I need ideas for 5 children and 6 (possibly 7) adults..........

[FAQtothefuture]

for Monday night.

at least 2 of the children are big eaters (my oldest DS's eat more than me on a regular basis ), I'm not sure how big eaters SIL's DD's are, but probably about average from what I can remember.

It needs to be

simple
cheap(ish) (prepared to spend a little bit more than I would on a usual family meal - but not ott)
and meat based (so veggie curry or lentil stew are out .

DH is telling me not to worry and just "rustle up one of my fabulous meals just in larger quantities". I'm pretending not to panic but I am a little. I know that none of them are going to be that bothered really - they're the most lovely IL's you could ever ask for. But I want to make a good impresion none the less .

I was thinking a roast chicken - but the meat that FIL probably eats the most of back in Zimbabwe is.........chicken so I want something a bit different.

Please give me some ideas and tell me to stop fretting

I did roast chicken tonight and also roasted new potaotes, cherry toms, garlic and courgettes in a tin in the oven. it was delish, and all rusticy looking on the table.

I'd do a curry or a chilli.
Also how about a big bowl of pasta with mushrooms, cream and bacon? Cheap, tasty and filling.

Stew with sausage and beans good too.ERither delicatessen style dried sausage or Mattessons pork sausage pretty good. Fry with onions, add tins of beans (chick peas, kidney bean) then tomatoes and red or green peppers. Simmer for an hour or so. Good with bread or rice.

Or big Spanish omelette with potatoes. Serve with ham hock (cheap as chips from butcher and v tasty.)

Spare ribs in home made sauce with home made coleslaw and corn bread big fave in our house for a crowd.

Meat loaf - Jamie Oliver has a fabulous version in Ministry of Food.

Something like a huge lasagne is good because you can do a big pan of garlic roasted new potatoes and a couple of nice salads so it's easy to stretch! Homemade coleslaw is nice with lasagne too.

Icecream and berries for pud.

Moondog - which cornbread recipe do you use please? I love it and I've lost my recipe.

I use one from an old Keith Floyd book which is in UK at present (I'm abroad). Give me a shout in about 6 weeks and I can give it to you. Otherwise, just get one from web. They are all much of a muchness. I do mine in fairy cake tins,kids love 'em.

Chilli taco salad- salad on bottom of plate then tacos (doritos in our house) then chilli then cheese. Serve with sour cream et voila. All you major food groups in one meal and cheap and tasty.

I'd also serve it all out in separate bowls and it looks like a feast!

Cheers Moondog.

i do this venetian chicken from the ghetto when i have lots of people round. just roast a couple of chickens, lots of salt and lemon, chat to your guests, make them welcome etc and everything else is done in the ten mins it takes to boil the pasta.

my preference is for normal tagliatelle pasta, actually, despite the recipe calling for egg pasta.

it's basically tagliatelle, pine nuts, rosemary and sultanas. (the sultanas sound weird but it's a claudia roden via nigella so you just have to trust. it's in how to eat).

i serve with a bowl of peas or a lemony-dressed salad. it's unbelievably moreish but because it's really just recognisably a roast chicken and pasta, visiting kids don't refuse it.

at sound of 'Venetian chicken from the ghetto'. Do you amnounce it with aflouridsh as you bring it on?

oh Lordy be - could you imagine the looks (and the gossip afterwards ) if I presented my black in-laws with

anything "from the ghetto"

They would be well pissed off!

eejits.
it's the Ghetto, as in jewish ghetto. that's the area, they're still known as that in Italian cities. just 'cos my recipe's better than yours, moondog... take it up with claudia roden.

yes I know it's as in the Jewish ghetto - but the word "ghetto" doesn't have good connotations for the blacks - and one of them is my FIL - who is travelling outside of Zimbabwe for the first time in his entire life! - but there is a strong "American" influence there so he'd know it in that context..............

well to answer moondog's question i don't announce the name, i just make it and put it on the table, however you do need to know the name so that you can look it up in HTE if you have the book. you said you wanted roast chicken but a bit different, something that kids will eat, that's exactly what this is.

jeez, you try and help a person...

Wear a baseballcap and low slung jeans and strut in with it FAQ,saying 'Yo! Honkie gals can feeeeed da brothers.'

Aitch, my dh would love it.He drives me mad in restaurants when ordering as he will say the whole item.

Thus:

Waiter: Ready to order?

Moondog: Yes. I'll have the chicken please.

Mr Moondog: I'll have the pan fried calves liver sauteed in a mixture of olive oil and mead and then finished with a handful of wild samphire and served with artisanal sourdough bread'

He needs to be stopped.

no I said I wanted something different to chicken as that's what they eat all the time

"I was thinking a roast chicken - but the meat that FIL probably eats the most of back in Zimbabwe is.........chicken so I want something a bit different."

actually, if you read what you wrote you didn't make that at all clear. presumably cybil thought the same, she also suggested doing roast chicken in a 'different' way.

anyway i'm not arguing with you about it. you asked for help, i tried to give it, you pysl. great.

I'm terribly sorry that at gone midnight I wasn't typing 100% coherently .

geez - take a chill pill!

yes i think i will, thanks.

(see? that's how to be gracious when someone makes a suggestion).

I agree.
What's with you Aitch?
We is just having a larf.

glad you're having fun. if someone goes to the trouble of searching for recipes to help me i just tend to say thanks, that's all.

Stewed spicy lamb cutlets? season lamb with crushed black pepper,salt and some jerk seasoning and paprika, pinch of thyme and few cloves of garlic I sprinkle on some dried chilli flakes (optional), bay leaf or 2...dash of soya sauce (if you use soya sauce you may not need salt) then fry till just browned and place in oven proof dish..to the frying pan add chopped onions,roughly chopped sweet peppers fry for a bit and then add chopped tin of tomato fry for a while about 5-10 mins add more garlic if you like...add water you can add veggie stock too salt to taste then pour mixture over meat and put in the oven cover with foil and cook till tender on about 200 you can remove foil for gravy to thicken towards the end of cooking...with basmati rice and salad/veg...Tescos has a special offer 3 pkts of meat for a tenner

Sainsbury's has a special on Carte d'or ice cream 2 for 4 quid..get some cones for the kids and a crumble for the adults or cheesecake?