Hello,

My OH has invited the family over tomorrow for dinner for the first time

I've met them a couple of times but never cooked for them. Whenever we eat with them its bread and cheese etc but I'd like to do something a bit more substantial and a bit British :-)

I am away in the evening at German school and they will be there when I get home. My question is any ideas on what time of meal I can prepare prior to leaving for my class so I don't have to cook much when I get back.

I was thinking fish pie.....but afraid that's way tooo BRITISH lol

__________________
The best way to save water is to bathe together

lasgna and salad? I've discovered not too spicy, must have meat, not too many veggies, apero, dessert and coffee are much appreciated.

Funny, I was going to write Fish Pie before i even got to the end of your message!

I cooked fish pie for a swiss family (including English cheese on top) and it went down very well....easy to cook, no stress for you.....go for it

instead of fish, sheperds pie?

http://www.cookuk.co.uk/meat/beef/st...shroom_pie.htm

How about a delish steak and mushroom pie with veggies (peas, carrots) on the side?
Easy to prepare, only needs to be baked once you get home (or get OH to do it)
Verrrrry British!

P.S. Use ready made short-crust pastry ("Kuchen Teig") - be sure not to use the sweet ("süss") one!

Dim Sum Chicken Feet, thousand year old egg, oysters all fried up in spicy peppers.

Jokes aside, Swiss people appreciate a nice piece of meat. Keep it simple, with a fresh salad to start with, some meat seasonal veggies (stress, that they're bio...and you find it wonderful, that there is so much bio available here), along with some rice or pasta as a side dish. Offer a nice desert...poassibly homemade..maybe a speciality from where you're from. Coffee and/or a Kirsch/Grappa at the end.

I've just made a spinach and ricotta lasagne (Delia Smith) for our guests tonight. It's really lovely and not too difficult to make if you use ready made pasta and frozen spinach.

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/c...pine-nuts.html

And a strawberry tiramisu for dessert.

I have made Shepheards' Pie and Apple Crumble with custard for my Swiss girlfriend's family, so very British. They were very nervous about eating British food made by a British man, but guess what... they loved!!! They even asked for the recepie. Both of these could be prepared before hand and then just put in the oven when you get back from class...

Roast dinner goes down well

Definitely not fish pie, nor shepherd's pie. Many Swiss do NOT eat fish nor lamb.

But cottage pie with minced beef should be OK, but I think the Lasagne idea is best. How about a mild chicken tikka marsala? Apple pie and ice cream?

www.deliaonline.com

I vote for Shepherd's Pie...mmmmm!! And a nice salad with a light dessert like a fruit salad with homemade whip cream!

As for fish pie, I don't like it as I'm not that into fish so I think meat is safer.

Anything Indian might not fare well as a lot of people don't like the spices - I generally get sick when I eat Indian food.

The minced beef pie sounds great though

Proper roast and yorkshire pudding. Or if time is an issue, toad-in-the-hole. With the latter you can prepare the batter in advance and it only take 30 min to cook. Even more impressive is if you can get some largish ramikins and serve up individual toad-in-the-holes as it were, with veggies piled on top as per picture.

Isn't that just 'cos many Swiss can't afford it?

With the weather being cooler it should be pretty easy to do something that is mostly "make-ahead" that your OH can simply pop in the oven a few minutes before you're due home.

Shepherd's Pie or Steak and Mushroom pie would probably go over quite well, especially if there is a nice salad to start or on the side. These you can prepare ahead and pop in the fridge.

One of the dishes I make that my mother-in-law loves is chili. You can make that ahead also. "Casserole" it to heat and make it a little different than some of the folks 'round here may have had before by making some cornbread but spread it over the top and pop it all into the oven until the cornbread is done (usually about 30min'ish), by which time the chili filling will be nicely heated as well.

Another dish she likes is "salsa chicken" which you can make as easy or complicated as you like. If you're into making your own salsa, make a nice peach (or pineapple, or mango) salsa, pour it over some cuts of chicken (I like whole legs), cover with foil and bake for an hour. If you don't make your own salsa, it's simple enough to get a jar of salsa, a small jar of peach jam, mix the two and do the rest the same.



Hubby teases me because he's observed that I like to make things I can stick in the oven and "forget about" for a while... but these kitchens get me down, I was used to the kitchen being a social hub so being stuck in there by myself just isn't really my thing. Anyhow... so these things are easy to make ahead and just have hubby (or an older child) pop them in so that dinner is almost ready even when you get home.

__________________
The Joys of Opticianry

agreed. Roast chicken and ask your pa in law to carve

That's what I usually do when we have friends over for dinner (aka "guests" ). I'll always try to do something that can be prepared well ahead and you just have to throw it in the oven and forget about it. I just hate fiddling around in the kitchen whilst my friends are drumming their fingers on the table top wondering when the food will finally be ready! It may not be the actual summit of haute cuisine, but then I figure that it doesn't have to be - the whole point of the evening is to relax with friends and not stress out in the kitchen

Just a thought. Its not the Robinson family is it?

Ask them what they do and what they don't eat.

Having said that, I've asked Swiss people that and they've said they'll eat anything and I've played safe and gone ahead and cooked something fairly simple. Mistake.

What they actually mean is that they'll eat anything within the narrow confines of what they know and what they are used to. Which for some, isn't very much.

Having said that, there was a woman on Radio 4 yesterday who said her mum didn't eat pasta or rice or that kind of foreign stuff!

Chicken Vindaloo, extra hot. Keep a slab of Tennant's Super cooling in the fridge to wash it down.

Bit of a (huge) generalisation no? Can't say I've ever met a Swiss person who expressed an opinion against either.