Single guy to prepare entree for family: suggestions?

Cafe Society
1

The title pretty much says it. I volunteered to bring the main course to friend’s house (wife, two kids as well).

Now I’m not a total buffoon, but most of my large-meal-preparing tends to be done on a grill. Last week I fed this entire family at my house (chicken breasts and corn on the cob on the grill, potatoes in the oven, salad in a bowl). I also made some homemade salsa with chips for an appetizer.

But without a grill (they live in a 2nd story apartment) I feel naked. I’ve been cycling through ideas, but haven’t settled on anything. The circumstances are the limiting factor - it has to either be prepared here by me and cooked there fairly quickly, or cooked here and be able to survive a 15-minute ride to their place.

I’ve come up with several mundane ideas: meatloaf, casserole, lasagna. They will work, but I was hoping for something more original.

Any dopers out there with some bright ideas? I can’t get TOO wild, because there is an 8 yr old and a 5 yr old that must attempt to eat this as well.

Thanks!

2

I’m confused: is it a main course or an entree you’re doing?

3

Well, color me unsophisticated. I guess I use the terms interchangeably…then again, I said I wasn’t a TOTAL buffoon. That doesn’t rule out PARTIAL buffoonery.

But after making your point, I’m sure that you get the idea…a casserole, or meatloaf, or chicken breast is the type of “thing” that I am looking for.

The overworked wife and gradeschool kids will not care if they are eating an entree or main course, I hazard.

4

Hmm… you’re good on the grill? In that case, let me suggest one of the best recipes I’ve ever run across (courtesty of my mother, who knows everything).

Asian Chicken Skewers

Marinade:
Combine soy sauce, scallions, garlic, ginger, basil, pepper, cooking sherry, and a pinch of sugar. Put in ziplock bag.

Cut boneless chicken breasts into strips, put in ziplock, marinate overnight.

Soak bamboo skewers in water overnight, skewer appropriate amounts of chicken, grill righteously.

Serve with peanut sauce. (Peanut sauce: heat chicken/vegetable broth, add peanut butter, chopped peanuts, and lime juice, simmer 5-10 minutes. Season with soy sauce, pepper, basil, garlic, ginger, red pepper, and anything else you think’d be good.)

Yeah, it’s basically a bastardized version of Chicken Satay, and an overgrown appetizer at that. Sue me. I really like it for a number of reasons: it’s a good interactive meal, kids tend to enjoy it, it travels beatifully (it actually tastes better cold/at room temperature than it does hot, and thus makes excellent food for buffets, fundraisers, picnics, and so forth,) it’s super-easy, it can be doubled with almost no trouble, is cheap to prepare, and it gives you an excuse to grill. Oh, and it’s absolutely delicious. Honestly, this is one of the two or three coolest recipes that my mom ever taught me, especially if you need to feed a crowd. I actually carried a batch home on the plane with me, once. Now, that was a tough flight. Mmm, airborne chicken. Bon appetit…

M.

5

Do you own a wok and some tupperware?
Do your hosts?
If so, just do a big stirfry.

You can prepare all the veggies and marinade the meat at your place, and cook it at theirs.

Just remember to use lots of ginger, garlic and scallions and not too much soy (high sodium, bad for the kiddies) and you’ll be fine.

If you’re really bad at that kind of cooking, there are lots of really good ready made asian sauces, spice mixes and marinades in the stores.

6

Something that is semi-easy to make and will reheat well- Moussaka! Great Greek dish, fairly simple and people lurves it.

http://www.eatgreektonight.com/recipes/entrees/moussaka.html

http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/adb/1298/mussaka.html

You just have to be careful when making the sauce for the top- don’t leave it alone, stir constantly. Other than that, it’s easy and yummie. It’s traditionally with lamb, but you can use ground turkey or beef. It will survive a 15 minute ride just fine, but if you re-heat it in an oven, do it at a preheated 225 degrees for 20 minutes or thereabouts.

