would you make ?

We do this almost every Saturday. To be sad, it's our "date" night.

I plan and cook a 2/3 course meal. I use bbc good food site, for inspiration, also recipe books. I'm always watching Come Dine With Me and MasterChef etc, have aspirations. LOL!!!

Tonight we had baked Camembert, and beef braised in red wine with shallots and mushrooms, with pomme puree. Was YUM... Don't often do a dessert as we prefer cheese.

HTH xx

meritaten

yes I do 'special' meals at home! sometimes for family, sometimes for friends, and sometimes just the two of us. but, it costs a fraction of the price of going out!
friends fave meal is my chinese chicken and mushrooms (it costs about the same to feed four people as one takeaway).
husbands fave is my beef in beer pie with chips (cost per person in local pub is £5.95 - cost for four is around £4.00)
family fave is roast chicken or pork or beef sunday lunch (cost of lunch - am baseing this on xmas dinner is around £15 for each option and that serves 14 people - the cheapest sunday lunch is a local carvery for £5 each - that would cost errrrrrrrrrrrr my math aint good but I work it out at £70). no wonder there are so many restaurants etc!

valk_scot

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Eh, I don't think that is the point, really. I would have thought that the whole reason for cooking a really lovely meal for your partner would be the effort and love put into making it.

Well, that's a matter of personal opinion tbh. For me it's the time spent with my OH that's important, not the time spent communing with my stove. I can think of better ways to spend my time expressing my love rather than cooking tbh. I like the M&S Dine In offers!


I'm quite happy to spend a couple of hours in the kitchen making a grown up dinner for friends though. I'm old enough to remember when the Friday night dinner party was the norm, rather than go out all the time. We and two other couples take turns to make dinner for each other quite regularly. There used to be lots of magazine articles and cookery books devoted to dinner parties but the bottom line suggestion was never to make more than one course that required last minute preparation. Cold starter, hot mains, cold pud, or at least something that could be left to fend for itself like a casserole. The classic 70's menu would be prawn cocktail, coq-au-vin and black forest gateau for example....and there's not that many folk that would turn their noses up at that menu today tbh, if it was all well prepared.

Oh, and the other 70's guideline was that if you served enough booze no-one would mind what they ate. Pre dinner sherry, three different wines, port or liqueurs at the end in the 70's too, lol. It's a wonder we survived to the 80's tbh.