Any ideas for girly dinner party please?

[tootiredtothink]

Please help me? I need inspiration (or a professional chef on loan)!

Having 3 friends around tomorrow for drinks and dinner. Have previously done Mexican party food, formal steak and shell fish meals...and now can't think of anything 'different'.

Was thinking of cocktails (something with vodka and peach schnapps if anyone has any ideas)and canapes while they wait for me to put dcs to bed (dh away for weekend)...and then for me to serve something i have made during the day. But what???

Anyone??????

Glass of champagne on arrival

Thinking for the cocktails: peach schnapps, vodka, champagne (then onto sparkling wine once we have a few and won't notice)and orange juice - or at least i think I saw that many years ago and always meant to try it.

Canapes? Could pop to M&S tomorrow to see if they have anything ready to serve.

Starter??

Main???

Desert - thinking a big pavalova (I can't cook by the way - just like to give things a go and hope for the best) with strawberries and whipped cream. Or maybe some individual chocolate puds if anyone has a foolproof recipe?

pavlova - what hope have i of cooking it if i can't spell blardy thing??

Would have canapes instead of starters personally, not both.

Main: what about something like stuffed chicken breasts or salmon en croute which you can prepare ahead and then just pop in the oven. Serve with white wine sauce, roast or new potatoes and veg or salad.

Dessert - pavlova is lovely. Or lemon drizzle cake (probably more fool-proof than pavlova if you haven't made one before) served with a mixture of lovely berries - strawberries/raspberries/blueberries etc.with cream or ice cream

Or a warm fruit salad (sliced soft fruit - peaches/nectarines/plums plus berries sprinkled with a little sugar and baked for c. 20 mins. If using raspberries, add when you take out of the oven and stir through otherwise they'll go mushy. Serve with ice cream.

Keep it really simple so you can keep it together after all the cocktails enjoy more of the time with your friends

Thank you - will just do the canapes instead of starters.

Liking the idea of stuffed chicken breast - don't suppose you have receipe for white wine sauce [stupid emotion]? And what shall i stuff into said breast?

[smil] Bump

That should be Bump and an extra

Last shameless bump - looks like yet another thread i have killed (can you kill your own threads????)

Thank you lilolilmanchester for your ideas - you have saved my a lot of work with the starters!

Off to clean the oven.

I lost my fave recipe for stuffed chicken breasts, so can't be precise about the amounts. Finely chopped leek, chopped bacon, fried. Add breadcrumbs, pine nuts and an egg (once the leek/bacon cooled) and stuff into slits in the chicken breasts. I usually stick a couple of cocktail sticks in to keep them together. Cook in medium oven for 20 - 30 mins (check after 20 to see if done). White wine sauce, I just melt butter, cook in flour, then add chicken stock, white wine, and cream. Or without cream if you don't want it too rich. For amounts, just look up a basic white sauce in any cookery book, using wine, stock and cream instead of milk. Or search for white wine sauce on the internet. Hope that helps what are you doing for pud?

Thank you. My dinner was last night - Had my canapes for starters, individual beef wellington (cheated and got those from M&S(not worth the money IMO)), potato gratin and creamed spinach. For pud i did do the pavlova - unfortunately it took 3 attempts (and 18 eggs to get right! Who knew merengue could be so difficult to get right?????

But no-one really noticed my pavlova disaster as the cocktails were so strong they were too pissed - and as dh was away i couldn't indulge so for once could remember the bad behaviour.

DH is taking the kids away in July so having everyone back then so will definately cook your stuffed chicken - it sounds delicious (and no, I won't be leaving out the cream)

just saw this. your party sounds fab!
for a really easy chicken dish stuff breasts with goats cheese. wrap in bacon. chuck on a bit of oil. and cook in oven for half hour or so. some of the cheese will melt out into the chicken.
this is nice if you throw in some cherry tomatoes towards the end so they are slightly roasted. scrummy!

Sorry tootired, have worked silly hours so haven't been keeping up with Mumsnet and now can see that your original post said when you were doing the meal - before I posted. Glad you had a great night anyway.