You're going round to a friend's house for dinner. You're a brilliant cook. What would you like her to cook for you??

[BiscuitStuffer]

All idease very welcome indeed!

Toad in the hole after all the discussion about it earlier!

butternut squash risotto

or

salmon, steamed new pot and veg

or

chilli con carne, rice and garlic bread

but I'm a crap cook and really hungry so dont listen to me

Sorry, who's the brilliant cook: the hostess or the guest? If the former, I'd want an omelette or plate of pasta with some olive oil and parmesan. If the latter, I'd want something posh.

something edible but not too great that it might steal my title as best cook

All in all I wouldn't really care as long as I could eat it.

Fried egg, nice sausages and home cooked chips.

On my nights off from cooking DP makes me

28 day aged Rib eye steak with homemade pommes frites and diane sauce.

If I went to a friends house and got this I'd be frigging delighted (as long as the steak was very rare and not cooked to death as seems to be the norm for most people).

So the brilliant cook is the guest here? I'd imagine (and it takes some imagining to think I'm a brilliant cook...) that she'd enjoy something simple and nicely cooked but not show-offy. Maybe a casserole with very fresh crusty bread?

Oooh I did a fantastic pork in cider with caramelised apples last night - DP was still raving about this morning leaving the house for work!

Let me know if you want the recipe!

Yes please for the recipe Bunny it sounds lovely

My only requirement would be that it's not bland. But otherwise, if you're a good cook, you mostly just enjoy eating at other places because you get ideas and thoughts about what you might do. I think I'm a fairly good cook but I love seeing what other people do and then shamelessly steal their ideals

if i entertain my sister, who is an amazing cook, i do either rice, which is one of the few things I really can cook reliably well, or a roast which is so easy, or throw money at the problem by buying really nice cold meat, olives, cheeses and bread at a posh deli, with a green salad and whatever fruit is in season. If you go to a good deli or butchers or greengrocery stall, they will usually be able to advise you about what's best at the moment and how to cook it.

Steak would be absolutely my last choice as it requires good shopping skills and careful cooking to be good iMO.

I'd do whatever I do best. But something simple done really well would be the ideal choice - roast chicken with all the bits and pieces, pasta with a simple classic sauce and a really lovely salad, fish in a parcel with new potatoes and perfectly cooked veg etc.

I'm going to a friends tomorrow evening and I know she'll be doing jacket potato's, grated cheese & salad. Which is great, for me it's the "being together & having fun" which is far more important than the food.

Whatever you feel comfortable cooking - not something intended to show off that makes you really nervous so that you burn it!

We always loved entertaining and cooked enormous feasts pre-children, but it we were invited somewhere else we were thrilled to have someone else do all the work. And clean up the mess afterwards.

Something that they feel comfortable cooking. Not something they have sweated over, paid a huge amount of money for, and then we all worry about it.

We have a friend who gets terribly neurotic about having us over for dinner - which is stupid as she is a really good cook - and her anxiety makes it really difficult.

Nothing wrong with basic ingredients presented/cooked simply - e.g. roast chicken with salad, baguette, etc, or poached salmon, new potatoes and a green veg.

free range roast chicken, roast potatoes, a good salad, green beans with lemon and pepper, tiramisu or fruit tart dessert, thank you very much

You are all great - thank you so much for replying with your very supportive take on the matter!!

I am currently stumped for something that I can do well, regardless of how simple and I'm not a bad cook!! I have 2 under 3 and will need to have prepared it the night before, or the other option is a chicken with salads. I would love to go down the roast option but I don't want to start cooking the minute I pop up from putting the babies to bed.

has anyone said anti pasti?

agree with risotto

or something really warming like a beef in red wine with mash with cream in it.

there is a nice recipe on Julys recipe of the month in waitrose for chicken with cumin
very oven bake do aheady eat on sofa ish

Tapas? So there are lots of things that you can buy or make ahead.

Or curry - it tastes better if you make it ahead and reheat, and there will only be the rice to do last minute.

here
was delicious
or do a thai curry of osme type?

what I Like about having another woman around is

!. pjs

1. sitting onthe sofa with a tea towel around your neck
2. getting drunk and giggling
3. eating litle bits of things

OR a bi stodgy bowl of somethign warm

Message withdrawn

Fish pie all the way. It's an arse to cook though.