It has long been noted that the best things in this world happen spontaneously. And if guests unexpectedly appear on the doorstep, such a surprise promises a lot of pleasant moments. And for the evening to be a success, all that remains is to prepare a quick and tasty festive dinner within the allotted time.

Sandwich impromptu

It is for such occasions that sandwiches were invented, which can easily be turned into a festive snack. Yesterday bread is perfect for it, which we cut into slices 2 cm thick and dry in the oven or in a frying pan without oil over low heat. We will spread the bread with mayonnaise, to which we will add chopped herbs, a clove of garlic passed through a press and salt with spices. And we’ll decorate our sandwiches with olive rings. Thin Armenian lavash will be a real lifesaver for preparing a holiday treat. The variations of fillings for it are endless: squid, Korean carrots and chicken, cheese and ham, tomatoes with herbs and feta cheese, etc. You can grease the pita bread with the same mayonnaise with garlic, then roll it into a tight roll and cut it into portions.

Turkey in corn bushes

Another good idea for a holiday dinner is turkey with an Asian twist. First of all, fry 3 cloves of garlic and a little crushed ginger in a deep frying pan in sesame oil. Add turkey fillet (500 g), cut into small cubes and, stirring occasionally, fry it for 7-8 minutes. Next comes leeks cut into rings, slices of bell pepper and a couple of spoons of fish sauce. Lastly, add small cobs of corn into the pan. Next, dilute 1 tsp. starch in a quarter glass of water, pour this solution over the turkey and vegetables and wait a few minutes until the sauce thickens. Season the finished dish with pepper and sesame seeds.

Visiting a forest fairy tale

Add salad recipes to the menu for a quick and festive dinner - and the success of the evening is guaranteed. A win-win option would be a salad of champignons with Parmesan and herbs. To begin, fry 2 chopped garlic cloves, a few chopped sprigs of fresh parsley and 200 g of diced champignons in a frying pan. Place slices of celery stalks on the bottom of the salad bowl, pour them with fresh lemon juice, 2 tbsp. l. olive oil and let sit for a couple of minutes. Cover the celery with torn lettuce leaves and sprinkle with grated Parmesan. Place warm mushrooms with garlic and herbs on top, then sprinkle with grated cheese again.

Pasta in cheese and tomato dressing

The most ordinary pasta will help you prepare a festive dinner quickly and inexpensively. We will deal with them first, namely, boil them until tender in salted water. For this recipe, it is best to use a pound of penne pasta. And while they are boiling, we will prepare the sauce. Fry half a glass of almonds in a frying pan, add a clove of chopped garlic, 30 g of grated cheese, salt and pepper to taste, mix thoroughly. In a deep, heated frying pan, simmer finely chopped tomatoes (1 kg) until they release all their juice. Add the nut-garlic mixture to the tomato mixture and cook on the fire for another couple of minutes. Dilute the sauce with a small amount of water in which the pasta was cooked, then mix it with the prepared penne.

Romance of lemon and fish

Fish gourmets will certainly be pleased with fried trout in lemon juice. Moreover, it can be prepared very quickly. Rub several pieces of fish fillet with salt and pepper and roll thoroughly in flour. Place them in a heated frying pan with butter and fry over medium heat until golden brown. It will take no more than 5 minutes. Then turn the fish pieces over, fry for another 2-3 minutes, transfer them to a plate and cover tightly so that they do not have time to cool. Fry thin slices of lemon and thyme in butter until they turn golden. Add a little chopped parsley, salt and spices to the pan to taste. Pour the resulting sauce over the trout and garnish it with fried lemon slices.

Dreams in sweet clouds

What would a holiday dinner be without a delicious dessert? An excellent solution for this would be homemade tiramisu. Beat 600 ml of cream with a mixer, gradually adding 4 tbsp. l. sugar and a little vanilla. Here you can experiment freely and add, for example, your favorite jam or pieces of fresh fruit to the cream. First you need to brew black coffee in which we will soak the cookies. Ideally it should be savoiardi, but any other recipe will do for a homemade recipe. Place the soaked cookies on the bottom of the pan, then generously cover them with a thick layer of whipped cream. Then repeat the layer of cookies again and cover them with whipped cream again. You can decorate this dessert with grated chocolate, crumbs from the same cookies, coconut flakes or crushed nuts.

