Fool-Proof Receipes for Entertaining

February 26, 2010 2:06 AM

My wife and I love to have dinner parties, but the stress of figuring out the menu and preparing the meal often overshadows the fun of the event (and thus makes us not want to entertain as much). I'd like to have a short list of go-to meals that we could pull together with little stress and with little notice. Any recipes that you'd care to share?

Here are some parameters:

(i) Most of our friends are ominvores and we don't typically need to accommodate any special dietary restrictions.
(ii) The recipe should be bulletproof, not fussy, and ideally permit us to spend time with our guests rather than continuing to slave in the kitchen up until the meal is served. (Lasagna = good, souffle = not so good.)
(iii) While the food should be tasty (duh), we're not looking for a dish to land us on the cover of Gourmet magazine. That said, some of the folks we like to invite are not exactly close friends (yet), so it needs to be a little better than reheated Chef Boy-ar-dee.
(iv) We're reasonably good cooks and can handle all the basics.
(v) I'm thinking principally of dinner menus, but brunch items would be great as well.

I've seen this question, but it seemed to be a bit more focused on collecting "wow" receipes. I also scour most of the main recipe websites (Cooks Illustrated, Epicurious, Simply Recipes, Food Network, Alton Brown, etc.), but I'd like to get some receipes that have been battle-tested by the hive mind (stomach?).

Many thanks --

posted by hawkeye to Food & Drink (42 answers total)

Response by poster: Arrgh. Fool-Proof RECIPES for Entertaining. I no spel gud.
posted by hawkeye at 2:07 AM on February 26, 2010

No recipes, but a book recommendation: David Tanis A platter of figs and other recipes. This book contains each six spring, summer, fall and winter menus of a vaguely Mediterranean style, is very nicely written and aims to solve exactly the problem you describe.
posted by Namlit at 2:13 AM on February 26, 2010

I make "autumn puddings" for exactly this purpose. Like summer puddings, but with autumn vegetables. Line some little dishes with buttered bread (exactly as summer pudding), fill with a slightly undercooked mixture of courgette pieces, tomato pieces and pesto. Add a buttered bread lid. Clingfilm and leave in the fridge until you want to serve it. Then throw them in the oven as hot as possible and leave for about 10mins or until they start to look a bit toasted.
posted by emilyw at 2:29 AM on February 26, 2010 [2 favorites]

I think you need to get this book:

Feast, by Nigella Lawson.

from one of the reviews:
[...] cookbook for the sensualist that wants to eat very well, but also wants to spend time enjoying the company of their guests instead of struggling with the creation of the meal. [...]
posted by uauage at 2:46 AM on February 26, 2010

Nearly any beef tenderloin recipe. I like this one.
posted by HuronBob at 2:56 AM on February 26, 2010

As a foolproof starter, I like Insalata Tricolore: it's just sliced avocados, tomatoes and mozarella artistically arranged and drizzled with olive oil. It's about as easy as a recipe gets, you can do it a bit ahead of time, it's got a tinge of sophistication, and it tastes great.

If you're Italian, it's also patriotic.
posted by Phanx at 3:04 AM on February 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

I am an introverted and infrequent entertainer, and a reluctant and inexpert cook. These are the cookbooks I turn to in order to minimize my state of terror:

Cooking to Impress Without the Stress - This is the one I turned when to when I hosted the in-laws for the first time and had friends over for dinner after the birth of my first kid. The recipes are easy and imaginative. Over time I've turned to this increasingly for weekday meals when I want to get out of a rut without doing more work.

The Minimalist Entertains - Not his best book, but dependable. Good menu planning ideas based on season, and fairly simple recipes. Best for his honest asides about his own entertaining fears and blunders. This one gave me permission to experiment, fail, and still have fun with company.

Not Your Mothers Slow-Cooker Cookbook - Slow cooker recipes don't say "wow!" but they are great for easy evenings with friends where you are stingy about your time and don't want to spend one second more on cooking than you have to. With some easy apps, fantastic bread, and a simple but sophisticated dessert (panna cotta is my current kick), you can dress up a slow cooker meal easily.
posted by cocoagirl at 3:04 AM on February 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

Just to throw it out there.

What is the goal of these dinner parties? Is cooking a big part of it for you? Or do you just want to have a dinner party and the cooking is a means to an end?

The reason I ask is basically .. most of the folks I know who have dinner parties intrinsically select this activity because they want to challenge and branch out their cooking skills. This is a huge part of it for them. (And some of them want to show off a little, which also dictates a surprising amount of their lives -- their style of housing, decor, where they live, etc.)

In your case, it doesn't sound like the cooking part is really a focus, so why not just get it catered or hire a personal chef for that evening?

That said, some people I know actually try and make the cooking part of the social occasion. This can be a lot of fun and very inviting.

Examples:

1. extreme grilled cheese sandwich night - basically get and prep the ingredients for a variety of different gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches and allow people to craft their own (avocado, tomatoes, basil, foccacia and other kinds of bread, try interesting cheeses not normally associated with grilled cheese, etc.)

2. community created soup night (basically have two or three experimental soups on the menu based on party size and have the guests participate in crafting them -- cutting, chopping, stirring, adjusting, etc. up to and including taste test and refinement until the soup is "good.")
posted by rr at 3:10 AM on February 26, 2010 [2 favorites]

If you're talking a few hours notice, you may have time to throw together a nice pot roast. It's not very fussy, and it's a meal in one.

