Lighthearted- I’ve worked my arse off on dinner, what will my family say?

[LongDroop]

Decided I’m sick of Friday night takeout so went to the shops and bought ingredients for dinner. I’ve worked my arse off all afternoon cooking and preparing, I’ve got the nice dishes out, even made dessert. It bloody cost more than takeout and has taken hours. I’m really pleased with how well it’s come out. But I know I’m going to hear all the whinging- don’t want this/don’t like it/want chips etc.

May I ask @SummerFrog25 to consider that taking care over the purchase and selection of ingredients and presentation for a cold collation also demands thought and care for those who will eat it.

I'm going to guess Lasagne, salad, garlic bread and a cheesecake.

Apparently DH is doing us a 4th of July BBQ tonight, I wait to see what that entails!

@Brightmoonlight

you can ask/suggest what you like. But frankly I can also disagree. It's food that's ordered weekly, online delivery.

you can pontificate all you like over well presented cold collations, but it will be roughly chopped & thrown into an individual bowl. The most effort will be removing the lid off the homous

.

There’s nothing lighthearted about your family being ungrateful, unappreciative, and taking you for granted.

That’s ambrosia!

Tbf I would be pretty annoyed if I was no longer allowed my weekly takeaway because someone else decided they were sick of it and wanted to martyr themselves by slaving all day over a dinner nobody wanted.

I’m assuming small children are involved. We’ve all been there from time to time.

What did you maaaaaaake

Well op?! What’s on the bloody menu 😂

Takeaway here would cost £40.
I'm struggling to thing of a meal (other than fillet steak or lobster) that would cost £40 in ingredients, so I'm intrigued as to what you've cooked!

Really @DongDingBell ?! Steaks from the butchers for 3 of us last weekend was £60 and they weren’t fillets! (Fillet for me is the most boring cut of steak), to buy a whole chicken is about £24 to get a good one to feed the 5 of us, then you have the sides!
although to be fair I’m not sure we could get any takeaway for less than £40 either. Dd and I shared a Chinese recently and it was £50 although there were leftovers for the next day.

I clearly shop in different places to you then!!

£24 for a chicken?? About £10 for a posh one here. So, yes, under £40 for a meal.

I'm with you on fillet not being the tastiest cut, but it is the most expensive!

Sorry! Didn’t mean to write and run! The meal was- drum roll please!- curries! I made a korma, a butter chicken and a pasanda. I made some naans to go with them (garlic and plain) and did basmati rice, boiled rice and some pasta for emergencies! I also did some dips and Popadoms as a starter but no one liked them so I’m forgetting about it!

they're not really rude, but a 4 year old and 10 year old with ASD so new meals don’t go down well usually. I made small portions of everything except the naans which i can freeze the leftovers. I did pasta for my eldest as he doesn’t like rice.

You made 3 almost identical curries? 😅

I ditched the takeaways as our local ones are expensive. So I do home made ones instead and it's surprising how quickly we all prefer mine now

Well done OP. Curries made from scratch take time. I hope they enjoyed them? I have 2 ND kids so dinner times are always tricky. I made homemade wedges (lightly spiced) and pork/beef kebabs which were a nuisance to keep turning in the grill but came out nicely. Served with salad (adults), avocado and hummus.

Well done op

I'm sure it was gorgeous

That's nice. That's what my lot say when I've been slaving over a hot stove for hours to do something special.

Mine would have been

Eldest - ooow live curry
Middle - urgh you know i don't really like curry (then throws in all back like he hasn't eaten in years)
Youngest - sits with face, pushes it about, then decides he probably does like it and then eats most of it

Ah all of mine would be happy with curry, good choice op!
Mind you you have gone to a lot of effort to make 3 fairly similar curries 😂 however you know your family better than we do!
Hope it all goes down well, making a good curry takes bloody hours - dh does ours and the smells as everything toasts and fries and bubbles away is so enticing!
I’m going out tonight for Greek food but could really smash a curry instead now I’ve been thinking about it. You’ll probably have leftovers so I may swing by on my way home 😂

I bet things are…. Tense at the OP’s!

And?

I know they’re similar, which helped with ingredients! But it meant they had options and I had three chances to get it right! Eldest loved all curries but only ate pasta. Youngest liked the sauces but not the chicken, but likes the rices and naans. So kind of a win!

I wish we still had the 😂 reaction button for some of these responses!

I’m a cook in care home I make sure they have the best if you are savvy you can cook great food for not a lot of money, I do salmon, lamb , lasagna etc