Friends coming tomorrow, haven't meal planned- HIT ME with your best winter weekend food ideas

[DustingOffTheDynastySuit]

Old friends coming tomorrow. Haven't so much as made a bed yet, let alone thought about food. There's only 2 adults and 1 4yo so pretty easy going, everyone likes basically everything (apart from me and nuts).

We'll drink wine and eat cheese regardless. Probably do separate teas for the kids and a pub lunch out... I mostly need one nice, fairly easy Friday dinner and one slightly fancier Saturday dinner suggestion. And some good puddings!

Before I delve into retro Nigella and Jamie, what have you cooked recently that's worked well?

I made this for our dinner last night - really easy, but really tasty. Did home-made wedges and veg with it. Would be easy to scale it up (I also added chorizo for an extra kick).

I did beef GHOULash (geddit ) on Halloween and it was so easy and delicious. I made it on Friday and just reheated on Saturday, served with rice and sour cream/crusty bread. Green veg on side?

I used this recipe - not too spicy so kid friendly too but Tabasco on offer was appreciated.

For the first evening I would do something in the slow cooker so if they are a bit late you don't stress over the food, you can just leave it staying hot.

Squash lasagne always goes down well at this time of year. Or a mushroom pasanda.

I always suggest beef Wellington as a posher dinner party dinner. Who doesn't love a beef wellie?

This is a lovely slow cooker recipe for lamb shanks - www.eatdrinkcook.co.uk/slow-cooker-lamb-shanks/

or this one's really quick to make but hearty and full of flavour. It's a Portuguese pork, bean & chorizo stew - www.eatdrinkcook.co.uk/recipe-feijoada/

Jamie Oliver's Empire Roast Chicken. It is just lovely.
www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chicken-recipes/empire-roast-chicken/

Pigs cheeks in cider with mash and whatever veg you fancy. Awesome. Can get pig cheeks in waitrose, if you have one nearby.

OOh, Empire roast sounds EPIC.

Have you got Nigella's feast book? There's a lovely chicken and sausage traybake which you can then serve with dauphinoise pots (recipe is also in feast) - then just steam some veggies to go with it.

one pan sage and onion chicken bake

and here's the potato recipe

I'd do chilli for the Friday night, just because everyone loves chilli and it's so easy to do in a big quantity and buy in all the trimmings (sour cream, nachos, grated cheese, guac etc). My favourite chilli recipe is by Heston Blumenthal: www.waitrose.com/home/recipes/recipe_directory/h/heston_s_rich_chilli_con_carne_with_spiced_butter.html

I don't do 'fancy' food very often, so will leave it to others to advice on that.

Prima - your post reminded me of the time I did Jamie's Empire Roast Chicken. I slaved away over preparing that with all the spice mixes and getting everything into the oven in the right order at the right time etc etc...and after its scheduled cooking time it was still really pink and uncooked. I left it for a bit more and it was STILL uncooked and that's when I realised my oven was broken and wouldn't heat up to more than about 100 degrees. I was so gutted! I had to leave that chicken cooking for HOURS to make it edible, but by that time we had eaten something else...