Or how about a vegetable biryani? Another meal in one - just add some poppadoms and you're good to go.
posted by Ziggy500 at 3:16 AM on February 26, 2010

Sorry for the double post: I should add that I like to make curries for entertaining because the actual chopping / assembly doesn't take too long or too much concentration so I can do it while chatting to people. Or they can help, which is also fun. (Another great thing about curries is that they actually taste good when reheated though I don't know how useful that is for you.) And once it's on the hob you can forget about it, and just go to stir occasionally to make sure it doesn't stick to the pan. Just put some rice on to cook at the same time and you're golden.
posted by Ziggy500 at 3:22 AM on February 26, 2010

I find "one-pot" meals are good for casual dinners -- chili is always a hit in the winter; there's a Middle Eastern dish called pilakhi that's easy for summer, etc. You generally put them together a couple of hours before and then they can simmer on the stove even after they're "ready" so you can decide when it's time to eat. I usually make homemade French bread to go with, which just requires me to pop it in 30 minutes or so before I want to eat. Fresh hot bread and comfort food always scores well.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 3:51 AM on February 26, 2010

I'm a big fan of hosting dinner parties, but I usually end up in the kitchen until dinner gets ready. On the other hand, recently I made my first boneless leg of lamb. It really is a shove in the oven and forget. You can add some potatoes to the oven with rosemany and minced garlic, and prepare a good, veggie packed salad for some greenery. When you pull the roast out, it will need to rest for a short while, which gives you time to whip together a gravy, and toss some cut french bread in the oven to warm.

Instead of a gravy, you can make tzatziki (sp?), the greek yogurt sauce. It's easy (and better) to make it in advance. Seed a cucumber, salt it to get out the excess liquid. Grate it through a fine grater/plane, as well as a couple cloves of garlic. Mix into a cup of yogurt, add black pepper and a tablespoon of lemon juice. Mix well and set it out with the lamb.

As an appetizer, you could go with pita chips, carrot sticks and roasted eggplant (baba ganoush?) dip and hummus.

For a completely different approach, try chili. Get it on the stove at least three hours before eating it. Even better is making it the night before. Make some cornbread so that it's ready when everyone sits down (cornbread should be fresh). Have sour cream, chives, cheese, and fritos available for people to add as they wish. If you don't make it too spicy, you could even have a beer sampling to go with it. Have everyone bring a sixpack of their favorite local beer or microbrew.
posted by Ghidorah at 3:51 AM on February 26, 2010

I used to have this same problem. I've found that working with guidelines and no real recipe eliminates a lot of the fussing around; there's less measuring and fewer ingredients to deal with, generally. Nothing I cook involves any sorts of cans or boxes.

A strategy I use for dinner each night is to spend most of my time -- hopefully ten minutes or less -- preparing the meat portion, and while that cooks (in the oven, sometimes under the broiler) I saute a vegetable in butter, bacon fat, coconut oil, or some combination of the three with a few cloves of garlic pressed through a press (garlic presses are a huge time saver). Sometimes I add a simple spice mix -- curry powder or chili powder or Mexican seasoning can transform it into something that feels a lot different, as can the addition of different kinds of grated cheese or cream cheese. Sometimes I will cook a couple strips of bacon in the pan beforehand, saute the vegetables in that, and crumble the bacon on top. If I want to make something more on the Asian side, I'll tend toward coconut oil, and I might use soy sauce, fish sauce, or ginger depending on how well I think it goes with the vegetable. (Last night I just made green beans with some ginger and pecans in a mix of coconut oil and butter, they were awesome.)

In other words, I keep the vegetable simple because vegetables are easy to make taste good. I tend to use frozen vegetables and just throw them directly into the hot fat and they turn out great. The vegetable(s) usually takes 5 - 7 minutes to make.

If you want simple, avoid any vegetables you're going to have to peel, cut-up, etc. Frozen vegetables are plenty nutritious -- sometimes more nutritious than raw vegetables that have been sitting out a week -- and you'd never know they were frozen once you cooked them.

Steamed vegetables, however healthy, usually don't taste great so I don't think they're dinner party material. The only upside is that they're easy to make because you just set a timer and forget about them. I never steam vegetables for guests UNLESS it's a broccoli and/or cauliflower to go along with an otherwise heavy meal, and it just gets a light sprinkling of lemon juice, salt, pepper, and maybe a spice mix.

Super-fast and delicious accompaniment to anything steak-like: sauteed mushrooms. Butter + mushrooms in a pot with some salt and pepper, and you barely have to do anything while they reduce down. It takes like five minutes, sometimes I add a clove of garlic.

I can broil steaks in about ten minutes, and bake fish in about twenty. Fish is particularly nice for groups because you can prepare a lot of it at once in the oven, whereas depending on the set-up of your broiler it can be difficult to do more than two steaks at once. I tend not to make much chicken because it takes longer to cook, and it's more finnicky than fish or beef in terms of getting a good result for minimal effort, but it's a good choice for groups so hopefully others can be more help there. I'm not a huge pork fan either, and I don't dabble in more uncommon meats so I have nothing there.

A dry-rub really does all the work in making simple meat taste incredible -- I recommend the book Barbecue! Bible: Sauces, Rubs, and Marinades, Bastes, Butter, and Glazes. I find that dry rubs outperform marinades in taste, and are way faster to make which is great. (I keep bottles of custom-blended rubs together so preparing meat most nights is as simple as pre-heating the oven, opening the package and applying the rub; I'm usually done before the oven is preheated so I spend that time, and the first bit of cooking time, just tidying up the kitchen or reading.) Some marinades are simple and worthwhile though. Anyway, even just making a sauce or special butter is a fast and easy way to make something good.

