Help me please!?!
Help me please!?
I'm serving dinner for my card club this Thursday evening and I need some suggestions on what to serve, but NO chicken! Help me out please!
Answers:
Subway Sandwiches
Grilled shrimp
Beef fajitas with salsa, cheese, sour cream, lettuce, tomato, and margaritas.
Lasagna with a fresh salad and bakery garlic bread is always a crowd pleaser.
Veel Chop!!
AWESOME TO EAT EASY TO COOK..!!
AND THEN FOR DESSERT....Creme Crepe's!!
SO EASY!!
go to foodtv.com and look at any of Rachel Ray's 30 minute meals. She has a lot of entertaining meals- from start to finish- main course, sides, and even desserts. From lamb to steak to shrimp, to salads to burgers to anything you like.
Ok, well I'm going to assume you aren't eating dinner during cards, otherwise they have to be finger foods, haha. Here's a couple ideas, hope they help you out hun
This is a great take on a meat and potatoes meal
Ginger Flank Steak w/Wasabi Potatoes
2 inches fresh ginger root, peeled and grated
1/4 cup tamari aged soy sauce
2 limes, zested and juiced
3 tablespoons vegetable oil, eyeball it
2 tablespoons grill seasoning (recommended: Montreal Steak Seasoning by McCormick)
2 pounds flank steak
2 1/2 to 3 pounds Idaho potatoes, 4 large potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
Salt
1/4 to 1/3 cup cream
1 to 2 tablespoons wasabi paste - how hot do ya like it?
4 scallions, root end trimmed
Handful cilantro leaves
Preheat a grill pan or indoor/outdoor grill to high.
Combine ginger, tamari, lime juice, oil and grill seasoning in a large sealable plastic bag. Add meat to marinade and coat evenly. Let stand 10 minutes then grill meat 6 to 7 minutes on each side.
Place potatoes in a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, salt the potatoes and cook until tender, 10 to 12 minutes. Drain potatoes and add them back to the hot pot. Smash the potatoes with a masher to desired consistency with the cream and wasabi. Adjust salt, to taste.
While potatoes and meat cook, finely chop the scallions together with cilantro and lime zest.
Let meat rest 5 minutes then thinly slice on an angle against the grain. Serve meat on mash potato mounds with a garnish with a generous sprinkling of the chopped scallion-cilantro-lime zest.
Sesame Beans
3/4 pound green beans - look for trimmed, raw packaged beans in your produce department
Salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, 2 turns of the pan
1 red bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
3 tablespoons tamari aged soy sauce
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
Cut green beans into 2-inch pieces on an angle. Place in a skillet. Add water, salt, to taste and cook beans 5 minutes, then drain beans. Place the skillet back on stove and add vegetable oil. Heat pan over high heat until oil smokes. Add the beans and red peppers and stir-fry 2 minutes. Add the soy and sesame oil and transfer to a serving dish. Garnish with sesame seeds and serve.
This is a no meat recipe
3 Veggie Pasta w/Pesto
1 pound penne rigate (with lines) pasta
Salt
1/2 pound asparagus, trimmed of tough ends
1 small zucchini
1/4 pound, haricots verts (thin green beans) trimmed of stem ends
1/4 cup pine nuts
1 cup basil, 20 leaves
1/2 cup tarragon leaves from 10 to 12 stems
Handful flat-leaf parsley
1 lemon, zested
1 clove garlic
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus more to pass at table
Coarsely ground black pepper
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, eyeball it
Heat a large pot of water to boil for pasta. Salt the water and add pasta to cook to al dente or, with a bite to it. Cut asparagus spears into 2-inch pieces on an angle. Cut zucchini into matchstick shapes. Cut haricots verts or green beans into 2-inch pieces on an angle. Add vegetables to pasta after penne has been cooking about 5 minutes. Cook veggies and pasta together 2 minutes.
While pasta cooks, toast pine nuts in a small pan until golden, then cool. Place nuts, basil, tarragon, parsley, lemon zest, garlic, cheese and a little salt and pepper in a food processor. Turn the processor on and stream in the extra-virgin olive oil until thick sauce forms.
Scrape pesto into large, shallow serving dish. Add a ladle of hot, starchy pasta water to the pesto. Drain penne and veggies and add immediately to pesto. Toss to coat pasta and vegetables evenly. Adjust salt and pepper, to taste. Serve with extra grated cheese to pass at table.
Portabello Mushroom Salad
4 portobello mushroom caps, wiped clean and very thinly sliced
4 ribs celery and their green tops, thinly sliced on an angle
Handful flat-leaf parsley, picked of stems but left whole
1 lemon (Heads up: you'll need lemon zest for the pesto later, so zest and reserve before you cut this lemon to juice it for this salad.)
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, eyeball it
Coarse salt and black pepper
A couple of handfuls shaved Parmiginao-Reggiano
Arrange the mushrooms and celery on a platter and scatter the parsley leaves around. Squeeze the lemon juice evenly over the platter then liberally drizzle the salad with extra-virgin olive oil, about 3 tablespoons. Season the salad with salt and lots of black pepper and toss with your finger tips to combine. Using a vegetable peeler, shave cheese and scatter a couple of handfuls Parmigiano-Reggiano over the salad.
Serve with some garlic bread from the grocery store for a really yummy, fast meal!
Another idea for cooking for 10 in 30 minutes :)
Soft Cheese Board
2 (10-ounce) tins smoked almonds
1/2 pound wedge Brie with herbs
1/2 pound wedge Saga blue
1 (6-ounce) log goat cheese, any variety
1 baguette, sliced at bakery counter
1 pound grapes (black, red, or green), separated into small bunches
Pour nuts into large snifter and set on cheese board. Arrange cheeses with baguette slices and clusters of grapes. Place a few spreaders near cheeses and set out where guests will gather.