Knowing how to quickly prepare a holiday dinner, you can always organize a small impromptu celebration for friends and family. You can also add your own quick and easy holiday creations to our collection of recipes.

Have you ever had to cook a holiday dinner for guests? And there is no signature dish with which you could surprise them?

Or even worse: is your cooking knowledge limited to simple, everyday recipes? Here’s our advice: if you don’t know how, pretend it’s easy for you! And don’t admit to anyone how things really are. And we will help with recipes suitable for the occasion.

A dinner party is not a disaster. Even simple dishes, when presented spectacularly, will make your table truly festive.

First, prepare the greens. Experts advise rinsing it and immersing it in settled water for half an hour to remove nitrates. After this time, dry the greens on a spread napkin. Now let's move on to our menu.

Prepare...

...sandwiches with sheep cheese and figs. You will need: Provençal baguette, light honey, sheep cheese and fresh figs. Cut the baguette into slices and dry them in the oven at 180° C. Place a little sheep's cheese and half a fig on each slice. Place in the oven for 10 minutes. Drizzle with honey. Ready!

...avocados stuffed with shrimp, celery and tomatoes. The amount of food will depend on how many guests you expect. Let's count for 8 people. So, cut 4 avocados in half and scrape out the pulp with a spoon (well, not right down to the skin, of course). Finely chop a few stalks of celery, cucumber, tomato and cut out avocado pulp. You can add any greens. Salt, pepper, sprinkle with lemon juice and season with mayonnaise. Stuff the avocado halves with salad and top with a few boiled shrimp. Garnish the appetizer with lemon and serve on small flat plates.

...turkey stuffed with apples, oranges and lemons. Wash the bird, season inside and outside with salt, pepper and garlic. Take lemons-oranges-apples in any proportions. Stick the whole lemon into the turkey. Cut the apples into fairly large slices, and the oranges into slices. And send these fruits after the lemon, adding chopped nuts. Sew up the bird. Coat it with honey diluted with water. Place the turkey, back down, on the grill and arrange the sliced ​​apples and potatoes around it. Cover this structure with foil. Under the grill with the bird, place a container into which you pour 2 glasses of water (if necessary, then add more). Place the turkey in the oven for 15 minutes, preheated to 230° C. Then switch the heat to 180° C and wait about 2 hours for the result. Check the bird periodically and water it with the juice that has formed on the baking sheet.

... "Panna for the cat." For 5 servings you will need: 300 ml of cream (22%), a bag of gelatin (10 g) and 3 tbsp. spoons of vanilla sugar. Soak gelatin in 3 tbsp. spoons of cold boiled water for 3 minutes. Then put it on low heat and dissolve, stirring. Don't bring it to a boil! Heat the cream over low heat and dissolve vanilla sugar in it. Don't boil! Pour gelatin into the cream, cool slightly and pour into molds. Place them in the refrigerator overnight. If you are short on time, put the dish in the freezer for about 1.5 hours. Remove the dessert from the molds. Garnish with fruit.

Snacks

Snacks are the main decoration of any table. Therefore, take care of variety. Cuttings, fruits and pickles - this goes without saying, but with light snacks you will have to tinker a little. For example, you can make original sandwiches that go great with white wine.

Here's another nice recipe. Take 200 g of lightly salted trout, 2 cucumbers and approximately 100 g of Philadelphia cheese. Cut the cucumbers into slices. On each, place a thin piece of fish spread with cheese.

Main course

Depending on the tastes and preferences of your guests, choose poultry, meat or fish. There are many ways to prepare them beautifully, tasty, and most importantly - without unnecessary hassle.

For example, a bird baked in the oven looks simply wonderful! We do not recommend messing with a duck or goose. They have tough meat that takes quite a long time to cook, so it’s better not to take risks. If you want to please your guests with a large beautiful bird with a golden brown crust, take a turkey - it will turn out very impressive.

