Any ideas for dinner for 8 on a hot Friday night? Ideally I want something that can be prepared in advance

[WideWebWitch]

People coming for supper on Friday and I'd appreciate ideas if anyone has any. There will be 8 of us and I've been toying with:

baby roast potatoes with creme fraiche and caviar to start - impressive but v easy, fairly quick and not as expensive as it sounds. But it involves cooking and then cooling since the potatoes need to be cool otherwise the creme fraiche goes everywhere

salmon steaks wrapped in proscuitto with some lentil salad thing but what? Could I do a cold lentil thing do you think?

Maybe white chocolate cardomom mousse if dh makes it the day before or strawberries with lemon juice and black pepper (or maybe cream)

The main criteria are

Not too much hard work since it'll be Friday night
Ideally prepare ahead stuff
As we will be eating in the kitchen if the oven's been on it gets hugely hot so even something cold would be preferable but what?

TIA for any ideas. My dream is to come home, take stuff out of the fridge that we prepared the night before but despite having trawled through my cook books I'm stumped.

you need a puy lentil salad with red wine dressing

may warm it slightly in the microwave

or there's the Indian takeaway

WWW I do a Puy lentil dish.
Cook lentils (duh,obviously!) cool then mix with vinaigrette.Serve with crumbled fetta and fresh thyme.
Better still with steamed asparagus stirred in at last minute as it melts the fetta a little.

Or,how about roast pepper and fetta salad?

I also love beetroot (fresh) fetta,thinly sliced red onion and fetta.Assemble at last minute as it bleeds.

You could poach your salmon the day before to cut down on the cooking.

Would also be nice with a cherry tomato,cucumber and avocado salad with lime,chilli and coriander.

Kebabs are nice-easy but the wow factor of the BBQ

Grilled lamb steaks would be great with lentil or beetroot salad too.

Beetroot salad million times better with addition of fresh mint and walnuts btw.

SW and i are obviously on lentil bender.

I have fresh thyme in my garden, that lentil salad sounds good. I may make it earlier in the week to check I know what I'm doing.

Puy lentils are a rarity over here

Make sure you get Puy lentils.
It is bloody great.
We eat troughloads of it chez Moondog
(and very healthy to boot.....)

Thanks Suze but no to Indian takeaway, they are expecting Nice Food but I had Indian for lunch and dinner on Friday and it was delicious but far too much food for one day (one work event, one dinner with dh where he'd already booked Indian rest not knowing I was going at lunchtime). Hot prawns for lunch, med chicken Karai for supper. Lovely.

I know I can get puy lentils, I do like them. The salmon are only supposed to take 10 minutes so I guess we can live with the oven on for that amount of time.

That would be great.

What will you be drinking???

I was joking WWW

I 'd kill for my old local Indian Takeaway, the Utterly Butterly they used to use in the Makhani Dahl, the okra, the saag alooo.

Pinot Grigio in copious quantities. I might start with 1 glass of Champagne each though.

Oh I know you were Suze, I just went off on one. I should have typed ha ha first adn then you'd have know what I wuz on about.

Oh lovely.
Have one for me.

Am planning big do for ds's second birthday in a few weeks.
Adults only though,and the odd well behaved bambino.

Ok, any other suggestions? Various fussy people don't like salmon but do like chicken, any ideas? TIA.

I would do stuffed tomatoes (rice, onion, celery, beef mince) and a spanakopita the day before. You can either serve at room temp or give them a little heat through before in a medium oven (not too hot). Serve with a greek salad and a green salad and then you won't need any additional potatoes or anything (esp if you do the potatoes to start)... not if it is a formal dinner party but as a kitchen supper it is perfect

ps if you want any recipes (and we are talking easy here - the most time consuming thing is cutting little lids on the tomatoes) then cat me!

You could do involtini - bit fiddly, I know, but everything can be prepared the night before and just assembled on the day. Also, it is nicer eaten lukewarm with salad, so you could just take it out of the oven as yr. guests arrive. Nigella does a good involtini recipe in nigella Bites.

I did
mini potatoes with a dollop of creme fraiche and caviar
chicken breasts marinated overnight in lemon juice and olive oil and then wrapped in proscuitto and cooked in the oven for 20 minutes
served with puy lentil, thyme and feta salad, made the night before and dressed with olive oil and lemon juice
Nigel Slater's white chocolate cardomom mousse

it was fab!