One easy way to prepare fish, especially salmon, is to just pour some soy sauce over it and add some butter. It's simple but really good, and I serve it with some sort of Asian-ized vegetable.

If I have shrimp around, I'll saute them in butter and olive oil and some spices a couple minutes before the oven timer is up. If I'm thinking terribly much about it, I try to marinade them beforehand because shrimp actually take marinades quite well, but it's no huge deal if I can't get around to it. The point is: shrimp are fast and easy to prepare, about three or four minutes tops, so they're good to have around -- especially if you're padding out a meal to serve more people.

Other fast, easy additions: fried eggs over medium (cooked in butter) go well with steak, but surprisingly well with fish too; many mornings I have leftover fish with eggs. I can make four eggs at once in two minutes.

Dinner salads are easy -- especially if you get pre-washed greens or have a salad spinner. Handful of leaves + grated cheese or cheese crumbles + nut (if you want) + fruit (if you're into that) + dressing. There are a lot of simple dressings you can make at home, just combining oil and vinegar. You can save time by putting all the stuff on the table and letting people assemble their own salad.

One thing I've come to appreciate for any dish that requires a lot of shredded cheese is my salad shooter, although a rotary grater would be almost as good. Grating cheese a lot of cheese can feel like a time drain and I avoided it before, so just feeding it into the salad shooter and having two cups in 30 seconds is pretty nice.

Pick deserts you can do well ahead of time. Creme brulee, pots de creme, and other custards are easy to do several days beforehand and generally go over well. Some kind of cake, pastry, pie, or cheesecake is also easy, or some simple elegant cookies. Deserts you have to prepare right before serving are a pain in the ass to deal with when entertaining and are usually rather involved, so just don't do it; you have too many other options to stress over something like that. You could also go an even easier route and just get some Haagen Dazs; anything that isn't regular chocolate or vanilla is pretty good, but especially the dulche de leche, creme brulee, and the "Reserve" line are good for entertaining; they have delicate flavors and the Reserve line has a lot of fancy gourmet-style ingredients.

Stuff to avoid:

1) Soups are one of those things that are usually only amazing if they're fairly involved. Unless you can make it the day ahead, just forget about soup.

2) Pasta can be simple, but it can take a long time for the water to boil beforehand. Unless you're making a cold pasta salad, you don't want to make it ahead of time either because pasta tends to get gummier and thicker when reheated. I don't eat pasta in general, but for something like a dinner party it can be a pain to time that sort of thing. (Note that plenty of people can and do this just fine, but timing dishes takes some practice and you're asking for simple, so.)

3) Casseroles can be awesome, and some are simple, but mostly they're not worth the effort compared to what you can get out of simply sauteeing a vegetable and adding cheese and spices. Plus they take up the oven, and I feel that's the simplest place to prepare the meat. If you have two ovens, it might be worthwhile, or if you're set on it, make it ahead of time and reheat it.

4) Homemade rolls or bread is awesome, but involved and takes up the oven. Just buy some that are good quality if you must have them and reheat it gently in the oven after you take the meat out.

5) Homemade pizza is similarly awesome, but also involves much more prep work than other things I've suggested, plus if you have a normal-sized oven you're gonna have to make several of these to entertain with... overall not worth it. Plus there's not a whole lot that goes with pizza except salad.

Anyway, once I started following that sort of stuff above, life got tons easier and accommodating even surprise dinner guests hasn't been any extra work. My husband and I are at the point now where it's so much cheaper, easier, relaxing, and better-tasting for me to cook something at home that we hardly ever go out to eat anymore, and I actually like having people over to cook.
posted by Nattie at 3:54 AM on February 26, 2010 [6 favorites]

Easy peasy dinner for 6:

Roasted Cornish Game Hens, with Baked Potatoes and Steamed Veggies

• 6 frozen Cornish Game Hens, each about 12 oz size, defrosted in their plastic wrappers
• 6 large Russet baking potatoes
• Fresh or frozen vegetables of your choice, 6 servings

You can defrost the Game Hens in a sink full of lukewarm water, in about an hour. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F, while unwrapping birds. Take them out of their plastic wraps, rinse outside and inside cavities with cool tap water, removing giblets pouch(es) if packed inside birds, and pat dry with paper towels. (Discard giblets, if packed, unless you have pets you want to fry them for, or if you want to make giblet gravy.) Rub outside skin of birds with butter, and arrange on drip roasting pan(s). Roast in oven 45 minutes, until juices run clear, and skin is browned and crisp. Basting is not usually needed on these small birds. Remove from oven a few minutes before potatoes, below, to allow a little "rest" time, before serving.

Once the game hens are in the oven, wash and fork pierce 6 large Russet potatoes. Oil skins with a little olive oil, and place on aluminum foil lined cookie sheet, under game hens. Potatoes should be done in a little over 45 minutes roasting time needed by the game hens.

Once the potatoes are in the oven, you can wash/peel/prepare whatever vegetables you've selected, in preparation for steaming. I like to steam slightly sweet fresh vegetables like baby carrots, Silver Queen corn, or sliced summer sqaush, to go with the game hens, but brussel sprouts, broccoli, or green beans go equally well. Once you've got your vegetables cleaned and loaded in your steamer basket & tightly lidded pot, with a cup and half of water for making steam, you just need to turn it on, to high, 10 to 15 minutes in advance of your serving time, to get a short, high temperature steam, leaving your vegetables crisp, but cooked. I usually just turn on the vegetable pot, when I go into the kitchen to take out the game hens, and check the potatoes. By the time I've got out plates for plating, and uncorked a bottle of wine for dinner, the game hens have "rested," and it's time to pull out the potatoes, shut off the vegetables, toss veggies in a bowl with a little salt and olive oil, and start plating and serving dinner. Serve with sour cream and butter on the table, for the potatoes.

