When was the last time you made dinner for people who don’t live at your house, and what did you serve? My folks are coming over tonight and I am making cheese and crackers to start off, Lemon thyme chicken (with fresh thyme) chopped salad, couscous , almond green beans, and for desert, fruitcake* and because Daddy asked, a chocolate cheesecake.
*home made by my friend. It’s the only fruitcake I like.
My brother was over last week, and strangely enough, we served him chicken and couscous. 
Sounds delicious, although I’ve never been a fan of cheese served before dinner. It’s too filling, and as a Francophile, I prefer it afterwards.
My GF likes to host dinners for all my still-bachelor college buddies. She usually browses the food websites and finds something interesting. The last one was white chili (made with chicken, great northern beans, and spinach) and corn muffins. Before that was pappardelle pasta with ragu bolognese.
I hosted a pair of friends for dinner last week, one of whom suffers from celiac disease.
I didn’t want to spend all afternoon in the kitchen, so it was a simple meal of grilled steaks, baked spuds, roasted broccoli and peppers and side salads. For dessert I made blackberry fool with homemade coconut biscotti on the side for thems of us who could eat them.
I made a dinner on Christmas Eve, at their place, for friends. There was a roast turkey, potato casserole, green bean casserole and strawberry sponge cake with whipped cream.
Technically, I’ve made dinner for people who don’t live at my house several times in the last month…but I was a guest at their house at the time, which is how it usually works out. When I have guests at my house, they’re usually there for activities other than meals, and we go out or order out when people get hungry.
The last dinner I prepared for people at their house was chicken and sausage gumbo, a salad/slaw with citrus dressing, salt-and-rosemary crusted bread, and chocolate fudge pie.
The last dinner-with-guests at my place was Thanksgiving, but that was a joint effort, with my main contributions being the mesquite-smoked turkey and pumpkin pie.
KFC and Neapolitan ice cream. I kid, but my granddaughters were here for an overnight and that’s what they requested. They are 3 and 6yo. I never cook for much more than family. Occasionally Mr.Wrekker has me cook up something (game meat)for his hunting buddies. They never eat it here.
Christmas dinner: potato pancakes, baked local ham, with sauerkraut, yogurt, and applesauce. I made it because it is my favorite meal, and so easy, especially when my husband makes the pancakes and I open jars. I think we had pecan pie and ice cream for dessert since I had made one for some pre-Christmas party or other and it was lying around.
I had my mother and sister over to watch Top Chef. Made some roasted salmon (meh,new recipe) , risotto (win!). My sister brought caprese salad & mom made sauteed green beans with garlic.
At least once every other month family comes over for someone’s birthday. We have dinner then birthday cake, etc for dessert.
The last one was right before Christmas. My 8 yo grandson requested tacos for his birthday meal. So tacos, fruit, chips, salsa, cheese dip, veggies and dip. He doesn’t like cake so he requested donuts! I bought 4 boxes of Kwik Trip glazed donuts (his favorite) and made a donut tower. Was he ever surprised when I presented it to him with candles. It was a big hit. We also had brownies and ice cream.
Then I did an “extra Christmas” the weekend after Christmas for people who were unable to come to town on Christmas. I did a brunch with pancakes, French toast bake, scrambled eggs with O’Brien hash browns, cheese and sausage (all mixed together), fruit, cinnamon rolls, bacon, OJ, chocolate milk. It was a nice change from the regular ham or turkey.
The last time was Thanksgiving with a traditional menu.
homemade lasagna, Caesar salad, Italian parmesan bread, cookies for dessert