Dinner Party ideas?!

Lucie_2

Most important thing for a dinner party, for me anyway, is to have as much prepared in advance, so you're not faffing around in the kitchen once your guests have arrived.

My favourite starters:
Goats cheese, apple & walnut salad
Tuna Nicoise salad
Stuffed Mushrooms
Goats cheese & leek souffle
Smoked salmon pancakes
If you're a real budget, MH bread with balsamic vinegar & olive oil to dip

Mains:
Cod/monkfish in parma ham
Chicken cordon bleu
Beef Wellington
Salmon en croute
Roast Duck
Budget - some form of casserole - sausage or beef. Use shin which is about £3/kg & very well suited to long slow cooking. There will probably be a couple of portions left over at the end as well to chuck in the freezer for later in the week. Serve with rice or jacket spuds.

Dessert:
It's either summer pudding or baked alaska in our house, every time!

Mirtos

PoshStart: Ovenbaked whole lobsters with garlic butter and lemon mayonaiseMain: Roast pheasant or quail with chestnuts, grapes and mushrooms, served on toast with crisps or cream-mashed potatoes to serve.Desert: Creme brulee or chocolate orange liquer mousse. All HMBudget Start: HM tomato soup. (costs 30p and serves4!!!)Main: Homemade pizza (easy once you've mastered the dough) or whole baked fish (whatever's cheap at the market!) with meditereanean potatoes. Greek or green salad to serve.Dessert:chocolate orange liquer mousse or fresh fruit sundaes with meringues and cream

frugglewump

wigginsmum wrote:

Fruggle - can I have the recipe for the toffee strawberries please?

It's pretty much the same as toffee apples

I've put it on the end of the recipe thread.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=46777&page=20

I've never bothered with the sugar thermometer. Last time I made this the most expensive part of the recipe was the strawberries. I was surprised at how cheap you can get glucose. We had left over toffee from 1 punnet of strawberries so tried it with raspberries (they dissolved) and blueberries (a bit sweet for me)

Spendless

posh

smoked salmon
beef wellington
baked alaska

budget

potato skins
chilli
ice cream

Floss

Posh:

smoked salmon (thick sliced if poss), asparagus & hollandaise sauce
Chicken breasts stuffed with Taleggio cheese, wrapped in Parma ham, baked in over & served with rocket leaves
caramelised oranges in brandy

Cheap:

HM soup - flavour depends on whats in season
mushroom risotto or roasted veg lasagne
baked apples

zombiecazz

wigginsmum wrote:

Zombie - what are hasselback potatoes? And how do you do those toasts?

Fruggle - can I have the recipe for the toffee strawberries please?

Hasselback potaotoes are roast potatoes that where finely sliced from one end to the other widthwise without slicing right through the potato. Easiest way was to cut potatoes in half lengthwise. par boil them then do the cuts across the back. put them on a greased oven tray and slather with butter ( my preference is garlic butter) then roast them. Basically fancy looking roasties

loopyloulou_3

Im having some very good friends over for dinner this coming sat nite, there is going to be 6 of us, i was going to do:-

Camenbert in breadcrumbs with cranberry sauce for a starter

Salmon wth pesto and wrapped in Parma Ham (thank you to whoever gave me that recipe on here!) with new pots, salad and cous cous (i dont eat salmon, so the cous cous is more for me than anyone else!!)

Some sort cheesecake, if I can work out how to make it!

and then COCKTAILS and karaoke!

what do you think?

Ruby_Pudding

Oooh that sounds really, really lovely

Maisie

Can I come please ?

loopyloulou_3

the more the merrier!

it wont actually look that nice after i have paniked about it all day and then drink a bottle of wine while cooking and burn everything!! ha ha