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Good food to have on hand for house guests?
LadyM
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Registered User regular
Hey guys, pretty soon I'll have guests at my place for about a week and I'm looking for food ideas, especially lunch / dinner ideas since I don't think they will want to eat out every day.
Okay, I know that's vague so let me get a little bit more specific. I'd like to get some recipes that are fairly unusual / impressive while still being not very hard to make. (If they can be made ahead of time and frozen in advance, that's good too.) I'm in Seattle, so there are lots of markets around. None of them have allergies, although at least one of them refuses to eat sushi. I myself do not like steak or any kind of mushrooms. I do not have a grill, so grilling is out. Number of people per meal: four or five.
I am a decent cook and a good baker. But my schedule is really busy right up to the day they come, so it has to be stuff that's pretty fast/easy to make.
Oh, I am also looking for suggestions for snack food, preprocessed or otherwise, that's more interesting than usual.
Okay, I know that's vague so let me get a little bit more specific. I'd like to get some recipes that are fairly unusual / impressive while still being not very hard to make. (If they can be made ahead of time and frozen in advance, that's good too.) I'm in Seattle, so there are lots of markets around. None of them have allergies, although at least one of them refuses to eat sushi. I myself do not like steak or any kind of mushrooms. I do not have a grill, so grilling is out. Number of people per meal: four or five.
I am a decent cook and a good baker. But my schedule is really busy right up to the day they come, so it has to be stuff that's pretty fast/easy to make.
Oh, I am also looking for suggestions for snack food, preprocessed or otherwise, that's more interesting than usual.
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Also you can buy some tzatziki. It's a great dip made of sour cream, cucumbers and various spices. Great for dipping veggies or chips into.
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In your local grocer, find the asian/hispanic food aisle (we have them at least) and there should be some premade-bottled curry sauces. I prefer yellow.
Now, grab some fresh (or canned is fine) veggies you like. Honestly, most will work, curry always tastes funky-good no matter what you throw in there. I normally go with peas, smalls chunks of potato, sliced peppers, a bit of red onion, spinach, and maybe broccoli.
Grab a chicken breast. (or two depending on how many guests)
Pick up some white rice if you don't have any.
You'll want to grab some cumin, collander seed, and curry powder from the spice section.
Cook the chicken first (sliced up into chunks) with applicable veggies and season with cumin and curry powder.
Once the chicken is cooked through, put it (Veg and meat) into a saucepan and add the curry sauce. Season the mixure with collander seed and put it on an upper-low to medium (Maybe a 4?) setting on your stovetop and let simmer for a while, stirring occasionally. (Put a lid on it)
Go ahead and cook the rice after letting the curry simmer for 20ish minutes.
Serve rice in bowls and the pot of curry in the middle of the table. Everyone can serve themselves from the pot and add as much as they like to their rice.
All you do is add the ingredients you like to use and it will give you dishes that use them.
"BBQ" Chicken. You don't need a grill for this. Basically, it's just chicken marinated in barbecue sauce and then baked. You don't have to make their sauce either, you can use your own recipe or something from a bottle.
And here's a good potato salad recipe to go with the chicken.
Slice up some andoulie sausage into circles. Slice up a variety of bell peppers and an onion. I like red onion, it compliments the best.
Boil water and cook some penne in it. Saute the veggies and the sausage with some seasoning, I like chili powder and pepper and a bit of lowrys seasoned salt. After the saute is done pour a marinara over the top. I suggest neumans own sockarooni spiced marinara. Heat the marinara then take the penne and put it in. Toss it all together.
It is very colorful and tasty and hardly takes any time. Plus it makes enough for 4 or 5.
Make sure not to overcook the veggies, remember that sautes keep cooking for a bit after you take it off the burner. Pour the marinara on a little before they are done. No one likes mushu penne either so keep an eye on that.
Then i toss a little tabasco on top but that is optional. My girlfirn eats it without.
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I'd suggest mostly what people have suggested above. Sandwiches, guacamole, salsas, chips, pasta of somesort. Don't commit tons of work for ONE of those dishes, variety is key so you make a couple of different things so everyone is happy.
But my main suggestion is to ASK. Everyone has their own favorites and you can all decide together.
since you are good with baking, Pizza dough is very easy to make, and can be refrigerated for a few days. I have a recipe that makes 3 individual size pizzas, that I would just make two batches of. this is easy to prep ahead of time, and then you just shop for toppings when you get the guest preferences. Easy crowd pleaser since everyone gets their own. If you spend 20 bucks on a pizza stone, it'll also be really good.
edit: Warning on the pizza, it takes about an hour to make the dough, an hour and a half when I make two batches, and you have to do it the night before so that it can slow rise in the fridge. I dont have a mixer, however, so I'm kneading by hand.
These stuffed shells are so good, and the better the ingredients the better they taste. Served up with a salad and some hot french bread you look like you slaved for hours.
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We're having boardgame friends over tomorrow and we're doing hummus and veggie sticks and salsa and corn chips.
when we did our Diablo 3 Lan a few weekends ago, we (well me and one of the other ladies) made a big mince pie that went well You can totally premake the filling and then just pop it in the oven when you're ready.
Casseroles are usually a good go to thing for stuff like this. Baked ziti, lasagna, tuna casserole. Throw in a salad and you'll be good.
Also, big pots of soup. Find yourself some 'ready to make' soup packets in your soup aisle. They'll usually have flavoring, dried veggies and beans, and suggestions for what else to add. Measure out your water (and sometimes stock if you want), follow the instructions (which usually come down to, measure your water, dump in soup packet, bring to boil, cover and let simmer for 1-2 hours), and boom. you have soup. And lots of it! Especially if you add your own stuff.