To this base meal, you can add salads beforehand (prepared ahead and stored in the fridge, the afternoon of the meal), a soup course if you like (something simple, like egg drop soup and good crackers works well), and some dessert, like apple pie or carrot cake, for a bigger meal, if you like.
posted by paulsc at 4:36 AM on February 26, 2010

When it is people we don't have over often, I usually make an effort. When it is people we see regularly, like you I just want to be easy. This usually means one of three catagories:

1) Bung it in the oven before they arrive (lasagne, cottage pie, etc)
2) Bung it in a pot and cook some rice once they've arrived (chilli, curry, etc)
3) Cook it quickly in one pot whilst they are there (phad thai, risotto, etc)

With the possible exception of phad thai, they are all meals which don't really need a recipe because a lot comes down to individual preference and can be almost infinitely adapted so even if you are serving them regularly they will still be different. For example, I make a basic beed mince lasagna, a spinach and ricotta one, a butternut squash and three cheese one. Even just changing the types of cheese changes the meal.

I would also say that cookery books are helpful things to have. The internet is handy for last minute ideas and varieties but the recipes can be hit and miss - although BBC Good Food is usually pretty good - and it doesn't compare to leafing through a book and seeing something you fancy. You will generally find that there are one or two things in a book which just click and start making again and again. The Nigella book mentioned up thread is good but I won't mention any more specifically because I see from your profile you are in China so I don't know what is available. Worth a browse though.
posted by ninebelow at 5:39 AM on February 26, 2010

I also wanted to recommend a book. It's The Common Grill Cookbook. We've made almost everything in the book for dinner parties. There's whole menus, which I find helpful. And most everything is (or can be) done ahead. The pork loins are great; there's a sweet potato recipe in there that everyone goes gaga over (that can def. be made ahead of time -- use less cream and less butter than called for and use more apples, IMO). Great stuff.
posted by dpx.mfx at 5:45 AM on February 26, 2010

I know what you mean. I'm usually the one in the kitchen slaving over the stove while my partner is in the living room entertaining our guests. For the past year we've been looking for things to do ahead of time to cut down on work in the kitchen while guests are present.

I bought an electric raclette and it's been great for dinner parties. Everything is prepared ahead of time and everyone sits down at the table at the same time to enjoy dinner. You can make any combination of meats, cheeses, breads, pickles, vegetables, fruits and condiments you like. Here's a shot of our first raclette party. We've had a few since and it's always been about the food and the getting together of friends.

I'm a big fan of the Cook's Illustrated Holiday Entertaining book and can recommend the roasted chicken with vegetables, making your own pear cranberry sauce and stuffing. I really want to make the herb crusted beef tenderloin.

Also, I'm interested in making taco-stuffed shells and bacon and eggs in toast cups.
posted by KathyK at 6:08 AM on February 26, 2010

Nigel Slater is great for delicious but manageable recipes. In The Kitchen Diaries there are (informal) menus.

Adding to rr's (excellent) suggestion about turning your dinner parties into a cook-in: last year I went to a party hosted by a Japanese friend who prepared a large quantity of sushi rice and laid it out with several places of sliced fish and sheets of dried seaweed. We then rolled out own sushi by hand. There were other Japanese goodies involved too. It was great, and extremely impressive.

This might sound a bit elaborate, but it's exactly the sort of thing you're after--because you can do all the preparations (i.e. cook rice, slice fish) ahead of time. You need a very sharp knife, and you'd probably want to practice on a smaller scale beforehand to make sure you can get the rice right (LOTS of rice vinegar) before you spring it on your friends. But otherwise, it's fairly simple, it's a lot of fun, and it means you won't be in the kitchen once your guests arrive. Plus, for a relatively easy set of preparations you get a big 'wow!' factor. Oh--and if the sushi rolls fall apart, it's not your fault!
posted by lapsangsouchong at 6:35 AM on February 26, 2010

Make-ahead dishes are your friend in this case.

No recipe ('cause I'm at work and can't consult right now), but my mother's go-to meal that is both easy to make and super fancy-schmancy is paella.

On my own personal fave list is Morroccan Chicken tagine with preserved lemons and olives (mefimail me if you want the recipe), which I do on the stove like a stew, and serve over quinoa.

Because we have a smoker, doing texas-style ribs can also be really easy-make ahead, because a) the majority of the cooking happens outside of the kitchen, and b) you finish the dish with a quick turn on a hot grill.

Or, I sometimes do a theme - the night the Saints won the Superbowl, we had people over, so I made a big pot of red beans and rice (ahead of time), threw some spponbread in to bake just before our guests showed up, and served it with a lovely big salad.
posted by LN at 6:35 AM on February 26, 2010

Dah! Just now I saw the mention of "little notice". Forget what I said, don't mind me...
posted by LN at 6:38 AM on February 26, 2010

From GQ: Everything you need to know to entertain at home with style and ease (with recipes too)
posted by arm426 at 6:50 AM on February 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

Mark Bittman is the cure for what ails ya:

101 Simple Meals Ready in 10 Minutes or Less

Add a nice salad and/or some bread, some wine--voila! Dinner party! I can absolutely vouch for the following dishes when you have friends over:

Open a can of white beans and combine with olive oil, salt, small or chopped shrimp, minced garlic and thyme leaves in a pan. Cook, stirring, until the shrimp are done; garnish with more olive oil.