Pick up some baklava at a bakery or bring a bottle of Ouzo and you’ll be set.

-Tcat

7

In the U.S. Entree = Main Course. And unless you are used to 5+ course meals it pretty much means that everywhere else.

For 5+ courses, you might have

Appetizer
Soup
Sorbet
Fish Course
Entree
Main Course
Dessert
Cheese

To the OP I would just suggest that if you want to impress and don’t mind the wastage, make what you intend a week before as practice, and serve it to a few friends you have invited over. This is great help for confidence, and making sure your quantities are correct and flavours are well ballanced. Also ask friends what their kids like to eat, you’ll score major points if they eat what you make, and don’t worry if they won’t eat your food 5 and 8 year olds are the pickiest people you can find :wink:

8

Pizza Hut.

good luck

9

First of all, it’s next to impossible to screw up pasta. Okay that’s going a bit far but it’s really the easiest thing you can do. Pasta sauces are really simple to make and then all you need to do is cook the meat for it seperately. Assuming complete and total lack of clue on how to approach this you can do this:

One package of pasta; this sauce may turn out a bit thin for you if things go bad so I’d recommend Rotinni since it can work pretty well with everything.

A medium onion

Two cloves of garlic; the clove is that little section in the bulb, not the bulb itself. You can substitute that conveniently pre-chopped garlic here and if you don’t like garlic you can take it down to one

A red bell pepper; green will work but I like it better with red

Two 14 ounce cans of diced tomatoes; don’t use the tomatoes from the produce section you need the canned here

Roughly three tablespoons of Olive Oil; don’t bother with Extra Virgin since it won’t add anything to this recipe

Basil and oreganno; it would be better if you get the basil fresh but if you can’t the dried stuff won’t screw things up. You shouldn’t need very much of either of these; a teaspoon will do

Your meat; I’ve used this sauce with a few different things but these days I mainly use it with chicken. Go for the boneless, skinless chicken breast in that case.

Start by putting a big pot of water with about a teaspoon of salt in it (don’t sweat the exact measurement on this; it’s not for flavor) on to boil for the pasta. You’ll likely need the larger burners on your stove top in a little bit so it’s okay to put it on the small one. Keep an eye on it as you go and when it reaches a rolling boil toss in your pasta. Be careful not to let it go too long; I have a friend who boils pasta until it’s a loose mass of starch and that is too far gone. Just after about five minutes pull out a piece and eat it. If it’s still got a bit of the hard crunch in the center give it a few more minutes and try again.

While you’re waiting for that water to boil dice up the onion and the pepper. Chop that garlic up rather finely as well. Into a large sauce pan you’ll want to put about a table spoon of oil (just a tiny ammount here), turn it on medium heat, and then put the onion, pepper, and garlic in and stir it until it’s soft. Sometimes I save half of them to cook with my meat but lets keep it simple for you.

Once the onions are starting to become kind of see through you’ll want to pour in the cans of tomatoes. Don’t drain them first, you want all the liquid from that to go in. Chop up the basil if you have to and add it and the oreganno in. Stir this up and wait till it starts boiling, then turn it down to simmer. Stir it occasionally but what should be happening here is some of the liquid should be coming off while the tomatoes break down. They won’t break down entirely but after about fifteen minutes you should have a pretty good sauce. Slosh the pan around a bit to see how thick it is and if it’s still watery just let it go for a bit longer.

Finally cook your meat while you wait for those other two to finish. You could go with grilling or chop some chicken up and sautee it in a bit of olive oil (what I typically do since it’s so easy).

10

I don’t think you can go wrong with a lasagna. It’s easy, inexpensive, filling, makes a lot, everyone likes it and it’ll stay hot for much longer than a 15-minute car trip. There are also about 5 million ways to make it so you can add something a bit different (like spicy turkey sausage or chicken instead of ground meat, or cheese sauce instead of tomato) if you want to be creative. If you are interested I can give you several recipes I make regularly and like a lot.

