What is your go-to dish for entertaining?

[Anonymous]

Lamb shank tagine - make in the crock pot. Its awesome and different. It is SO easy.

If vegetarians, bread salad. Fry bread in olive oil with basil and garlic, chop cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, arugula, and use just a ton of bread and olive oil - the bread is the base - capers and balsamic dressing and fresh basil. It is super easy and impressive looking.

[Anonymous]

Warm-from-the-oven gougeres (cheese puffs) as appetizers. Never fails to impress! You can bake them ahead of time and just warm before serving.

For mains, I sometimes do an Indian vegetarian buffet - one paneer dish (like paneer butter masala), one vegetable dish (Like aloo gobi), some type of dal, cumin pilaf, naan, raita. Or I might do a centerpiece type vegetarian dish, like a savory roulade, a tart, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have a good baked ziti recipe they can share? Or even just the basics. I tried to make it once and it came out a bit dry and bland.

I'm embarrassed to say I served this to my fellow Jersey Italians one day when I didn't have time to make sauce from scratch and they all raved and asked for the recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/baked-ziti-i/

I claimed "Nonna's secret"

I am going to make this tonight! If anyone is interested I'll post back with a non-Italian POV result.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]McDonalds chicken nuggets for hors

Walmart frozen pizza and canned corn for the main course

Fresh fruit for dessert, usually a cut up apple[/quote]

Um...is this serious? McD's and Walmart? Do you live in a trailer? (Sorry, BTW, I am not the Eew and Yuck poster.)

[Anonymous]

The dinners I'd usually serve are basically covered. However, for dessert...

OREO TRUFFLES!!!!!

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/easy-oreo-truffles-95085.aspx

Crazy easy, if a bit time consuming. Basically, one package of oreos, one "rectangle" of cream chee se, and melted chocolate The recipe above is the basic chocolate recipe, but I've made many variations - mint oreos with white chocolate, Peanut butter with milk chocolate, berry with dark chocolate. THe combinations are endless. I've actually had friends ask if I can make them to bring to parties from backyard BBW to fancy dinner parties.

One thing - the recipe says 1" balls. I find half that works better - they pair well with coffee (and depending on the combo, tea).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have a good baked ziti recipe they can share? Or even just the basics. I tried to make it once and it came out a bit dry and bland.

I'm embarrassed to say I served this to my fellow Jersey Italians one day when I didn't have time to make sauce from scratch and they all raved and asked for the recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/baked-ziti-i/

I claimed "Nonna's secret"

I am going to make this tonight! If anyone is interested I'll post back with a non-Italian POV result.

I'm curious!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The dinners I'd usually serve are basically covered. However, for dessert...

OREO TRUFFLES!!!!!

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/easy-oreo-truffles-95085.aspx

Crazy easy, if a bit time consuming. Basically, one package of oreos, one "rectangle" of cream chee se, and melted chocolate The recipe above is the basic chocolate recipe, but I've made many variations - mint oreos with white chocolate, Peanut butter with milk chocolate, berry with dark chocolate. THe combinations are endless. I've actually had friends ask if I can make them to bring to parties from backyard BBW to fancy dinner parties.

One thing - the recipe says 1" balls. I find half that works better - they pair well with coffee (and depending on the combo, tea).

Thank you! I am going to try these!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have a good baked ziti recipe they can share? Or even just the basics. I tried to make it once and it came out a bit dry and bland.

I'm embarrassed to say I served this to my fellow Jersey Italians one day when I didn't have time to make sauce from scratch and they all raved and asked for the recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/baked-ziti-i/

I claimed "Nonna's secret"

I am going to make this tonight! If anyone is interested I'll post back with a non-Italian POV result.

I'm curious!

I'm curious if the crowd liked. I have to serve a kid-adult mixture of 12 on Sunday and this seems nice and easy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have a good baked ziti recipe they can share? Or even just the basics. I tried to make it once and it came out a bit dry and bland.

I'm embarrassed to say I served this to my fellow Jersey Italians one day when I didn't have time to make sauce from scratch and they all raved and asked for the recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/baked-ziti-i/

I claimed "Nonna's secret"

I am going to make this tonight! If anyone is interested I'll post back with a non-Italian POV result.

I'm curious!

I'm curious if the crowd liked. I have to serve a kid-adult mixture of 12 on Sunday and this seems nice and easy.

I'm the one who tried it the other night. Not for a crowd, just the family. Super easy to make. My husband loved it. It was a little too heavy for me, probably due to the sour cream/provolone mixture which I bet is what he loved about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you find that little smokies taste funny, like are more fatty or something. I always find those little smokies to be grizzley almost.

I'm the pigs in blanket poster. I do heat them up in a skillet, then cool them down before wrapping them. This seems to bring out some of the gristly fat and make the more tender.

I had the turkey little smokies on New Years because they were out of the real ones, and the turkey ones were really good.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]McDonalds chicken nuggets for hors

Walmart frozen pizza and canned corn for the main course

Fresh fruit for dessert, usually a cut up apple[/quote]


Beautiful menu, love it!