Make six-minute eggs: simmer gently, run under cold water until cool, then peel. Serve over steamed asparagus

Put a few slices of chopped prosciutto in a skillet with olive oil, a couple of cloves of crushed garlic and a bit of butter; a minute later, toss in about half a cup bread crumbs and red chili flakes to taste. Serve over pasta with chopped parsley.

Chop prosciutto and crisp it in a skillet with olive oil; add chopped not-too-ripe figs. Serve over greens dressed with oil and vinegar; top all with crumbled blue cheese.

Niçoise salad: Lightly steam haricot verts, green beans or asparagus. Arrange on a plate with chickpeas, good canned tuna, hard-cooked eggs, a green salad, sliced cucumber and tomato. Dress with oil and vinegar.


See also Bittman's 101 Simple Salads for the Season and 101 Simple Appetizers in 20 Minutes or Less.
posted by magstheaxe at 6:52 AM on February 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

I disagree with the person who told you to shy away from soups, and that they are only amazing if involved. In my experience, there are a lot that are easy and fast to make, and they give your menu that extra bit of elegance.

My favorite soups are pureed vegetable. They look elegant, give the illusion of being a lot of work when they aren't, and reheat wonderfully. My two favorites are butternut squash and carrot, which are each as easy as boiling stock (I use bullion for ease and lower cost) with a chopped onion, garlic, and chopped veggie for about 20 minutes, then pureeing in a blender. If you get baby carrots or pre-peeled squash, this involves almost no prep. Then just keep it simmering till the guests come. Other soups make good use of frozen veggies, like peas or spinach, so they are easy to make in a pinch.
posted by beyond_pink at 7:51 AM on February 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

Braised meat dishes fit the bill for this very well. (At least in winter.) A good beef stew, or lamb or beef shanks, or a spanish chicken stew, has some upfront preparation time (usually browning the meat and sauteeing the aromatics) but is otherwise something that just sits in the oven. These types of dishes are also usually very forgiving if you overcook them, which I think is an underappreciated problem with party food. If you leave a stew in the oven for an extra 30 minutes it'll usually just get better. Another nice thing about dishes like this is that they are prevalent in many different cuisines, and the general technique stays the same, while only the seasonings change. The addition of olives and/or prunes, the substitution of lamb for beef, and a few different spices, and you've turned a beef stew into a lamb tagine.

Accompaniment depends a bit on the dish, but easy sides are roasted vegetables, made in the same oven as the stew. Green beans, cauliflower, asparagus, brussel sprouts, and broccoli all work really well. You can add starchy vegetables right to the stew. Serve with a crusty bread, or over rice or couscous.
posted by OmieWise at 7:57 AM on February 26, 2010

I love making what is essentially "dump-it chili" for a crowd -

The basic recipe is:
1 lb ground turkey
1 big can pumpkin
1 big can tomatos-and-chiles (Ro-tel makes a good one)
1 tiny can tomato paste
1 onion
1 clove garlic
1 heaping tbsp chili seasoning
1 tbsp olive oil

In order:
Chop the onion and garlic, heat with olive oil on stove until fragrant. Throw in the turkey, stir until brown. Add the canned things and the seasoning, stir well. Cover, simmer 20 minutes. I don't have a lid for my big pan so I throw a cookie sheet on top of it.

You can throw in all sorts of things, too, including chopped peppers (yellow and green make it colorful), hot peppers, more onion, pureed or chopped carrots, leeks, whatever you have around, pretty much everything is good. It takes very little prep time and no complicated measuring. You can serve it as-is, or put it over spaghetti for chili-mac, or over spaghetti squash if you want to go fancy, or if you really want to go fancy, in little hollowed-out mini pumpkins. Sprinkle with cheese and/or sour cream. Feeds an army (6-8), keeps them full, recipe easily doubled if you have a big enough pan.
posted by juniperesque at 7:58 AM on February 26, 2010

Response by poster: Many, many thanks for the suggestions. I wholeheartedly agree with the comments that going recipe-free is a much more liberating approach -- perhaps I should have asked for "ideas" rather than "recipes."
posted by hawkeye at 8:11 AM on February 26, 2010

I'm having some friends over for dinner tonight. We're doing a warm pear salad with blue cheese, a homemade pasta with mushrooms and goat cheese, and a white chocolate mousee with berries. All from this book. All fantastic.
posted by craven_morhead at 8:25 AM on February 26, 2010

I just stumbled across Cooks Illustrated's Best Make Ahead Recipe Book and can't recommend it enough. It has chapters on appetizers, soup, stew, slow cookers, casseroles and more. In fact, I'm making freezable crab cakes for a party on Saturday and Ragu for Sunday dinner, both from the book.
posted by sarajane at 9:09 AM on February 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

Learn to spiff up a green salad. Adding some combination of walnuts, avocado, artichokes, dried cranberries, mandarin oranges, asparagus, sliced cauliflower, almonds, etc., and a really good, home-made dressing, makes you look like a good cook. Grate a little good parmesan on top.

Basic home-made vinaigrette - olive oil, good vinegar(try balsamic, red wine, sherry, etc.) , fresh ground pepper, salt, a teaspoon of good mustard, and maybe some herbs, esp. fresh. Under-dress the salad so you can taste the veggies.

My 2 go-to cookbooks: The best recipe, and How to Cook Everything . The latter is great for inspiration.
posted by theora55 at 9:41 AM on February 26, 2010

Tom Colicchio's Braised Short Ribs. Easy, can be made the day or night before, and delicious. In my experience using this for dinner parties, people have both declared their love for me and/or wiped their plates spotlessly clean.