By the way, the bird can be baked in a culinary sleeve - this will simplify the process. But be careful with meat. It is important to choose a good piece so as not to serve your guests with a hard sole. Gogol’s capricious “inspector” Khlestakov spoke well about this “treat”: “This is not roast... The devil knows what it is, just not roast. This is an ax fried instead of beef...” Therefore, it is better to bake the meat too - this way it will certainly turn out juicy.

Take half a kilo of fresh pork, rinse thoroughly and dry. Cut 3 cloves of garlic, one carrot into slices and stuff the meat with them. It's simple: use a thin, sharp knife to make fairly deep punctures in the pulp and insert garlic and carrots into them. Place 1 teaspoon of ground black pepper, 2 teaspoons of dry mustard, 1/2 teaspoon of rosemary and a pinch of ground red pepper into a cup.

Salt and add 1 tbsp. spoon of olive oil. Rub the meat thoroughly with this mixture and let it sit like this for a couple of hours. The meat can be made at the same time as the side dish. Peel the potatoes and onions, cut them into large rings, sprinkle with spices, salt and sprinkle with olive oil. You can also add a sour apple. Place the potatoes and onions in the cooking sleeve, and place the meat on them. Tie on both sides and place in an oven preheated to 200°C for about an hour.

If your main dish is fish, then take a larger sea fish, wash it thoroughly, remove the insides and scales. You need a lot of salt: for 1 kg of fish - 1 kg of salt. Mix sea salt and coarse table salt in a 2:3 ratio. For 1 kg of salt there are 3 proteins and 4 tbsp. spoons of water. Place half of the salt mixture on a baking sheet, top with fish, which should be covered with the remaining salt. The fish must be thoroughly walled in salt “dough”. Preheat the oven to 240° C, place a baking sheet in it. Fish weighing 1 kg is baked for about 25 minutes, fish weighing 3 kg - 45. Let the finished dish stand for 5 minutes, and then carefully remove the salt crust. Remove the meat from the bones and place on plates.

Dessert

If you are not “friendly” with baking, it doesn’t matter! There are many delicious, beautiful and delicate desserts, which, by the way, can be prepared in advance, which is extremely useful in such a situation as preparing for a dinner party.

Make it beautiful

Don't forget to use your imagination to decorate your holiday dishes. Greens, beautifully chopped and arranged vegetables, berries and thin slices of lemon will help you here. And if you take a small hot chili pepper, cut it lengthwise into strips, leaving them attached at the base of the fruit, and put on ice, the pepper will “open up” and take the shape of an exotic flower. Or you can make ladybugs from cherry tomatoes - there are many options!

Quite recently, when we invited friends to a dinner party, we didn’t look for new recipes and delicacies, since we filled the table with everything that was in the house at that time. Marinades, pickles and a host of pre-prepared snacks were on display. In preparation for the arrival of guests, we made a variety of salads, jellies, aspic and other dishes that were served before the hot main course.

A lot has changed now. In our modern society, preferences have become different. It’s becoming more and more difficult to surprise your guests with something. We offer several recipes that can satisfy even gourmets.

Let's prepare an original dinner party. The recipes for the dishes described below will not be familiar to many of your guests. For example, the dish is Coc-au-vin, which translated from French means rooster in wine.

The dish is prepared quite simply, so it can also be used for a family dinner, the recipes of which are well known to everyone and have been tried many times. This will add variety and increase your appetite.

We will need a one and a half kilogram poultry carcass and 150 grams of not very fatty bacon. The bacon must be cut into cubes and fried in an ungreased frying pan. Once the bacon has rendered the fat, set aside the cracklings as we will need them later. Cut the carcass into pieces, add salt and fry in the oil rendered from the bacon. Let's put the finished pieces out of the frying pan, and in the remaining oil we will sauté pre-chopped onions, 3 onions are enough, and a quarter of a kilogram of chopped champignons.

At the end of the sauteing, add a spoonful of tomato paste. Pour in half a liter of red wine, for example Burgundy or Beaujolais. And continue to simmer the sauce for 10 minutes. Then add the prepared pieces of our chicken and bacon cracklings to the pan. To thicken, you need to prepare bechamel made from 20 g of flour and 50 g of butter. Carefully introduce it into our dish and cook for about half an hour. The finished dish is served with vegetables, which can be steamed in advance, and herbs.

