Need ideas for food / dishes to have in fridge that look impressive but like no effort has been made

[Twiglett]

..and if you can understand that you can understand anything

basically end of next week DH's sister is staying .. closely followed (ie next night) by 2 of my sisters and their 4 teenagers

so want food that I can serve up that looks like I haven't planned big meals but is still quietly impressive..

was thinking maybe one night roasting a chicken and having french bread and salads

home made humuus
Cous cous salad
Cooked ham piece/joint

Rose somethings "new english cookery" is very good for this
Soups
Homemade pasta sauce

this even

slow roasted lamb/pork leg thing, if you can bear to have the oven on.
ham/gammon is a good suggestion
chicken jointed roasted with lots of veg and lemon/herbs is easier than roast chicken & salad and you can have it hot warm or cold.

two sisters + 4 teenagesr + however many of you = tons of food though so ham & salads good.

gooseberry fool
heaven....

Well, I was v impressed with Moondog's puy lentil salad. I cooked the puy lentils the night before and the next day added thyme, an olive oil/lemon juice dressing and feta cheese. It was very nice. I did it with chicken breasts which had marinated in olive oil and lemon juice the night before and then at the last minute I wrapped them in proscuitto and cooked them for 20 minutes. Looked very easy, was impressive and one of my guests said "ooh, it's gorgeous, it's like restaurant food!"

I served with green beans, you could just do a green salad, it's all it needs.

oh good www!

Or, or, for lots of people who were turning up late on a Friday recently, I roasted a poussin each (ponce, I know), which had marinated the night before in a mixture made up of soy sauce, a few pinches of chinese five spice, oyster sauce, a few pinches of sugar and a bit of sesame oil. I then I stuck them in to roast when I got in and gave everyone a poussin each with some baby new potatoes and some veg.

cold roast chicken and tabbouleh also good.

"here large gallumphing teenage boys .. have a poussin"

nah .. can't see that working unfortunately

lentil thing sounds nice though .. can have chicken breasts lying around I suppose

big pan of soup
roast chicken and french bread
couscous salad
bagels and bits

Tomato tarts:

1.Get some frozen or fresh puff pastry (ready rolled if you're really lazy).

2.Cut out circle shapes round a saucer.

3.Spread with green pesto leaving about 1.5cm round the edge.

4. put slices of ripe tomato on top of the pesto.

5. Salt, black pepper and a drizzling of olive oil.

6. Bake for qbout 15 mins till pastry puffs up round the edge,

These taste delish warm, but are also ace cold with a salad and can keep in the fridge for a couple of days.

could go for big one pot things like
spag bol
chilli
curry
pasta
risotto
serve with salad
or jacket pots and then make a few different fillings

These are handy to have in the fridge. And they are yummy.

Give us a clue, what would they normally feed you??

Hmm. What's the weather like there atm? Whenever I had 4 teenage boys around they always liked things like chilli, lasagne and spag, with a side salad and french bread, although I suppose it depends on the teenager. Not quietly impressive though.

If it's hot them I'm stumped. In Oz I'd just do a big barbie with some marinaded king prawns with mango sauce and a quarter of iceberg lettuce with a pavlova for after.

Hmm. Racks brains for impressive. Home made ribs are very easy and impressive, also good for hoardes of boys, I do this with home made coleslaw with cabbage and apple. Yum. Have recipes if you need.

Sorry, I'm mainly thinking about the boys here. I find mums don't care but if the boys don't like it then it ruins the meal for everybody.

Home made pizza on round ciabatta always goes down well, with decent toppings like artichoke, goats cheeze, roasted peppers etc. That's really low-effort but impresses everybody, got to keep the toppings posh though.

OMG. I mean cheese. In my defence I am a touch typist and because I travel a lot my typing tends to get phonetic. I blame Germany for the Z.

What about Caponata - it's a kind of sweet/sour aubergine antipasto salady thing and is really delicious with crusty bread. It's easy to make in advance, would go really well with grilled meat of any type and Moondogs lentil salad too

this is just one recipe but the good thing about it is that is a very versatile dish and you can add and takeaway things as you wish