Special lunch/dinner ideas needed please!

[Squarer]

For a number of reasons I go north to see my parents on a pretty regular basis these days. Although my lovely mum loves to see us, I know that the thought of having to think of what to give an extra couple of mouths to feed is a little too much of a burden on her already overloaded plate so to speak, so I have recently taken to taking "special" food up there as a treat. My parents are quite old (70 and 73) and whilst my mum would do the "adventurous stuff" my dad is most definitely a meat and 2 veg man if at all possible.
Last two meals I have taken up: Steak and Kidney pie (the extremely lovely version, but nevertheless...) and slow roast (7 hours!) lamb shanks in red wine and "stuff".

Help me! What can I cook them next? I always try stuff at home first - failed miserably with Enids Nigella recipe for boiled duck followed by a damn good roasting (would be ideal as both my parents LOVE duck but it just didn't work properly - the legs were still bloody and think it is becase my boiling pot wasn't quite big enough)

Anyone have any ideas on divine meat and two veg type meals which travel well and then reheat? Tall order, I know....

anyone with any culinary skill still up?

slice a cut in chicken breasts and stuff in some boursin cheese.
Wrap a slice of proscuito or streakybacon round chicken breast and cook in a hot oven for about 20 min.

Nice with new potatoes

That does sound nice Jasper - and something I could just do up there rather than travel with it. Thanks!

Any more?

I know it's a bit wintery but I have cooked steak and Guiness pie on a few occaisions when we have had friends over and it has always gone down extremely well. You could make the steak part at home and roll out the thawed puff pastry and cook that at your mums, it looks really impressive too.

Also on my list of home cooked dishes is lovely creamy fish pie, most people like that.

I have done the duck thing, I think you are right about the size of the pan, you need a really big pan to get the heat and steam all around the bird.

My favourite traditiaonal meaty meals are Delias lamb with Shrewsbury sauce and roasted root veg and (I think) Nigel Slaters duck recipe with brandy and balsamic vinegar.

www.deliaonline.com/recipes/roast-leg-of-lamb-with-shrewsbury-sauce,732,RC.html

Thanks Chubbleigh - the pot I used is really quite big in terms of normal culinary use (can easily fit the biggest chicken in the history of the world, but has a curved lid so the biggest would poke up and out) plus have deeper one where duck kind of rested on its bum pointing upwards, but something always seemed to stick out IYKWIM.
I have done the pie thing previously - maybe time for another outing
Out of curiousity, how long did you boil your duck for?

Oooh, I think you would like the lamb shank recipe I do then WestCountryLass
Just looking up the brandy and balsamic duck now....

Along teh lines of jaspers chicken, I bash chicken breasts until thin and then wrap round a filling of talleggio chese, sundried tomatoes and basil (all processed or at a push roughly chopped together). wrap up the resulting fat sausag of chicken tightly in foil and roast for 20 minutes.

Square, I don't recall how long I cooked the duck for, it was on the instructions of Nigella, possibley Dehlia. I remember farting about with different pans and lids and tinfoil and thinking it would be a miricle if it worked how it should. I boiled it longer than the recipe said to compensate for all the gaps in the pan.

Do you remeber the scene from Withnail and I, were the try to cook the chicken, feet and all in the kettle?

Just thought of another old fav, pork and apple casserole. You can do dumplings when you reheat, everyone loves dumplings.

Withnail and I has to be one of my all time favourite films. It does feel a bit like the chicken and kettle thing! I like where they prop the chicken so it's sat on the brick
Pork and apple casserole sounds interesting. Perhaps a little more summery than the usual beef casserole. My dad in particular loves dumplings so will give it a go. Thanks again!

I will give your chicken a go for our dinner tonight I think Prufrock - thanks for that!