When planning a dinner party, you can choose the most extraordinary recipes. This unusual dish would be pike quenelles served with mashed potatoes and spinach.

Of course, this delicacy is unlikely to be included in a family dinner, the recipes of which have been selected for a long time, but it is quite suitable for a dinner party. So, for quenelles you need to buy a pike up to two kilograms and clean the carcass of scales, remove the head and remove the tail. The pike needs to be gutted and then cut into fillets. Place the finished fillet in a meat grinder with two slices of white bread and one large onion. Salt the prepared minced meat and season it with ground pepper, preferably white.

Then prepare a puree from a kilogram of boiled potatoes with 100 ml. cream and three yolks of chicken eggs. Salt the finished puree to taste.
After this, take 400 grams of spinach, sort it, wash it and blanch it in boiling, slightly salted water with a few drops of lemon juice.

Let's prepare quenelles from minced pike. Shape them with two tablespoons and steam them. Next, place the squeezed and chopped spinach on a refractory dish, place the prepared quenelles on it, and finish the dish with mashed potatoes. Heat, without bringing to a boil, 250 ml. cream and add 2 yolks. Place the resulting mixture on the fire and bring until thickened. Season with salt, pepper and chopped dill. Pour the prepared sauce over our dish with lined quenelles, mashed potatoes and spinach and put it in the oven for 10 minutes. The delicacy is ready. Moreover, this dish is not only a invited, but also a healthy dinner.

Planning a dinner party? The recipes are not over yet. Let's cook for an Irish-style dinner party. Such a dish is not a completely healthy dinner, the recipes for which are recommended by nutritionists. But it will definitely surprise you with its unusual taste.

To prepare, we will buy 100 g of bacon, cut it into cubes, a leg of lamb weighing 2-2.5 kg, garlic and chop it. For this dish you need 100 grams of honey, 50 grams of pepper juice, star anise and spices.

Trim off excess fat from the lamb, but not all. We make cuts in the lean meat and fill them with small pieces of lard. Mix the chopped parsley and other ingredients and generously rub our leg of lamb with this mixture. Then carefully place it in the cooking sleeve. The leg must be placed so that the top layer of film does not adhere to it in order for a golden brown crust to form. Lamb is baked over low heat for 2 hours.

Prepare any dish for your dinner party, the recipes are specially selected for lovers of different meats. Bon appetit to you and your guests!

By what time? Would anyone please grab a salad or a chocolate cupcake from the bakery?

Let's say the guests arrive at eight, and you sit down at the table at half past nine. I offer a menu and a step-by-step description of your actions. Don't be nervous and don't be afraid of anything, and everything will go fine.

Menu:

Avocado with mint-lime sauce

****
Mushroom risotto

*****
Green salad with dressing

*****
Meringues with fresh raspberries

******
Coffee with chocolate

It is better to buy products ahead of time. The day before dinner, go to the supermarket. Take a cart: the cart won't be enough this time. Moreover, with a cart it is much more convenient to cross off purchases from the list, think about and break in shoes purchased specifically for dinner.

You will need:

2 ripe avocados,
- 1 lime,
- 3 large onions,
- 1 head of garlic,
- packaging of green salad,
- packaging of lettuce,
- packaging of watercress,
- packaging of fresh champignons (choose large ones),
- 2 packs of fresh raspberries,
- bouillon cube,
- a pack of long grain rice,
- packaging of dried honey mushrooms,
- two packs of meringues (about one hundred and fifty grams),
- a jar of French salad dressing,
- a little powdered sugar,
- 1 container of whipped cream,
- fresh parmesan,
- 3 hungry guests.

In addition to the above, don’t forget wine, tea, coffee, mineral water and flowers. The whole day is ahead: do you regret that you got involved with dinner? Call your invitees back - suddenly their plans have changed. If you change your mind, it’s easy to find a worthy replacement!.. The night before, make dessert and let it sleep in the freezer. If dinner takes place in the middle of the work week, prepare everything in advance. If an emergency happens, you can generally limit yourself to dessert and coffee, but don’t think about it yet, tune in to the maximum program.

