<p>Any suggestions? My standard repetoire:</p>
<p>Salmon wrapped in pastry, stuffed with fresh dill (variation on Oliver’s)</p>
<p>Morroccon lamb Shanks (Nigella’s)</p>
<p>Rack of Lamb with herbed crust (Martha’s)</p>
<p>Chicken or Shrimp Creole (Antoine’s)</p>
<p>Meat is preferred over chicken or seafood in this blokey world…</p>
<p>Butterflied lamb stuffed with spinach and goat cheese (Silver Palate’s New Basics)</p>
<p>oooooh. That’s sounds good…</p>
<p>Steak with marinade of rice wine soy sauce and sugar covered in ****take mushrooms.</p>
<p>Nina Simonds China Express cookbook</p>
<p>Grill the steak? Broil the steak? Bit hard at a dinner party for 12? Or do you have a cook, Alum…;)</p>
<p>Can you make that 13? I’m available any night :-)</p>
<p>I am cheap and lazy- I usally do something like chicken provencale ( from Cooks Illustrated)
actually most of my tried and true recipes are from cooks.
how about cassoulet?
lots of meat and you can make it and still have time to get ready
serve with something lighter, like blackberry sorbet and chocolate leaves
but if your guests prefer to have their meat still warm, steaks ( beef or salmon) I would even grill them while the weather is still fairly nice</p>
<p>my fave dessert-</p>
<p>melted chocolate- good dark stuff- with fresh fruit- strawberries, apples, oranges, berries, anything</p>
<p>simple, fun easy</p>
<p>for the meat= get some hawaiian sea salt…yummy</p>
<p>There’s another good butterflied leg of lamb in SP’s Good Times (I think) cookbook. Marinated in red wine, soy and crushed garlic, mint and rosemary, then grilled. Easy and delicious. I serve it with mashed or roasted poatatoes and whatever fresh veggies look good.</p>
<p>Chicken breast stuffed with feta cheese and kalamata olives</p>
<p>You either grill or broil the steak. Use a couple of large sirloins or tbone. And no, here in the Bay Area to get a cook I’d have to pay him/her as much as an investment broker:).</p>
<p>Or else a Chinese beef stew flavored with star anise from the same cookbook.</p>
<p>Chicken marbella (prunes, olives, bay leaves, white wine),from one of the Silver Palate cookbooks is very good and easy to make–it is either in the first SP book or SP Good Times. Good at room temperature so can be made slightly ahead. It works well with chicken breast quarters if no one like dark meat, but is meant to be made with cut-up chickens. (Halved chicken breasts don’t work as well.)</p>
<p>Crockpot Swedish dilled beef roast.</p>
<p>Warm enough? You mena, after the three inches of snow we had this week? Spring is breaking around here. </p>
<p>Besides, grilling is out. Hubby smells like a campfire and the timing factor makes me crazy. My European oven doesn’t broil so well either…</p>
<p>Where is the recipe for crockpot swedish dill roast, moots? I did find a SP New Basics book (have tattered versions of the old books) so will be checking out the butterfly recipes.</p>
<p>I love cassoulet–but is it fancy enough for a sit-down dinner party? Another problem…we don’t have tasty sausages down here. A good cassoulet rests on the quality of meat, I think. I serve it to family but not sure about guests…not as good as when I can get American or European sausages.</p>
<p>You could always grill the lamb ahead of time and serve it a room temperature. Then you wouldn’t need to worry about the timing, and hubby would have time to take a shower.</p>
<p>I also want the recipe for Crockpot Swedish dilled beef roast.</p>
<p>Two of the guests are bonifide gourmet cooks. I’d better not serve meat that’s been cooked an hour ahead of time! I’d be the talk of the town after that–not that I’ve escaped that pleasure as it is…</p>
<p>Will try all grilling recipes for family though…promise</p>
<p>Ah. One of my regular B&B guests is a pastry chef in the Big City. I always feel like a poser when he comes.</p>
<p>This whole thread is a conspiracy to keep me from going on a diet 
(please send recipes :))</p>
<p>Wait a minute…I thought French women never get fat! marite???</p>
<p>As for gourmet cooks…I know I know…aren’t they a pain? I went to one party last month where the host served grilled lamb chops wrapped in bacon on top of a perfect round of lemon grass risotto. Unbelieveable.</p>
<p>She followed it up with three types of homemade ice cream, grrrrrrrrrrr.</p>
<p>She’s one of the guests because, of course, now I have to pay her back! <em>shivers in her boots</em></p>
<p>Rosemary Roasted Tenderloin with Gorgonzola Butter (it became a family favorite after being featured for Christmas in Gourmet magazine).
If you go to Epicurious.com (a real favorite of mine) you will find it–search for buffalo, as that was the original meat used. I have made this with beef, buffalo and venison tenderloin and they were all super-delicious and beautiful on the plate.</p>
<p>And very easy and quick too. You sear the steaks on the stovetop & finish in the oven at high heat. A no-brainer.</p>
<p>PS cheers, where is Paradise? New Zealand maybe?</p>