I serve it with an arugula salad (Just arugula, olive oil and lemon dressing, shaved parmesan salt and pepper), noodles or garlic bread, and roasted carrots (carrots, fresh thyme, olive oil, salt and pepper). Done and done.
posted by IWoudDie4U at 10:20 AM on February 26, 2010

Deb from Smitten Kitchen has good tips and recipes in How to Host Brunch (and Still Sleep In). Basically the secret is having food you can make ahead.
posted by geeky at 11:04 AM on February 26, 2010

Snacks:

• Spiced nuts, when done right, are totally your friend. Nothing has endeared me more to strange party guests than Ina's rosemary cashews. And they take about 5 minutes start to finish!
• Cranberry jalapeno salsa is really easy and as crack-like addictive as the OP describes. Esp. good with thin slices of provolone and rosemary triscuits. I made it four times this holiday season for different groups of people and they ALL flipped for it. You can make it ahead of time and actually should as it'll taste better. Ditto for all the muhammara love in this thread.

Salads, Veggies, Sides:

• A lot of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean starches and sides are served simply and at room temperature, which is helpful in cutting down stress. Taboule, fattoush and other versions of tomato salad, etc. Sliced or composed salads are a great idea because they won't get soggy so fast--caprese of course, celery root salad...this full-meal composed salad, if you can afford it for your guests, is incredible.
• Speaking of sliced composed salads, ta da: fennel and mushroom salad. The layering makes it seem really pretty and impressive, but this salad is really only about 3 fresh things, some oil, and cheese. And it's yummy, but of course everyone has to be on board with the the licorice-y rooty flavor of fennel first. I recommend the asian pear addition she mentions too, or any decently fresh pear or crisp apple really--it's a flavor combo that works well as evidenced by a chopped salad we've eaten a bunch of times from Cook's Illustrated this winter.
• Roasted things feel special and homemade, substantial, but are great 'cause you don't need to watch them obsessively as they roast. Another plus, they make your house smell great right before dinner so your guests will be excited. Just toss veggies in olive oil and put on a baking sheet or dish and roast at high heat (400 to 500 degrees F depending) until melting or crisp, depending on the veggie and what you want. Roasted shallots (roasted until truly caramelized; this takes a while), carrots with lots of salt and pepper treated almost like french fries, brussels sprouts (OMG so delicious), cauliflower with red onion and chickpeas, broccoli with parmesan and pine nuts, etc. (Ina Garten is a master at this, btw, and I'm sure all her recipes can be found online). Another tactic is focusing less on infusing veggies with flavor while you cook and instead making "dressings" ahead of time and topping steamed or roasted veggies at the table. Good example: salsa verde on roasted cauliflower. Sounds weird but is so good.

Entrees:

• Soup! I've decided a soup party with my favorite friends is next on my list of special gatherings. I didn't realize until the past year how freakin' easy, forgiving, and flexible/versatile soup is--you can make awesome soup in well under an hour, more like 30 minutes. And because you can make any soup you want--walnut and strawberry, lime chicken, African peanut stew, white gazpacho with almond, posole, escarole and sausage--it really can be a quirky party thing, where you make four (say, two tried and true and two really out-there adventurous) and everyone samples in smaller bowls. You can make your soup ahead of time because it almost all (barring stuff with potatoes or cream really) freezes really well, and then it's just a matter of a soup per burner reheating when people arrive. And all anyone wants with soup is crusty fresh bread and maybe a decent simple salad or fresh fruit for dessert. Easiest thing in the world and would feel oddly intimate, communal. Soup is just a bonding food! For some ideas I recommend Beth Hensperger's soups in Not Your Mother's Weeknight Cooking, The Daily Soup Cookbook, and just sniffing around really for interesting ideas--soup is so easy and limited only by your imagination.
• Sandwiches, just gussied up a little with nicer ingredients. For example: portobello mushroom sandwiches, where you make a marinade with vinegar or wine or something and let the caps stew for about 15 minutes. Grill-pan, grill, or broil them briefly (we're talking less than 8 minutes total), then use a fancier bread than normal buns, toasted up and spread with a nicer, say homemade condiment--cranberry Dijon mustard is one idea from Beth Hensperger. We did this recently just for a lazy weeknight dinner for just us using leftover Russian black bread and it was so easy but so good. I think it'd totally translate for guests provided they all love mushrooms.
• French-Canadian Tourtiere (self-link warning). Can be frozen and then reheated without thawing. Keeps frozen for supposedly three months (!). You could also do potato and cheese pie instead, which is also delicious. Doing a savory pie made ahead and frozen as an entree frees you up to focus on sides the day of the event, and also frees up the stovetop (you'd just reheat the pie in the oven while you cook sides or whatever on the stove).