Try to clean up and put things in order beforehand.

You don't want an early guest to see you with a vacuum cleaner, do you?

Let's synchronize our watches, the countdown has begun!

18.00 Set the table. Don't forget flowers, elegant napkins, scented candles. By the way, how are you going to seat the guests? Candles, wine, meringues - the atmosphere allows you to start a romance...

18.30 Prepare risotto - after all, the main dish, and the most hassle with it. If you're worried, you can cook it the night before... No, sleep is much more important! Place the finished risotto in a heatproof dish.

19.00 Put yourself in divine form: dress, shoes, hairstyle, light makeup, valerian... (I’ve already told you how to get ready in five minutes.)

19.40 Place olives, croutons, and snack cookies on a flat plate. Put on a disc that suits your mood (I also taught you how to choose music).

19.45 Prepare the plates. Remove the avocado, quartered lime and mint from the refrigerator.

19.55 Light the candles and spray with perfume.

20.00 Greet guests and offer wine.

20.15 Look which of the invitees is late.

20.20 Invite guests to the table.

20.26 Run to the kitchen: cut the avocado and serve it right away.

20.30 Eat avocado with your guests.

20.40 Slip unnoticed into the kitchen, put the risotto in a cool oven and, if you haven’t done this in advance, put the salad into a dish. Take the dessert out of the refrigerator.

21.00 Collect plates, offer guests more wine, bring clean plates and salad.

21.05 Serve risotto.

21.15 While the gluttonous guests are devouring the risotto, sneak into the kitchen and put the dessert on a plate. I hope he looks no worse than yesterday?

21.30 Collect the hot plates and invite them to take a break. Let them look at your CDs and choose what they want.

21.35 You are back in the kitchen. Decorate the meringues with raspberries and sprinkle with powder. Dessert is ready.

21.40 Serve dessert.

22.00 Invite guests to move from the dining room to the living room. The most disciplined will take the plates to the kitchen.

22.30 Serve coffee and chocolates.

23.00 I hope the guests enjoyed everything, although they are already getting ready to go home...

23.30 Clearly hint that tomorrow is a working day.

23.45 Clear the table and wash the dishes. I understand that you are tired, but you need to do this today.

00.30 Take a bath and go to bed quickly.

How to Walk in High Heels by Camilla Morton

"No problem!" - you will say after reading Camilla Morton’s book. Because any problems can be easily solved. You will learn how to get ready for a date urgently, run in high heels, and skillfully apply makeup. You will learn how to effortlessly remove a wine stain and prepare a dinner party; you will be able to easily handle any sophisticated equipment. It won’t be a problem for you to stop a flood, enter a burning hut, screw in a light bulb in record time, and even change a tire. And all this with dignity, grace and style. Still would! After all, your instructors in all these intricacies will be Manolo Blahnik, John Galliano, Kylie Minogue, Vivienne Westwood, Sophia Loren, Stella McCartney, Madonna, Oz Clarke and many others.

• — Stuffed pork chop —

  Ingredients:
  Thick bone-in pork chop - 2 pcs.
  Garlic - 2 cloves
  Dill seeds - 1 tsp.
  Kosher salt - 0.5 tsp.
  Lemon zest - 2 tbsp.
  Olive oil - 1 tbsp.
  Provolone cheese - 2 thin slices

  Preparation:
  1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
  2. Cut pockets into the pork chops by using a knife to make a 2-inch cut on the side away from the bone and go all the way down to it.
  3. Crush the garlic with a knife, finely chop the dill seeds, mix it all with salt, chopped lemon zest and olive oil.
  4. Rub the mixture onto the outside and inside of the “pockets” of the chops, then place the cheese inside, closing the cut with toothpicks if necessary.
  5. Heat a frying pan over medium heat, add a little olive oil and fry one side of the chop for 3-5 minutes until golden brown.
  6. Turn the meat over and continue frying for about another minute over medium heat, and then transfer the pan to the oven, where the meat should remain for about 5-6 minutes. The dish is ready!

