Easy Dinner Party Menu

Elegant Easy Dinner Party Menu for Eight

Find make ahead recipes like these for your dinner party - it'll make your preparation much more relaxed as most of the work will be done prior to your big day.

Planning:

Pumpkin Soup
I followed the easy soup recipe and prepared this the day before.

Lasagna
This was from my easy lasagna recipe. I'd made two the day prior, one smaller one for freezing and the larger one was reheated in the microwave for 20 minutes on medium high and served piping hot. This dish is ever popular and looks divine on a beautifully set table.

Roast Turkey Roll
I purchased a 1.5kg turkey roll from the supermarket.

How to Roast:

Preheat the oven at 190C.

Line a baking tray with aluminum foil. Put the turkey roll in the middle and cover loosely with another sheet of foil. Tuck the top sheet loosely at the sides to prevent the top sheet flying around in the fan oven. But keep the long sides open so that the hot air can circulate freely.

Tear 3 little holes in the top of the top sheet of foil, to assist circulation.

Bake for 1 hour at 400F/190C.

Remove the top sheet, bake for 10 minutes to brown.

Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

Then place on a platter and carve at the table.

This is a remarkably easy dish to roast and attractive on serving.

Salad

A deconstructed salad is elegant and different. This is a salad where the ingredients are displayed separately in the wide salad bowl. There was no dressing as a contrast to the tasty soup and lasagna.

The ingredients of the deconstructed salad were chosen for color and texture.

• crisp fresh lettuce leaves from 1/2 a lettuce
• 3 roma tomatoes
• 1 yellow capsicum
• 1/2 bunch of grapes

This salad hardly takes 10 minutes to put together.

Tip
Be certain to wash the lettuce leaves earlier to allow sufficient time for them to dry, before you add them to your salad bowl.

Bread

We served 2 types of bread:

A stick of crusty french loaf

A freshly baked whole grain loaf

Dessert
For dessert, there could be nothing simpler than the Divine mango mousse.

Served with vanilla ice cream, this looked fabulous with the deep yellow mango contrasting with the white cream in the mousse and white ice cream. ...and it tastes delicious!

Naturally, I'd made this the day before and just pulled it out of the fridge prior to serving.

Cakes With Coffee
From the freezer, I'd taken out my pre-made little fruit cup cakes. I had made a number of these very easy fruit cup cakes some weeks earlier and froze them.

So, I defrosted 8 fruit cupcakes and served them with coffee and tea at the end of dinner.

Success!
Every morsel was finished.

Not only did the table setting look lovely, but the food served at this easy dinner party menu was delicious.

By following this easy dinner party menu, you'll enjoy a no stress party.

Preparation The Day Prior

1. Cook pumpkin soup

2. Cook lasagna

3. Prepare Divine Mango Mousse and refrigerate

4. Defrost fruit cup cakes

5. Buy drinks, salad ingredients, ice cream and turkey roll

Preparation On Day
The work required that day to prepare for the party was:

1. prepare the salad - 10 minutes

2. set the table - 30 minutes

3. Roast the turkey roll - 1 hr 10 minutes - time this so that it's ready to serve when your guests have arrived

4. Reheat precooked meals - lasagna - 20 minutes, Soup - 20 minutes

5. Purchase fresh bread

6. Arrange defrosted fruit muffins attractively on a tray

As this is such an easy dinner party menu, and most of the work is done the day prior, you'll get a chance to really enjoy the company of your guests.