Menu Planning

You could make em sushi? Looks impressive and is. Especially with wasabe and Kikomman soy sauce ... my stomach is rumbling, luckily I have a can of Fabas Asturianas left over from last Christmas ...

Sushi hasn't come to Cowen Country yet - where (unless you get flavourless crap from the supermarket) it's impossible to get really fresh fish until Thursday. I know.

I'm whizzing the veg for the lentils as I speak. I think that might be enough adventure for some of them...

Maybe you could go along the theme of the book itself? If it was Collapse you could make a souffle

It's called My Sister's Keeper and it's a about organ donation - a kidney, to be specific. You might be on to something there...

Nothing at all to say here except that I love this thread! Bonkers!

Well, maybe I do have one suggestion: a hot fruit sauce over a good ice cream, as well as being a cinch to prepare, always goes down well in my experience. Hot raspberries or peaches are particular favourites. Crush some amaretti biscuits over the top and away you go. You can prepare the fruit before your guests arrive and heat it through just before serving.

I was looking for a recipe for garlic mayonnaise or alioli / aioli - it's delicious ! - and I found a forum of jamie oliver - http://www.jamieoliver.com/forum/viewforum.php?id=22

Anyway I'd like to stay and post the full recipe for alioli which could be used as a starter dip with fresh veg like carrots and whatever but my stomach is churning with the hunger reading some of this stuff... time for a bag of curry chips

Kate P wrote:

It's called My Sister's Keeper and it's a about organ donation - a kidney, to be specific. You might be on to something there...

Kidney beans! Make something with kidney beans!

Well. Clubbers just gone and dishwasher on.

The evening didn't go according to plan for me - I ended up being home much later than expected (so late I had to defer the start time) and it was really hot this evening here so I ended up making a huge bowl of Caesar salad with lots of extras (bacon, walnuts, grapes...) and garlic bread (bread with garlic in it from Tesco, toasted and then drizzled (or drowned) according to taste with olive oil.

And homemade lemonade.

The trifle didn't get made this morning and so ended up as a chocolate toffee strawberry cake.

Summery suggestions for next month gratefully appreciated.

We thought about taking the Lisbon Treaty as our book - but went instead for No Country for Old Men.

(No old men will be harmed in the making of that meal, Audi).

Thanks for ideas last night, guys.

Twas a hot day indeed - a pure day for a barbeque if you ignore the breeze. Next month Katie get the bbq out and spare ribs with sweet chilli sauce and green salad with toasted almonds and lime/olive oil dressing - it'll be wonderful or paella with seafood O you're in the midlands... cream for dessert .. cream with something .. meringues home-made and use the egg yolks for a sauce I can't remember the name of now over asparagus as a starter ...

What's No Country for Old Men? It doesn't sound like it might bear any relationship to my sweet chilli suggestions up there. Bacon and cabbage instead maybe?

Or just go vegetarian.. Are you the hostess next time too?

perhaps a nice coconut based chicken curry served with rice and sprinked with corriander leaves, Avoca have a receipt for one that is devine and perfect for large groups, though takes a few hours to cool..... popadoms on the side are also most excellent.....

Mmmm. Do you have a recipe for that drbob?

I don't believe in cooking anything more complicated than a baked potato and a pot of stew for large numbers of visitors. I would rather be able to spend the time with them and not have to dart into the kitchen.

At this time of the year I would hit the farmer's market and buy delicious breads and cheeses and other people's successful home baking.

Plenty of crunchy garlic bread with good olive oil in it.
And plenty of smoked salmon and brown bread.

drbob wrote:

perhaps a nice coconut based chicken curry served with rice and sprinked with corriander leaves, Avoca have a receipt for one that is devine and perfect for large groups, though takes a few hours to cool..... popadoms on the side are also most excellent.....

Popadoms only if you also have Geeta's Premium Mango Chutney!! .... and Peshwari Naan ...yummm

this thread is indeed bonkers but brill.

It is bonkers - but have you seen the Men's Stuff thread? MN Gold already.

Yes, Audi, I hostess every bookclub night (except when we go out) and it's supper, rather than a dinner party. We all sit at the kitchen table and there's always someone or two early to sort out dishes or whip cream or whatever. It's grown into a very cosy gathering. It's not fussy or fancy. I'm not usually actively cooking when they arrive unless it's last minute pasta or something like that - so the lentils (which I'll be eating for a week now!) with sausage would have been ideal if I'd time to get good sausages and it wasn't so damn warm here.

I like to feed people. Sad really.

Kate P wrote:

I like to feed people. Sad really.

The warmth of the days has given me an idea, how about making gazpacho for the next book club meeting? Combined with an array of cold cuts, salads, breads and cool drinks, it would be the excellent antidote to these very stuffy and humid days we're having.