• — Pasta with chicken and spinach —

  Ingredients:
  Chicken thighs - 6 pcs.
  Onion, chopped - 1 small onion
  Porcini mushrooms, chopped - 200 gr
  White wine or chicken broth - 0.3 cups
  Chopped parsley - 2 tbsp.
  Fresh spinach - 3 large handfuls
  Dry pasta - 200-300 gr
  Gruyere cheese, grated - 1 cup

  Preparation:
  1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Keep hot water ready for pasta.
  2. Season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper, then place them skin side down in the bottom of a cold nonstick skillet.
  3. Bake the chicken over high heat until sizzling, checking periodically to ensure the skin does not burn to the bottom.
  4. Reduce the temperature to 170 degrees, cover the pan with a lid and leave in the oven for 15-20 minutes, periodically turning the thighs over and reducing the heat if they suddenly start to burn.
  5. Boil the pasta. While straining, place the spinach in a colander and pour boiling water over it from the pan with the pasta. Stir the contents of the colander and set it aside.
  6. Drain all but a couple of tablespoons of fat from the pan with the cooked chicken. Add the onions and mushrooms there, and then fry it all for about 3-5 minutes. Pour in the wine or broth, cook for about another minute and add the contents of the colander.
  7. After simmering the contents of the pan over low heat for a few more minutes, add the cheese and stir everything well. The pasta is ready!

• — Tilapia with Parmesan —

  Ingredients:
  Telapia fillet - 4 180g fillets
  Panko breadcrumbs - 1 cup
  Grated Parmesan - 1 cup
  Chopped fresh basil - 2 tbsp. + for garnish
  Lemon zest from 1 small lemon
  Kosher salt - to taste
  Olive oil

  Preparation:
  1. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius.
  2. Mix crackers, cheese, basil, grated lemon zest and salt in a plate.
  3. Drizzle the dry fillet with oil, season with pepper and roll in a mixture of breadcrumbs.
  4. Place the prepared fillets on a baking sheet on a baking sheet and place in the oven for 15 minutes or until the surface is lightly browned.
  5. Before serving, garnish with basil.

• — Hamburger Hot Dish —

  Ingredients:
  Onion, chopped - 1 small onion
  Minced beef - 400 gr
  Pasta - 200 gr
  Tomato sauce - 400 gr
  Ketchup - 2 tbsp.
  Cheddar cheese, cut into cubes - 150 g (optional)

  Preparation:
  1. Cook pasta, drain and set aside.
  2. In a large frying pan, fry the minced meat (or meat), adding salt and pepper to taste.
  3. Add pasta, tomato sauce and ketchup to the meat, stir well and, reducing the heat to low, cover with a lid. Cook, stirring, for 15-20 minutes.
  4. Before serving, the dish can be decorated with cheddar cheese.

• — Lasagna with cheese —

  Ingredients:
  Olive oil - 2 tbsp.
  Sausage without casing - 200 gr
  Onion - 1 small onion
  Sliced ​​mushrooms - 200 gr
  Chopped spinach - 400 gr
  Marinara sauce - 600 gr
  Water - 1 cup
  Lasagna sheets - 250-300 gr
  Fresh basil, chopped - 0.25 cups
  Burrata cheese, cut into small pieces - 250 g

  Preparation:
  1. Fry the chopped sausage in a 60-centimeter frying pan in olive oil, then add the onions and mushrooms. Cook for about 5 minutes.
  2. Add spinach, mix with sauce and water.
  3. Place about 2 cups of sauce and fried mixture from the pan, and transfer the rest to one side.
  4. Place most of the lasagna sheets on the empty side and try to distribute it evenly over the entire bottom, transferring the sauce from the opposite side on top of the sheets.
  5. Place the remaining lasagna sheets on top of everything and distribute it evenly, then repeat the same with the sauce set aside and the fried mass. Cook lasagna for 12 minutes over low heat, covered.
  6. Place the cheese on top of the lasagna and place the pan under the broiler in the oven for a couple of minutes to melt.
  7. Sprinkle the dish with fresh basil and let rest for about 10 minutes before cutting and serving.