Help needed please - anyone got any ideas for starters - got to be easy to prepare

[theexmrsbarryscott]

I've offered to cook sunday lunch this week for our family (14, yes 14 & that's not including the 3 kids) to give my MIL a week off in the run up to Xmas.

Please please can someone give me some ideas for quick & easy to prepare starters - or I could do them the day before if needed.

Nothing fancy, don't fancy cooking soup and we had pate last week, the only think I can think of is melon but do you just slice it and put on a plate???

Sorry - i'm not the best cook in the world and starting to get in a bit of a flap now!

Heinz Chicken Soup

Prawn and avocado cocktail
Egg mayonnaise
Deep fried mushrooms
Brushetta
Asparagus tips wrapped in parma ham

They are all easy and very quick and simple to prepare..

In the 80s you'd get away with a glass of orange juice!

Blini with smoked salmon and sour cream.

Just do a pancake mix and cook tiny little ones the day before.
An hour before guests arrive,put a blob of creme fraich on them topped by a curl of smoked salmon and some snipped chives.
Some on a big platter with slices of lemon and some bubbly.
Everyone loves them.

Portobello mushrooms, cut out stalks and fill hole with garlic cheese (Boursin or cheaper equivalent) Bake in oven for 10 minutes.

Buffalo mozzarella and peaches on prepacked salad with a bit of lemon/olive oil/balsamic vinegar drizzled over is lovely.

Blue cheese (Saint Agur/Gorgonzola) and pear and walnut salad (see dressing above) also good, make sure pears are nice and ripe though.

Smoked salmon - all you need is lemon and black pepper and some nice brown bread and butter and you are away (although dill on top would be better and if you want to be a bit fancier you could buy pre-made blinis that you can warm up and serve underneath with sour cream blobbed on them).

Prawn cocktail :make the sauce up with 600g salad cream, 9tbsp ketchup, 3tbsp lemon juice, a dash of tabasco (careful with this) and just mix it with 1500g prawns and dump them onto bowls of lettuce before serving - you can do the sauce the night before if you want but I would only let the prawns sit in it for a few hours before serving.

Or - just make a big dessert the day before and forget starter - sunday lunch is so filling anyway.....

I would buy a side of smoked salmon and do smoked salmon with buttered brown bread. Retro/easy and nice.

Or go to the deli and pick up parma ham, salami, olives, jar of artichoke hearts, jar of sunblush tomatoes and serve with some italian bread.

Or perhaps a goats cheese salad. Get one of those long goats cheese logs, slice into rounds of about 1/2 inch each. Put on an oiled baking sheet and warm in the oven for about 5 mins. In the meantime split a salad bag between the plates. Shove two packs of pancetta (or cubed bacon) in a dry frying pan with 2 bashed cloves of garlic and cook until going a bit brown round the edges - scatter them over the salad. Keep the bacon juices in the pan and heat through, then swill round with a slug of balsamic vinegar. Spoon a tiny amount over each plate, then put the warmed cheese slice on top.

If you are feeling really lazy do nachos - make a fresh tomato salsa the night before with chopped ripe tomatoes and a red onion with 1/2 clove of garlic and a bit of chilli if you like. Pour some olive oil, some lemon juice and a good pinch of rock salt and leave in fridge overnight.

Then pile a huge platter of doritos up on plate - you can do one platter spicy ones and one platter of the 'cool' ones. Buy a bag of grated mozerella and a bag of grated cheddar - mix them together and scatter over the nachos. Serve them with the tomato salsa, some sour cream and some guacamole. You can of course grate your own cheese which is cheaper but I thought quick might be good!

Oops - forgot to say that you need to microwave the nachos on high for about 30secs to melt the cheese.

sorry if s/o's already said this but probably the easiest is parma ham (bought from a deli or supermarket) though have had sudden mental block about what you serve that with.. how strange..

Anyways.. smoked salmon, lemon, freshly ground pepper and buttered brown bread also v v easy.

a fishy pate also v easy with crunchy bread or good crackery stuff/ smoked mac/salmon