What would you cook for a Very Big Lunch? Please do share your top ideas

[KateMumsnet]

This year, Mumsnet is working with the The Big Lunch, the Eden Project initiative which aims to get as many people as possible sharing food with their neighbours on Sunday 5th June.

The Big Lunch are aiming to get as many neighbourhoods as possible to sign up, and we're hoping they'll be tempted with Mumsnetters' favourite recipes for a summer party.

We're thinking crowd cooking, nice nibbles, child-friendly dishes and tasty bits that can be chucked on the barbecue.

Do please share your ideas here on this thread. A selection of your recipes will be used in a Mumsnet Big Lunch cookbook - downloadable from www.thebiglunch.com in May.

Also in May (the 8th to be precise), the BBC2 series The Great British Menu are filming an episode on the Big Lunch - so do put your virtual hand up here if you can come to Leadenhall Market in London ready to impress the judges with your best party victuals...

You can find out more on the Big Lunch site, and don't forget to register your own Big Lunch to get a free Starter Pack by post.

Thanks, MNHQ

Mary Berry's Coronation Chicken recipe is the best I've used. Can't find a link to it - you'll have to buy the book!

pastry-less quiches are lovely and v v easy. You can easily adapt them to veggie or not.

Get some muffin tins - add a few pinches of cheese/spring onion/bacon/bits of cooked sausage, etc to each pan. Break some eggs into a jug, add a smidgeon of cream, salt and pepper and pour into the muffin tins on top of the fillings. Fill each pan to about 2/3 full.

Bake until golden brown on about 180-200 deg C. (Our oven is rubbish so I have to put them in full blast and hover!) They're equally nice warm or cool, but serve on the day they're made for best results.

Buttered french stick slices, crudites, sausage rolls, pizza, chocolate fondue and fruit platters/kebabs all go well with all ages. What about jelly??!!

Also a meatloaf is often popular - combine lean mince (beef or pork both work well), a huge blob of tomato ketchup, salt and pepper and a couple of eggs. Make into a loaf shape, bake at 180-200 for about half an hour. Serve cold in slices.

Is a pastry-less quiche like an oven omelette? It sounds lovely anyway! I have done something similar but in a sauté pan on the stove, never thought to cook it in the oven![doh!]

thanks candleshoe, I will hunt for Mary Berry book with it in!

Chicken thighs roasted with garlic, lemon, balsamic vinegar and baby potatoes.

Stovies :)

Home-made sausage rolls are so yum. Buy the puff pastry and some nice sausages (OK the home-made definition is a bit of a stretch).

Cut the skins off the sausages so you have a whole bowl full of sausage meat (hmmm I guess you could just buy a slab of sausage meat), anyway, then add the herbs of your choice, maybe an onion, but definitely an apple - grated. That's what makes them so yummy.

Roll out the pastry, cut into 6cm strips. Roll the meat into a tube, put in the middle of the strip and then fold over the pastry. Push the edges down with a fork, paint with egg yolk and cook for about 15 - 20 mins.

I am now SO hungry!