Easy dinners when you have guests

[Anonymous]

I am a beginner cook and just moved into a new house. I know I can’t have guests yet but I thought now would be a good time to practice recipes for when I can have guests over.

Any help would be great. I’m not sure where to start. I have 2 young kids and most of the time little kid guests will be joining but I want to focus first on the adult dinner recipes. If you have kid friendly ideas that would be great too.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Grilling is always the easiest. Steaks, burgers, veggies.

[Anonymous]

Yes, grilling. You can make salads, sides, and desserts ahead of time so that you can watch your kids and entertain.

[Anonymous]

Pizza - can get fancy with the toppings for adults and plain cheese and sauce for the kids. Pair with salad

[Anonymous]

I like things that can be done completely ahead of time and just warmed up when guests arrive. Chicken chili with small bowls of toppings, baked ziti and big green salad, beef stew, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like things that can be done completely ahead of time and just warmed up when guests arrive. Chicken chili with small bowls of toppings, baked ziti and big green salad, beef stew, etc.

This. I make lamb stew ofer cous cous with a side cucumber salad. Beef short ribs, morrocan butternut squash stew if vegetarians. Or a sheet pan roast of salmon or rainbow trout or whole snapper. Pretty much anythign that can be done ahead of time or just put into oven to roast and served straight out.
I actually think pizza is a lot of work even eith oremade dough its shaping them and adding toppings all of which require lots of little things to be prepped and all for one dish.

[Anonymous]

Grilling

If not fajitas

[Anonymous]

I second baked ziti or even just pasta with home made marinara, sausage and/or meatballs. Add a nice fresh antipasto board (fresh buffalo mozzarella, olives, cheeses, crackers, salami, etc) to start. Add a nice crusty bread and salad, buy a dessert and some italian cookies, serve coffee and tea.

[Anonymous]

Poster above...i meant buy a cake from the bakery, depending on number of kids you could get cupcakes for them or cookies. I always just gave the kids ice cream sandwiches or bought enough cake, sometimes two.

[Anonymous]

Nyt has a sheet pan dinner w chicken, harissa, potatoes and arugula. Very easy, pretty and tasty. Good for entertaining bc you don’t have to supervise it.

[Anonymous]

The advantage to dishes like a simple pasta or pizza or soup/chilli is that the children can usually then eat the same things as the adults, depending on age you can set them up in a separate area or table in another room or outside in nice weather(i always used disposable bowls and utensils for the kids preferably to make life asier). Dishes like fish are a harder sell for some children. If serving fish i would make something like home made mac n cheese for the kids. I miss entertaining...a lot.

[Anonymous]

Soup plus bread, cheese and salad. You only really have to make the soup. People can eat as much or as little as they want. Can be healthy or not healthy - up to the eater.

[Anonymous]

Warm weather: https://hostthetoast.com/antipasto-tortellini-pasta-salad/

Cold weather: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nancy-fuller/hearty-butternut-squash-soup-2269714

Both always with crusty bread.

[Anonymous]

Pasta
Roast or grilled Chicken or Chicken Parmesan
Roast vegetables
Green salad
Cookies

[Anonymous]

People are so annoying these days with gluten free, keto or whatever. It’s exhausting. We just get takeout and order a bunch of things.