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Friends are coming around on Saturday evening - I have 4 adults and 4 children (age range 3-7)to feed. We're all going to eat together.

Is anyone willing to share any easy but tasty, failsafe type recipes with me?! I'm not that confident at cooking and prefer to do all the preparation beforehand.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

What about a big shepherds pie

That is certainly an option ... but I was hoping for something really easy but a bit flashier .

Fish pie, made with cod, smoked haddock, salmon and prawns. Delicious

Some kind of casserole, lovely at this time of year and even better made the day ahead and re-heated eg beef bourginon

We had family visiting at the weekend and I made a chorizo, potato and bean stew, served with rice and crusty bread and it went down well with adults and dc.

Cant find recipe online but will post it if you want

Make a huge pasta bake with a tomato/meat sauce and a creamy cheese sauce topping, use 2 dishes so you can spice the adult one up a bit, then serve with lots of garlic bread or that tear and share bread with a large bowl of salad. make a cheesecake for pudding. Or head off down to m&s and just buy all their bits for a buffet type dinner.

These are all good ideas and in exactly the kind of food bracket I was thinking of - thank you. Will run them by DH!

big lasgagne ... big bowl of help yourself salad.. big plate of help yourself garlic bread..

lemon sorbet and ice cream for afters

I am a huge fane of big help yourself dinners.. and plenty of wine ( juice for the dc's )

Lasagna, either meat or roast veg, with garlic bread and salad

snap!

casserole - it's my stock answer to this sort of question! Easy and quick to prepare and then you just leave it in oven until you're ready to eat! Everyone loves it and it's a one-pot meal so saves on washing up!

beef stew with dumplings and mash? really easy and piggin'gorgeous!!(well,technically,cowin' gorgeous!) i'll post recipe if you're interested

God, I think lasagne is a huge hassle tbh, though not complicated per se it takes forever and hundreds of pans (OK, 3).

TBH roast chicken with roast veg is the easiest meal I know.

2 hours before eating, preheat oven to temperature on chicken packet. Unwrap chicken and put in large baking tray. Put bacon slices over chicken if liked. Put foil over chicken and put in onion for 1 hour. Peel and half some potatoes, cut some carrots into 3 chunks each, peel some onions and cut in half, take some garlic cloves out of their white stuff (but leave inner pink stuff on).

Take out chicken, take off foil. Surround chicken with veg, and also sausages if liked. Replace foil and put tray back in oven for 30 mins.

In last 15 mins, bring some water to the boil, put colander on top with lid on top of that. Put broccoli florets into water and leeks into colander. Boil water for approx 7 mins or until veg are tender.

Put chicken onto carving tray (or chopping board and get someone else to handle all veg while you make gravy.

Take roasting tray with all juices in it and put on hob. Heat fiercely. Put dessertspoonful of plain flour in and use metal spoon to stir it in, reducing lumps as much as possible and scraping up all the bits on the tray. Cook, still stirring, for a couple of minutes. Add enormous splash of fruit juice (lemon is nice with chicken, or apple, whatever you have) so that you have enough volume of gravy. Stir and cook for another minute or two. Pour into jug (via a strainer if necessary).

sorry, that's put in oven not onion and the timings look confusing - basically, cook the chicken for 2 hours, the veg for 1 hour and the green veg for less than 15 mins.

Beef Bourgignon. hang on I'll find you the recipe my mum does.

(and I'll spell it properly )

try this, it is really simple ad feeds the five thousand

Nigella's lamb and date tagine served with plain cous cous. You can make a red onion and pomegranate relish for the adults and just cucumber and tomato salad for the the kids.

It is so delicious and very easy to make. Just 30 minutes preparation and shove in oven for 2-3 hours.

If you like the sound of it , here it is.

I normally serve the relish on the side and sprinkle the tagine with flaked almonds just before serving.

Coq au vin is always a winner, either with jacket pots/ new pots, big green salad or oven roasted veg. If you've got a slow cooker, do it the day before and make it even easier for yourself.

Message withdrawn

Slow roast lamb.

One lamb leg
1 bottle of white wine
750mls water
Carrots
Celeriac
Parsnips
Potatoes
Red onions
Swede/Turnip
Lots of fresh thyme and rosemary.

Peel and chop the veg, as many or few of the above as you like in whatever quantity. Sit the lamb on top of the veg and sort of snuggle it down in them a bit. Pour over the wine and equivalent water and add the herbs.
Put in a slow oven (I use 140 in my fan) for 5-8 hours.

You can fry off some bacon and shallots and put those in the bottom of your roasting tin at the beginning if you like.

You are all WONDERFUL - thank you SO much. I really appreicate your time/efforts/thoughts etc. Feel much more optimistic about the culinary side of Saturday night now!!

Thanks again.

Snowstorm

mother beyond, I'd love your recipe for stew and dumplings if possible?
Something I've never been able to make but would love to now it's getting colder.

anyone? Stew and dumplings recipe?

Hi Trina,

We are just making stew & dumplings for tonight, came on looking for a dumpling recipe I have used before. We always chop up whatever root veg we have (swede, carrot, parsnip today) and put in casserole dish, fry meat with onions & leeks then add to dish with tinned toms and kidney/mixed beans, garlic, herbs & seasoning/oxo and bung in oven for a few hours. For the (suet-free) dumplings, rub 4 oz marg into 8 oz SR flour and bind with cold water and chopped or mixed herbs, place in top of casserole for last 30-40 mins with lid on to steam.

HTH.