Sweets:

• Slice and bake cookie dough you make yourself ahead of time is an excellent jump from "juvenile-feeling + phoning it in with a Tollhouse tube" to "real, classy, special treat" and winds up as convenient in terms of last-minute hassle--make the dough ahead of time (most doughs keep for at least a week and sometimes a month!), freeze it in wax paper-wrapped tubes, and you're just as good to go in terms of simply slicing off what you need for your party and baking for under 15 minutes. And of course now you can make exotic or awesome flavored cookies--in the past year I've made 5-spice shortbread, lavender tea rounds, Mexican cayenne chocolate cookies, and aged cheddar and cranberry cookies (via AskMe no less! best with port or other fortified wine; these are not dessert-sweet at all) for parties this way. Obviously a lot more grown up! Spend a Sunday making different tubes and you'll be set.
• Seasonal fruit made center stage is a friendly tactic for good dessert both in ease and deliciousness. Fruit that's really good and evokes the time of year barely needs any adornment (pan-softening and syrup made from its juices, stewed in appropriate liqueur, zap-roasted in the oven and topped with a tiny bit of fresh whipped cream/creme fraiche/yogurt, or quick sorbet or granita), and if you do choose to bake with it anyway it will reward you so much more, esp. if you focus on a neutral but very flaky crust (crostata FTW) or simple nubby cake crumb. Cakes that are simply sexed-up (slightly more gossamer crumb) cornbread topped or filled with seasonal fruit in its own syrup is one of the nicest desserts there is. Edna Lewis, Flo Braker, and the French have this kind of cake on lockdown; see Orangette. Here's that plum torte too--really, bulletproof! And apparently freezable.
• This chocolate banana cake can be made ahead of time--I made it three days ago and it's still as moist as can be under my cake dome on the counter--and the glaze, whose secret is unfortunately a bit of corn syrup, makes it seem like the most impressive thing ever (it gives the cake a glassy, smooth, even finish). I highly recommend it for company if you need that wow-factor visually. Just make sure to use decent chocolate though, at least for the glaze. It'll get you into the transcendent zone, beyond basic good. It also takes prizes for being one of the few banana cakes that doesn't disappoint by tasting simply like quickbread--no, it's unmistakably dark, rich cake.
• Whiskey-soaked chocolate bundt cake and Upside-down pear and ginger molasses cake are my two "I make this to show when I really freakin' love you" cakes. They are insanely good show-stoppers. I should warn that the latter might only be appreciated by people with more adventurous palates though--it's earthy and rooty and divine, but some people don't like going into a cake expecting it to be the standard sweet and getting a mouthful of astringent muskiness instead. This chocolate cardamom bundt cake also comes to mind, it has a similarly earthy je ne sais quoi.

Also, you didn't ask but in case you ever want to read print resources on this topic, I recommend the following:

• The Best Make-Ahead Recipe and maybe The Quick Recipe from the editors of Cook's Illustrated and America's Test Kitchen
• Not Your Mother's Weeknight Cooking wouldn't work for huge parties, but if you're having a simple one-couple-to-another sort of hosting evening, these are excellent, delicious meals that take 30 minutes. I've cooked my way through almost the entire freakin' book and there hasn't been a dud yet, and tons of awesome keepers. She has stuff from all over the globe mixed with down-home comfort food; everything's there. I esp. recommend it for the soups, which I'll get to in a second...
• Barefoot Contessa Parties! by Ina Garten. It's by no means comprehensive, but a few of these really are my go-to party staples. The orzo and roasted vegetables with feta and pine nuts dish comes to mind--I've made it a bunch of times for winter-time potlucks because all the vegetables involved are in season at the right time, you can make 99% of it ahead of time leaving the last drizzle and garnish to the last minute, and it actually tastes best at room temperature so you don't have to worry about reheating and all that jazz. Plus, it's freaking delicious, totally unusual, and looks very impressive and pretty, esp. if you spring for the tri-colored orzo. Her tziki dip and oven-roasted fruit also comes to mind off the top of my head. And those nuts I already mentioned, of course. I think all of these are actually in her French cookbook though, not the party one!
• You've Got It Made by Marian Burros. It feels a little retro (I believe it's from the '80s?) but Burros is an excellent resource admired by folks like James Beard, Pierre Franey, Craig Claiborne/NYT Food, and Lynne Rossetto Kasper (her plum torte is something I've mentioned on Mefi several times...it is crazy easy and bulletproof delicious). This book feels like a loving act of devotion; she has all these menus lined up, the order in which to do things to create the whole meal, annotated mention of dishes to make and freeze ahead of time that require no more reheating time than you'd be using to make the quick fresh stuff to go with it, etc. And it's broken down by 30-minute meals for a few people (it varies by menu, say 3 to 6) and full-blown party menus for as many as 40 (!) with freeze ahead plans all mapped out, etc. And the food's totally decent too, not retro monstrosity--lots of Asian-prepped vegetable sides, cumin rice with pine nuts, pan-glazed chicken scattered with nuts and various quick sauces, interesting produce combos for good salads like carrot and cardamom with sultanas, oranges and red onions, etc. and desserts that are super simple because they're usually either made-ahead fresh fruit sorbets and granitas (you can make this feels special by using unusual flavors--lavender, blood orange, basil and lime, etc.; the method remains the same regardless) or simply seasonal fruit cooked fast on the stovetop with a little something to create glaze/syrup from the leftover juices.
• Those ubiquitous Southern Living annual compendiums are a lot to wade through, but one thing they have going for them is they often do something similar to all the mental legwork Marian Burros does in her book, putting together basic outlines of when to do what ("1. start marinating chicken 2. thaw fruit X 3. bring stock to boil" etc.) for maximum efficiency ahead of time, and telling you frankly what can be done ahead of time, etc.

posted by ifjuly at 11:26 AM on February 26, 2010 [7 favorites]

Oops, here's that chocolate cardamom bundt cake. Tastes better as it sits, I find.

Also, The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper is composed of recipes that take less than an hour, and includes lots of no-nonsense tips and guidelines including how long things will keep and how to reheat them. Their Almond-Tumeric Potatoes are nice (and decent barely warm), as well as their flash-cooked chicken breasts and pork chops with Middle Eastern flavors. They have a canteloupe-basil salad in there too that's yummy.

