Dinner Party ideas?!

BitterAndTwisted

Doelani said in her first post that she would like to cook a special meal. I took that to mean actual cooking, not sliding a plastic tray out of its cardboard sleeve and bunging it in the oven. That's what a lot of people do every other day of the week after a hard day at work rather than for special dates with their husband.

Any road, this is the Old-Style forum so I thought it went without saying that it would include a bit of effort to make it special.

Still, I'm not married, so what do I know?

Vaila

me and my friends usually have themed dinner parties, usually japanese food with homemade sushi and various tofu dessers

at home we always cook meals from scratch, so a treat for us is getting an indian takeaway or something similar
anyway

how about cous cous and olivev stuffed tomatoes with a pine nut toppingm, served with crusty bread for a starter

a pasta bake is simple to prepare or maybe gettinbg a nice bit of fish served with salsa and rushed potatoes

dessert, wel cheesecake is the simplest to make but i usually do a summer fruit tofu fool which works out to be inexpensive

apple_mint

Throughout last summer the OH used to make a 'going out' dinner every Saturday night. We need to start doing this again as it was fun - we stopped because OH sometimes works on a Saturday.

We planned a two course meal every Saturday night - a main and a pudding. We took it in turns to cook - one week I would select and cook a main course and OH would select and and make a dessert. The following week it would be the other way around.

OH is less confident when cooking and found that Jamie Oliver's recipes were the easiest for him. I tended to pick whatever recipe I liked the look of. I have a good selection of cookery books, but we also used on line recipe sites.

We each spent the week debating what we were going to make and then bought the ingredients (if we didn't have them in) on a Saturday morning. Making sure that we didn't get in each other's way in the kitchen when making our meals was fun and we tried lots of new meals as a result.

We always enjoyed these meals much more than going out, because so much more thought went into choosing and making something for each other.

This thread has kick started me into thinking that we must start doing this again, even if only once a month.

lostinrates

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

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

One of the tricks to ease with souflle is a big souffle dish if you are feeding 8 close friends. I do have little ramekins but a big one gets to the table still inflated, while the last two of eight small ones might be on their way down. If its for people we don't know as well I use he little ones, ut them on a very clean tray or a smart but flatish ceramic oven dish which I can use as an attractive tray to the table, so they all come out at the same time and arrive tall and proud on the table.

I also have an inbetween size which I got as a Chritmas gift: just big enugh for one (me)as a main course when DH isn't at home. I have a huge array of sizes of souffle dish and ramekins now!

doelani

thanks for all the ideas, I like the one of a cold starter and pudding.

I guess for years we took the easy option of eating out but recently have be more careful of what we are spending lol

artichoke

hi

we never go out for a meal - due to cost and cost of babysitters - but we used to try and have a "date" night meal once a week - but it has slipped to less often recently - but we do invite people round for a meal at least once a month as well...

i am cooking later for friends coming round - decided we were all fed up of roasts at the moment due to the overfill of the holidays so i am cooking a moules mariner type dish but a Hugh FW one with cider, and leeks, bacon and cream, with HM crusty bread rolls...

will also do a dauphinoise potato bake for my DS who does not like mussels...

not sure what do make for a pudding yet.....

art

Snowy_Owl

Some good ideas here. I'm starting to think of a special meal in near the end of the month for hubby's birthday. It's just before pay day and money tight this month and I do want to treat him on the day........

Snowy

flea72

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.

yes, but the OP was trying to find a way of having a nice meal, without the £200 tab

yes, effort and love can add to how special a meal is, but for alot of people, being able to sit back, relax and enjoy the meal with your other half, is what makes it so special in the first place - just getting time off from slaving over the hot stove, is what i love about date nights, and going out for meals, the company just makes it extra special

F

lostinrates

It occurre to me for those not in this habit inspiration might run low? I wondered if like the ''what are you baking today?'' thread and similar if those who do cook ''special'' meals noted what they did?

I have to admit though, that today was a bit uninspired for us, so I'm hoping its a start everyone feels they can trump:) to add inspiration. I had some fruit, cake and vegetables that needed to be used up and mascarpone that has time left but that I want out o the fridge. So I served DH (just us no guests) some slices of sauscisson and crudite (ith some soft roule type cheese left from over the festive time) for a starter, spaghetti with a tomato/olive/caperplus the veg I wanted rid of..carrot/celery/onion sauce and a sort of simplified zuppa inglese made with some peaches I bottled last summer,mascarpone with some vanilla/icing sugar over some clementine cake on its last legs from Christmas drizzled with some amaretto.

Paulie'sGirl

Hi, we do this on a fairly regular basis.

Main courses recently have included steak au poivre, HM chicken kievs, chicken breasts stuffed with leeks and wrapped in bacon, boeuf bourgignon.

I usually make either a starter or a dessert, we're not massive eaters.

Its nice, I like to try the more elaborate recipes which aren't suitable for day to day.

PGxx