Dinner for 8

taxsaver

Are you going to have lots of time to prepare and cook things after you arrive, or will the descending hoards be wanting feeding very soon after arrival?

I'm rather assuming the latter so that being the case I'd suggest the slow-cooker option of a stew/casserole, or even a whole chicken as suggested above, then just before you leave wrap the slow-cooker pot in clingfilm to seal it and then put it into a box with lots of towels or other good soft insulation tucked tightly all around it. The food will continue to cook on the journey still be piping hot and fresh ready to serve when get there.

You can have all your veg prepared in advance too and in clingfilm ready to simply put on when you get there (better still if you can take a pressure cooker with you).

MaggieBaking

I should arrive at 3 and people wont need feeding till later so preparing wont be a problem - it's more the utensils I'll be preparing with that'll be a pest... I'm ridiculously fussy about my kitchen items! :rotfl:

becs

Bbc good food microwave jambalaya, it's delicious and if thre's a microwave it's dead easy. I made up 5 or 6 batches for a friends 40th barn dance and it went down a storm! Also nice cold as a rice salad thing.

lisa26_2

I recently had a similar dilema when on a self catering holiday. I ended up doing stuffed prok fillet with roasties, veg and gravy and a fruit tart for pud. All I did in advance was prep the pork. i made up and cooles some paxo sage and onion stuffing, cut part way through the pork fillet then filled with the stuffing and rolled it back up with bacon around it. i then wrapped it tightly in foil to make it a nice cylindrical shape. i froze it and took it out the on the morning and it defrosted during the journey. i then baked it with the foil on until it was nearly ready then removed the foil to let the bacon crisp up. I did cheat and didn't make proper gravy, I bought bisto best roast pork gravy which is very good! So all I had to prep when I got there was spuds and veg. Simples!

Pentagon

I would make something beefy using beef shin, it is the cheapest cut, and responds fantastically well to long slow cooking. I can fill my (large) slow cooker for about £12.