Room-temp. no-cook bean salads are a good idea too--Tuscan cannellini and tuna, black bean and mango, etc.
posted by ifjuly at 11:31 AM on February 26, 2010

I'm fond of Staff Meals at Chanterelle, which is a book of recipes of what the kitchen staff made for themselves before service. Satisfying one pot meals that feed a picky crowd of people who work in the industry and require little active supervision and can be easily scaled to feed large quantities of people. It's pretty much ideal for dinner party fare.
posted by hindmost at 12:00 PM on February 26, 2010

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Chicken Marbella. Yes, it's got a slight whiff of my-mom's-sophisticated-dinner-party-circa-1985 to it, but it's really a delicious dish, and you can assemble it far ahead of time -- yea, even unto the night before -- and it's no less delicious at room temperature, so perfect for when other things end up taking longer, or you're all enjoying your drinks and not ready to move to the table, etc.
posted by palliser at 12:40 PM on February 26, 2010

my apologies if this has already been mentioned (I just don't have the patience to sift through some of the longer responses). I love to do pizza or taco dinner parties. Assemble all your easy, prepare-ahead ingredients and let your guests construct their own. Tacos are faster because the meat is already cooked, but it only takes 10 minutes to cook a pizza. You can make a really good dough ahead of time (I like Wolfgang Puck's) and divide it into small rounds, then each person builds their own and toss it in the oven. Fun and tasty!
I also love casseroles or quiche type meals that can be assembled in advance. Then you just pop them in the oven well before your guests arrive. Have a salad ready to go, too. There's just something so relaxing about welcoming people to your home when there are no dishes left to clean.
We're preparing for a dinner party this weekend, but we're only providing the main course and beverages. We're going to do homemade pasta, so I'll make it tonight. Then I just have to boil water and drop the pasta in after everyone has arrived.
posted by purpletangerine at 1:52 PM on February 26, 2010

One of my favorite, simple dinner menus for entertaining is Pork Tenderloin, Oven-roasted Red Potatoes w/ Rosemary, and Greens. Prepping and cooking time take roughly an hour. (although you might want to marinate the tenderloin for a few hours) If you have extra time, swapping the roasted potatoes for mashers with blue cheese and garlic always seem to be a hit.
posted by garden hoe at 2:04 PM on February 26, 2010

A giant bowl of shrimp in their shells, crusty bread and a bowl of aioli. Add a green salad and a bottle of wine - dinner.

Joint a couple of small chickens. Throw them in a tray with waxy potatoes peeled and cut into wedges. Add a couple of cut up lemons, scatter over a bunch of thyme, a couple of bay leaves, a head's worth of garlic cloves, plenty of salt and lots of olive oil. Throw it in a 230oC / 445oF oven for about an hour, maybe longer. Sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley. Line the tray with baking paper for an easy cleanup.

Put your oven on its highest temp, and slide a baking tray in there coated with some olive oil. Salt the skins of four decently-sized salmon fillets. Blanch some green beans for a minute. Toss the beans with some pitted black olives and some olive oil. Grab a few bunches of cherry tomatoes on the vine. When the tray is really, really hot, take it out of the oven and drop on the salmon (skin side down), the beans in a bunch at one end and the tomatoes at the other. Roast for about 15-20 mins or until the salmon is just done. Top the salmon with a dollop of lemony mayonnaise.

In a mortar and pestle (or a food processor) pulverise a head of garlic, a few bay leaves, a couple of good spoons of mustard and plenty of lemon juice, olive oil and salt. Rub this all over a pork belly and let it sit for an hour or so. Roast in a really hot oven. Serve with crusty bread and a green salad.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 2:17 PM on February 26, 2010

Roast was always my go to when I had enough local friends to do dinner parties - all the prep is done hours in advance, it makes the house smell fantastic and looks impressive. I usually slow roasted lamb with rosemary and garlic with a squeeze of lemon - the vegetables would be parboiled then put in the oven with garlic and lemon juice after being scuffed in a colander. I'll do panroasts as well, which has the added ease of a pan for gravy being right there and an actual pan - a slug of stock/wine for jus, a bit of flour in water for a good gravy and I'm set.

Desserts can be heaps of fun - I adore mini-trifles or pies. I'll occasionally do a thing with a sheet of puff pastry, thinly sliced apple covered in caramel and baked which always goes well.
posted by geek anachronism at 3:10 PM on February 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

I like stews because they're *better* the next day. I also love Emeril's brisket. It is fussy but you fuss the day before, then stick it in the fridge and just heat it up the day of your dinner party. You can make mashed potatoes to go with it the day before, too. Or even rice, and heat it up with a little beef broth or chicken broth when you're reheating the stew.

Brownies for dessert (day before also). Or lemon squares.

I HATE making things the same day people are coming over.

Just make the salad right before. But wash everything earlier, just assemble right before.

I love the tagine idea someone mentioned, and now I want to make it.
posted by DMelanogaster at 6:00 PM on February 26, 2010

A fun thing I like to do, if the dinner party isn't too big (i.e., 4 guests max) is to have "make your own pizzas". As hosts, you would prepare the dough (even spreading it out into a cake pan or on a tray for baking), chop up veggies, pre-cook meat, etc. Then set it all up buffet style and when everyone is done slap them in the oven for awhile.

Because of baking multiple mini pizzas at once, you'll need to rotate the pies, hence the small # of dinner guests.
posted by wwartorff at 6:02 PM on February 26, 2010

If you have not already found BrokeAss Gourmet I highly recommend you check out Gabi's site--the best recipes!
posted by chaoscutie at 12:12 PM on February 28, 2010 [1 favorite]