Most things I serve at dinner are make-ahead by my definition, which is that less than 10 minutes of work are needed at service time.

Examples:
Any kind of roast meat. You take it out and rest for 1/2 hour, during hors d'oeuvres, then carving takes a couple minutes.
Same with roast veg.
Almost any kind of pasta and sauce. The sauce is simmering and waiting, the water is boiling, all you do is put in the pasta, drain it, and serve. There's only a few pastas I make that want to be prepared right before serving (carbonara, say).
Stews and casseroles, of course.
Stirfrys, most can be prepared ahead and held warm, or assembled then given a quick final stirfry to heat.
Salads, as long as you dress right before service, a 30 sec task.
Braises, simmers, slow cooks. All are pretty much do-aheads.

The stuff that requires much last-minute work, for me, are mostly some variant of frying. Deep frying, sometimes pan frying. Also steaming sometimes, like dumplings, they are best when freshly steamed. Some fussy sauces. Oh, and grilled things. I mess those up regularly.

Make ahead hors d'ouvres...
Black Olive Tapenade
====================
Olive Tapenade
2 large garlic cloves
1 3/4 cups pitted Kalamata olives
4 anchovy fillets
1 1/2 tablespoons drained capers
2 to 4 Tablespoons fresh basil
1 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
salt/pepper to taste
. Finely chop the garlic cloves in a food processor. Add olives, anchovies,
capers, basil . Process until almost smooth. Add lemon juice. With machine
running, gradually add the olive oil. Blend mixture until smooth. Season
tapenade to taste with pepper. Transfer to a small bowl. Serve on slices of
french bread.
Options:
Use some or all green olives
add small can of quality tuna
add 1 to 2 tablespoons brandy
add more anchovies

Savory Blue Cheese Tart
1 10 inch unbaked pie shell
1/2 cup chopped pecans
6 Oz cream cheese
2 eggs
4 Oz Maytag blue cheese
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp corn starch
Ripe olives and chives to garnish
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sprinkle nuts in the bottom of
pie shell. Mix the next 6 ingredients in a blender or food processor
and pour slowly into the crust. Garnish with sliced ripe
olives and chopped chives. Bake 35 to 40 minutes until set.
Cool and refrigerate 2 hours, cut into 12 wedges and arrange
on a platter

Snackers
1 ring Dutch Balogna ( about a pound )
2 medium yellow onions ( about the size of a baseball)
Slice and layer in a crock or straihgt sided bowl
In a sauce pan place 1 c. cider vinegar, 1 cup water and 3/4 c sugar and 1 tsp mustard seed ( whole). Bring to a boil and pour over meat and let stand un refrigerated for 24 hours. Serve with cocktail rye.

Salad, black bean and corn
1 can of black beans, drained
1 cup frozen corn
1/4 cup diced sweet onion
1/4 cup diced bell pepper, green yellow or red
2 roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
2 T chopped fresh cilantro
Make dressing:
2T sugar,
2 cloves garlic crushed
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 cup good quality olive oil
Whisk all together�.and pour enough over salad to moisten.save any remaining and refrigerate for another use. Refrigerate at least 1 hour....overnight is good.
Serve bean salad on lettuce and top with slices of grilled chicken if desired.

and I have many more desserts, salads and main dishes if you want.
Linda C

Linda C, Is Dutch Bologna a regional thing? I tried to find it here so I could make your recipe and couldn't find it anywhere.

Dutch balogna or Ring balogna....found anywhere the Dutch or Germans cure meat....Pennsylvania, Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio, Massachusettes .....and on line.
Not the same as kielbasa or
Lebanon balogna.
Linda C

ANDREA'S "ALMOST" HOME-MADE HERB BREAD

1 large (bakery bought) Homestyle bread - UNSLICED
1 teaspoon flaked thyme
1 teaspoon flaked savory
1/2 pound salted butter - softened

Cream the herbs and butter together. I crush the herbs in my mortar and pestle a little first. Cut off crust on all sides of the bread except for the bottom. Cut bread in 1" thick slices but not all the way through (keep it joined at the bottom). Spread butter mixture on all sides of the bread in between the slices, including the top and sides like you are frosting a cake. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for twenty minutes at 350 degrees. Remove from oven, cut slices all the way through and in half if you wish and enjoy. (Leftovers, if any, are good the next day warmed in foil.)

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NOTES : This can be prepared ahead of time. Refrigerate until the butter hardens, then cover with plastic wrap. When ready to bake, take out of fridge a half hour or so before you want to bake it and remove plastic wrap. Make sure the cookie sheet has sides -- some butter will melt on the pan. Recipe is so easy; the hardest part is finding the flaked savory (sometimes called summer savory). In Florida, I found it at Fresh Market; in Ohio, Penzey's Beachwood.

I had to wrack my brains for a make-ahead birthday dinner. One thing I ended up making was stuffed potatoes.

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1950,149183-227207,00.html

They need more cheese than the recipe calls for, and I added bacon and sauteed onions. The basic recipe was good, though, and they really didn't suffer for sitting around for a day or two. I don't mind a little complicated prep, as long as I don't have to do it in front of guests.

Marinated vegetable salads MUST be made ahead and left to chill out in the refrigerator. This recipe is a favorite:

Marinated Vegetable Salad

1 cup sugar (I use less, maybe 1/2 to 2/3 cup)
3/4 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (16 oz) can French-style green beans, drained
1 (16 oz) can Sweet English Peas, drained, or 1 1/2 cups cooked frozen peas
2 (14 oz) can Shoepeg Corn, drained
1 (2 oz) jar diced pimento, drained
1 cup chopped celery

Mix sugar, vegetable oil, pepper, and salt in a saucepan; bring to a boil. Cool. Toss dressing with remaining ingredients. Mix and chill for at least 8 hours.
Serves 8 to 10.

Another must make-ahead salad:

Twenty-four Hour Salad

Use in of the following ingredients layered in a large glass bowl or casserole, layered in this order:

chopped iceberg lettuce
chopped fresh spinach leaves
1/2 package frozen green peas, thawed
1 small thinly sliced red onion
1/2 lb. crumbled, cooked bacon
2 chopped hard-cooked eggs, chopped
1/2 to 1 cup grated sharp or medium cheddar cheese

Combine:

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
opt. 1 TB sugar
opt. 2 TB finely grated Parmesan cheese

Spread over top evenly to seal in salad ingredients. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate up to 24 hours.

Optional: top the creamy dressing with a sprinkle of paprika for some color.

My best make ahead is overnight refrigerator rolls. I cut them out after the dough has rested for an hour in the refrigerator, put them on a parchment lined baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight. When ready to bake, take them out, let sit for 10 minutes and then pop them into the oven. Hot, rising-high rolls for dinner. The reviews explained how to make your own self-rising flour for this recipe: 4Cups minus 2 Tblsp all-purpose flour, adding 2 Tblsp baking powder, and 2 tsp Kosher salt. The author called them Southern biscuits but these really are dinner rolls. My idea of Southern biscuits is a crumbly texture - while this is smooth.

Nancy

Here is a link that might be useful: Overnight Rolls