Basalmic Roast Pork Tenderloin
4 1/2 pounds pork tenderloins, 2 packages with 2 tenderloins in each package
4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
8 cloves garlic, cracked
Steak seasoning blend or coarse salt and black pepper
4 sprigs fresh rosemary leaves stripped and finely chopped
4 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves stripped and finely chopped
Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.
Trim silver skin or connective tissue off tenderloins with a very sharp thin knife.
Place tender loins on a nonstick cookie sheet with a rim. Coat tenderloins in a few tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, rubbing vinegar into meat. Drizzle tenderloins with extra-virgin olive oil, just enough to coat. Cut small slits into meat and disperse chunks of cracked garlic cloves into meat. Combine steak seasoning blend or coarse salt and pepper with rosemary and thyme and rub meat with blend. Roast in hot oven 20 minutes.
Let meat rest, transfer to a carving board, slice and serve.
Roast Ratatouille
2 large red bell peppers, seeded and cut lengthwise into 1-inch wide strips
5 baby eggplant, quartered lengthwise
6 baby zucchini, quartered lengthwise
5 plum tomatoes, quartered lengthwise and seeded
2 shallots, peeled and sliced lengthwise
Extra-virgin olive oil, to coat
Coarse salt and pepper
Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.
Working on a cookie sheet, combine vegetables. Drizzle liberally with extra-virgin olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Toss to coat vegetables evenly. Roast until just tender, 15 minutes. Transfer to a serving platter
Tortellini w/Pesto
4 ounces chopped walnuts
2 family size (18-ounce) packages, cheese or mushroom and cheese filled fresh tortellini (sold on dairy aisle of market)
1 cup chicken stock or broth
10 ounces (1 package) baby spinach, reserve a few leaves for garnish
2 cloves garlic
2/3 cup (a couple of handfuls) grated Parmigiano or Romano
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg or freshly grated
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
Edible flowers, optional plate garnish, nice for parties
Toast walnut pieces in a small pan or toaster oven until lightly browned. Remove from heat and cool.
Place a large pot of water on to boil. When it comes to rolling boil, salt the water and cook tortellini to package directions.
Heat 1 cup chicken stock or broth to a boil and remove from heat.
Using a food processor, working in batches, grind spinach leaves with nuts, chicken stock, and garlic. Transfer ground spinach nut paste to a large bowl. Stir in the cheese, nutmeg, and olive oil, and season with salt and pepper, to taste.
Coat hot, cooked tortellini with sauce, tossing in the bowl you prepared sauce in. Turn pasta out on to a serving platter and garnish with a few baby spinach leaves and edible flowers.
A taco bar is really easy. You can cut up the lettuce and tomatos early in the day. Buy already grated cheese, premade guacamole, salsa and sour cream. Use a taco seasoning pack like Schillings or McCormacks and the meat will cook very fast. A store bought lemon cake or key lime pie and Ole you got a party. Have fun
Seeing that the Sandwhich was invented during a card game, may I sugest a bunch of mini sandwhiches. Take those 12 packs of dinner rolls and make mini burgers, make mini rubens and tuna melts and club sandwhiches using those mini bread loaves from the deli. Serve it with Mini corn dogs as an hor dourve with Lots of Brews or soda.
serve rostbeef
Seafood Platter from Red Lobster
potato skins
deviled eggs
mixed drinks
soda
veg/fruit tray with dip
chips with dip
chips with salsa
fondu chocolate
peanuts
GOOD LUCK!
Do a salad bar. Cut up different fresh veggies and greens. Put out several types of dressings. Let them put together their own. You don't want to be in the kitchen while your guests are there and all of this can be done ahead of time. You get to enjoy the party too.
fresh mussels steamed in white wine and garlic for an opening appitizer which is easy. shiz up some fresh roma tomatoes with basil and olive oil for a tapas of the new ritz dip ready crackers, for dinner, combine smoked salman, cream cheese, chives and chipoltle peppers, spread on cold bread triangle {crust cut off} and topped with radish shredds. finish with a refreshing and cooling fruit compote. berries, cantelope and watermellon drizzeled with a litte balsamic vinegar reductions should do it. end the event with those lovely mints that melt in your mouth, and you will be the talk of the town {in a good way}
If it's a casual dinner try taco salad. Get the bowls that are hard taco shells and just set up a buffet line for the people to come through and add what they want. Then they can either eat the bowl or just throw it away so there's less for you to clean up. You could also do the same thing with tortillas or pita pocket bread.
If it's a more formal dinner a really good spagetti sauce can have people taking for days....The easyiest thing to do is get a jar or more depending on the size of the group and just throw any meat or veggie left overs in your fridge into the sauce and let it simmer for a few hours. There's no way you can go wrong...
check out www.allrecipes.com they have loads, with advice, ratings and reiews by people who have actually made the recipe, and also pics of what it turns out like - by real people. try chilli, thats always good, or a curry, soup for a starterr is quick and easy. what about a lasagne, make a giant one, you can make it healthier by using turkey instead of beef.
Do 3 courses: A greek feta salad, lamb, and then a dessert with wine and bread.
Well, I am going to do a theme thing here.
Sandwiches
Jello Jigglers
Sheet Cake
Chips & Dips
Drinks
The first three items -- cut into shapes - Diamonds/Spades/Clovers/Hearts -- use metal cookie cutters or a steady hand.