just found out i'm cooking for 8 tomorrow night!!!

[mckenzie]

very impromptu arrangements just been made which means i'll have 6 guests tomorrow evening (MIL, DH's grandparents and other family members) for dinner.

Will have DS and DD all day tomorrow but will obviously be able to do a food shop although not sure how much tiem i'll have to be a domestic goddess in the kicthen asi'll have to also get the hoover and duster out.

Any ideas what i can cook? (MIL doesn't eat fish and the grandparents aren't too adventurous.

TIA

a curry always goes a long way.
or stick a roast in the oven, buy ready prepared veg?
lasagne?
how posh do you want to be?

I know its hot right now but I think a roast usually goes down well with most people. You could do leg of lamb stuffed with prosciutto, rosemary & garlic and slow roast it. Yum!

very quick starter is a halved melon filled with raspberries and when they are on the table fill up with sparkling wine - really lovely and very very quick.

For pudding what about buying meringues or a pavlova base, put sliced bananas on it and little bits of finely chopped stem ginger in syrup which have been chopped very finely and top with whipped cream.

Erm - will think for main, but I'm a fish eating veggie so may not be much use to you.

yes a roast would be good with my choides as they are both pretty light esp if you have no veggies coming.

desserts here though lillibets pavlova sounds nice

here

love the sound fo that dessert lilibet. and I bet it looks quite good too does it? Not worried about doing a starter althoguh i sahll remember the melon/raspberries for another time.

I was thinking roast too as the weather is supposed to be cooler tomorrow. Not sure Grandparents would go for the curry which is a shame as that's usually my fallback menu.

Does anyone have a good marinade recipe for chicken maybe? could do that with a green salad and jacket potatoes.

lemon and garlic witha bit of rosemary or thyme or something green?
can i come for dinner?

thanks Stitch but MIL doesn't like garlic either

Would a take-away being delivered be too easy?

dont really want to do that emmatom. I'll have the time to 'russtle's omehting up - it just needs to be fairly quick and easy

sausage casserole

Fair enough, how about salmon fillets (even those ones from Tescos come boned and filletted and you can get 8 for £10), with new potatoes etc.

Myfailsafe hassle free dinner is a cold roast chicken (just whack a nice one in the oven with ahalved lemon inside and turn 1/2 way through cooking) with potato salad (home made of course) and a green salad.

Starter-smoked salmon and good bread

Pudding-soft fruit and some really good ice cream

Dead easy and zero effort apart from peeling potatoes.

How about pork chops with some honey and grainy mustard (about half a teaspoon each side), stick under the grill or on one of those ridged pans, serve with new potatoes and veg.

I agree with the others, meringues and/or fruit with ice cream would be really nice and easy for afters.

thanks guys for all your tips. I've ended up doing my good old chicken curry and I'm just doing it in 2 batches so i can do a milder version for the grandparents. For dessert I've made rhubard fool and I'm doing lilibet's dessert with the pavlova bases.

I'm feeling ready well organised (which is why i'm on here 45 mins before my guests are due to arrive!!) so somehting is bound to go wrong!!

How did it go?

thanks for asking demented.

All okay in the end and actually we had a really nice evening. The curry went down very well as did the homemade mango chutney (I surprised even myself that night). The rhubard mousse wasn't thick enough but tasted delicious, the forest fruits, mint and mascapone cheese in a brandy snap basket was popular and the banana and ginger with cream on a pavlova base was a big hit too. All in all, not bad (even if I do say so myself) considering there wasn't much time for preparation.

sounds wonderful!