Im having a large group of people come over for dinner next weekend, in large group I mean around 8 - 10. I don't want to order food from outside for many reasons, too oily, too costly when its for 10 people and other reasons. But cooking food at home from starters to dessert will also be a mission.

What should I do?

Pot Luck.


-F

Have a plan ................

Decide on your number and variety of dishes,
get all your ingredients, recipes etc organised

do all the things that can be done ahead like cutting , marinating etc a day or two before..

Get your husband, kids to join in to help in fetching, cutting , arranging ...washing (DELEGATE )

Then on the D day enjoy .. picking out the pre-processed ingredients and cooking

All this is if you like cooking .... otherwise ..... Farce's is a good suggestion

@ farce - not a good idea because its kind of a formal dinner

@ busy bee - good idea, I never actually prepare anything a day before, thinking fresh is best, but I think this time i will have too! I will minus the hubby and kids helping out, instead hubby can look after the kids!

i didn't mean that you have to cook ahead , just do all the cutting marinating, kneading etc the day before you can do the actual cooking on the day ...

Why don't you just do the main dishes at home and buy the dessert and others from outside or vice versa. That way, you won't have to do too much and still have time to look your pretty best. Doing everything on your own could tax you too much and you won't be able to enjoy the party.

Yes, perhaps cooking the main dish and ordering appetizers would be a good option? I personally like making all kinds of appetizers, but it is time consuming, and if we are talking about 8-10 people, you'd need to make A LOT.

I know this has already passed and all, but my advice for next time would be to do a little of both. Cook something that you really enjoy cooking and then the rest, buy from outside.. get things that work for varying tastes.

For me, it would be best to cook than to buy the food. To order outside would be a good option because you would have plenty of choices and you could save time. However, it would be costly. By the way, who are your visitors? If they are your friends then, invite them to your house so that they could help you out.

Order... I'm not the best cook... but i do like cooking with my boyfriend.. it's fun to open a bottle of wine and make something that takes a while... nice way to spend a night.

Well everyone the evening went well and I made enough food for everyone on time!

I had cut the onions, vegetables and did all the marination the night before. In the morning I did the cooking which required the onions, seasoning to be cooked, then in late afternoon added the meat and vegetables to the cooking, which was being slow cooked. Everything worked out fine and I didn't have to spend my time in the kitchen when the guests arrived. It was a mixture of Asian cooking and Canadian (or you can call English)

The menu consisted of the following:

Starters: Spring rolls, mixed pakoras (mix bhaji), paneer samosas.

After an hour and half of starters I served tandoori chicken with salad

Dinner: stuffed chicken breasts, seasoned mixed vegetables, new potatoes, with grilled peppers and onions, along with spicy tomato gravy

Dessert: Triffle

Hi Sara

going by the recipe ... yummm seems your dinner was really good


Could you post the recipe for stuffed cisken breasts and seasoned vegetables ?

Thanks in Advance

Yum!! Good for you! I wish I coulda had some!!!!

__________________
-Brittany Brydahl

I would definitely go with cooking rather than buying. Well of course, you must know how to cook. If not, before the day of their arrival you should try to search some easy to make recipes. You would see lots of it in the internet. What do you think? Efforts means a lot.