11

Thanks for the ideas, everyone! ColonelMoose’s Asian Chicken Skewers sound great, but since we’re having Chinese for lunch the next day I’ll save those for some other time.

I’ll try the moussaka with lamb sometime also.

It looks like I’m venturing into the wild world of homemade pasta sauces with Just Some Guy’s recipe.

12

romansperson I’ll take all the help I can get! (Meaning those recipes…) :wink:

13

Here’s my favorite lasanga recipe. Don’t try making it in a 13x9 baking dish - it won’t fit. Get one of those disposable aluminum lasagna pans from the grocery store and use that, or borrow a real lasagna pan from someone if you can. Transport carefully!

Hearty Vegetable Lasagna
1 (8 oz.) package lasagna noodles
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 zucchini, sliced thin and quartered
1/2 cup peas
1/2 cup shredded carrots
2 (26 ounce) jars pasta sauce
1 tablespoon dried basil
2 (3 oz.) cans of Broiled in Butter mushrooms in garlic
2 (15 ounce) containers part-skim ricotta cheese
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
2 eggs
1 cup fresh spinach
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Directions:

  1. Cook 9 of the lasagna noodles in a large pot of boiling water for 10 minutes, or until al dente. Rinse with cold water, and drain.

  2. In a large saucepan, cook and stir onion, garlic, zucchini, peas and carrots in oil. When softened, stir in pasta sauce and basil; bring to a boil. Add mushrooms. Reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes.

  3. Mix together ricotta, 1 cup mozzarella cheese, and eggs.

  4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spread 1 cup tomato sauce into the bottom of a greased lasagna baking dish. Layer 3 noodles over it, then add half the ricotta mix, half the spinach, half of the remaining sauce and half the Parmesan cheese. Add 3 more noodles and the remainder of the ricotta, spinach, sauce and Parmesan cheese. Place the last 3 noodles on top and sprinkle the remaining mozzarella over them.

  5. Bake, uncovered, for 40 minutes. Let stand 15 minutes before serving.

14

Here’s a ziti recipe I like, though it might be too spicy for kids. You can always use a milder sausage instead.

BAKED ZITI WITH SPINACH AND TOMATOES
3/4 pound hot Italian sausages, casings removed
1 medium onion, chopped
3 large garlic cloves, chopped
1 28-ounce can diced peeled tomatoes with Italian seasoning
1/4 cup purchased pesto sauce
10 ounces ziti or penne pasta (about 3 cups), freshly
cooked
8 cups ready-to-use spinach leaves (about 2/3 of 10-ounce
package)
6 ounces mozzarella cheese, cubed
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (about 3 ounces)
Heat heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add
sausage, onion and garlic and saute until sausage is cooked
through, breaking up meat with back of spoon, about 10
minutes. Add tomatoes with juices to pan. Simmer until
sauce thickens slightly, stirring occasionally, about 10
minutes. Stir in pesto. Season sauce with salt and pepper.
(Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Bring
to simmer before continuing.)

Preheat oven to 375 F. Lightly oil 13 x 9-inch glass baking
dish. Combine pasta, spinach, mozzarella and 1/3 cup
Parmesan cheese in large bowl. Stir in hot tomato sauce.
Transfer mixture to prepared baking dish. Sprinkle
remaining 2/3 cup Parmesan cheese over. Bake until sauce
bubbles and cheeses melt, about 30 minutes.

15

SALSA CHICKEN!!

The kids will like it too!

Cook a suitable amount of chicken breasts in a pan with olive oil, and add a few spices to your liking (an italian mix will do - but don’t add too much!)

Once cooked, transfer the chicken to a baking sheet, cover it with salsa and cheese, and place it in the oven until the cheese is melted.

Serve alongside pasta, or rice, or veggies or whatever you feel like. If you’re going as far as adding a bottle of wine to the meal, Baco Noir is a good choice, IMHO.