Buy a bunch of ground beef, pre cook it just plain and then you can toss that in with just about everything. Make Tacos one night, toss the beef onto spaghetti with some sauce, toss it into your soup! This can also be done with other minced meats, like chicken or lamb or turkey or pork!
But I'm totally going to back up on the grilled cheese and PB&J suggestions too. Sometimes, people just want a sammich.
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I also like to have hard boiled eggs on hand. Perfect for breakfast or turning into egg salad, deviled eggs, or throwing into something.
I generally keep yogurt, bagels, and some kind of flavored cream cheese on hand for the same reason.
Chicken with feta cheese, sun dried tomatoes and olives.
Buy Chicken breast fillets, put them (not frozen) into an oven safe form. Chop feta cheese into small blocks and put that on the chicken, do the same with the sun dried tomatoes and olives. Add a package of light or medium cream, and out it into the oven untill the chicken is thoroughly cooked (usually approximately 30-40 minutes, if the chicken is a little frozen it can take more time.)
Cook rice to go with it while the chicken is in the oven, and you are all done. This is very nice when having guests, since you can prepare it beforehand quickly, put it into the oven before you want to eat!
Edit: Just noticed your point about freezing, this dish can very well be frozen, I've sometimes done this solely for myself and had the spares but into lunch boxes in my freezer. Like all food, though, it is tastier fresh, and it is fairly simple to prepare beforehand and keep in your refrigerator!
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I'm actually purging the apartment of peanut butter because if I have it on hand my family will want sandwiches for every meal, "to save me money", and I think it's pretty silly to travel several hundred miles to visit Seattle and then only eat peanut butter. I will buy a selection of somewhat fancier sandwich fixings, though.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_J-sjDAVPO9c/TARuQ3eya0I/AAAAAAAAAWs/0hR0E7yraLE/s1600/swan_apple.jpeg
(probably more complex than you are looking for but it is pretty, yeah?)
You can also drizzle the fruit in honey or chamoy (sweet, sour, salty fruit-sauce, you can buy these ready made in Hispanic markets, just make sure they dont have spice). The latter is a bit of an acquired taste perhaps but it is delicious, at least I think so. You can also just toss some salt and lemon juice onto the fruit (and spice if you like), also tasty.
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(street vendors in LA have started selling garnished fruit now; that is mango, cantaloupe, watermelon, jicama. I recommend mango, oranges, cucumber, and jicama)
Stir fries and hummus are other good ideas already mentioned.
Pork/turkey chili is also good and you can freeze it too.
Same with tuna melts or other easy sandwiches.
Plus, depending on how close these people are (I read family up there), if the length of stay is a couple days it's not too weird to go to the grocery store and buy ingredients for the dinner/lunch that day. It also allows for some wiggle room if your suggestion isn't agreed upon 100%, as you can decide on veggies or whatever day-of.
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I'd also lay in some cured meats, some cheeses (err towards mild unless you know they like fuzzy cheeses), a few loaves of crusty bread, fruit that's in season, and olives. Maybe pick up a couple bttles put out by nearby microbrews or wineries. That's an easy lunch right there, no assembly required.
As for cooking, when cooking for visitors I try to highlight what's good locally and what I could get quality/fresh that maybe they cannot, so for me it's usually beef/pork BBQ, tex-mex and interior mexican. I don't know Seattle at all, seafood maybe? The day before stock up on some good Cioppino? Surely you'll have some good coffee on hand.
Maybe fish-in-a-pouch?. I'll admit I like it cause it cleans up easy and is a single dish meal that's still fresh tasting. If you don't like cous cous you can replace with some chopped veggies and make another starch separately. If you're making rice you can jazz it up a bit by cooking it in broth and adding toasted nuts (peanut, cashew, almond) and dried fruit (cherries, cut apricot, raisins, cranberry). Casseroles are also good single dish meals. Pair 'em with a big salad as Lonelyahava said.
Or whatever else. Just remember, pasta sauce veggies protein.cook and toss together. Always looks great.
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Alternately, whole fish with friut and spices in the cavity is pretty fool-proof. Most people use slices of lemon, but I tend to hate cutrus and go for apples. Alternately, scrod casserole with ritz crackers is the simplest dish in the world, although I can't find a good recipe anywhere on line (I suspect this it a function of its ubiquity).
If you like frying, latkes are pretty easy and filling for a group.
Definately nicer things. For things like sandwhichs going from a regular bread to either nice fresh buns or fancier bread is $2-5 investment but a 100x better meal.
I'm not talking about spaghetti with marinara, here, though that IS tasty, cheap, and easy to make...if you're looking to impress a bit, get some bow-tie pasta and serve it up garnished with crushed black pepper, olive oil, parmesan (that didn't come in a can), pine nuts, and some halved cherry tomatoes.
You said no spicy, but the linchpin for this meal is sweet Italian sausage. Buy one or two, pull all the meat out of the casing, and fry it in a pan like you would hamburger meat for marinara. When it's done, you're supposed to take it off the burner and then throw the cherry tomatoes into the still hot pan to pick up some of the meaty/spicy flavor from the grease. But that may not work, so you could just substitute ground pork with no spiciness added.
You can also make up a fruit salad a day or two in advance as long as you avoid quick-to-mush fruits like bananas and pears. Apples, oranges, grapefruit, berries, grapes, pineapple, mango, kiwi, etc... just chop it and store it in a giant bowl and let people help themselves.