My easiest dinner for friends - crab cakes, cole slaw, sliced tomato, and corn pudding. Chocolate chip cookies for dessert. Mix the crabcakes, assemble the cole slaw, and make the corn pudding in the morning. Corn pudding and crab cakes go in the oven later.

One of the chicken sheetpan recipes from Nyt, good crusty bread, and baked apples

My go to is seared scallops. They are last minute but only take 5 min to cook. I have the rest of the food ready to go. Hot pan, dry scallops, half oil, half clarfied butter. I serve with great bread, green salad and a starch like Martha’s oven risotto.or this time of year maybe baked squash.

Ina's Lemon Chicken Breasts are basic and simple but taste great and are a go-to for me when I want something that a 10-year-old would eat! I serve them with an oven-baked rice pilaf with some colourful veggies in it and a green veg and/or salad.

I also like the Chicken with Olives and Feta from Epicurious - I serve with with Lemon Orzo, but it is risky with the olives and feta if you don't know if your guests like them or not. It was a family standard until a new boyfriend came on the scene; his one and only dislike is olives! He has said, he can just eat around them but I haven't tried it out on him yet.

One of my favorite meals for a dinner party (right up there with lasagna or spinach stuffed shells) is Ina Garten's Baked Shrimp Scampi. I know I have mentioned it here a lot lol -- but it is easy, can be made ahead (up to the point of cooking-- which takes ~15 min) and is a real crowd pleaser. It is more interesting than traditional shrimp scampi and the shallots, lemon, garlic are intoxicating!

I like to serve with asparagus and linguine.. but rice or another pasta works well.. it is also great on it's own. Add crusty bread and a side salad and you are set!

Note: to have a dish that looks as pretty as above, it takes only an extra minute or so to arrange and "stand the shrimp up". I have also found that it works best in a round or oval baking dish.

Do you like seafood? this takes awhile, but can be made the day before and cooked the day being served. All you need is bread and maybe a salad. We don't do the salad. It is one of the few things my husband requests.

https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/seafood-lasagna/

Agree with Mtn that (Melissa Clark especially) the NYT has great sheet pan chicken with roasted vegetable recipes. I’d say pick one with the veg you like, because the cooking times listed are based in part on the type of veg featured. To that I would add a tossed salad and probably rice (we love the Royal Blend of long grain, jasmine, brown, red and wild rices). Brownies and ice cream are a very simple dessert that everyone (but me!) likes.

I was going to suggest shrimp scampi as well. If you get peeled and deveined shrimp it's so easy. And you probably have the rest of the ingredients in your kitchen.

Thank you!

We have variations of sheet pan dinners all the time. I can do that easily, but I think I’m going to try Funky’s shrimp scampi! Yum.

But now I have other good ideas and I’m filing them away. I have friends coming for dinner next week too!

I hope you enjoy it as much as my friends and family do!

If you are using frozen shrimp be sure to get tail on shrimp (and yes, peeled and deveined, if possible) and put it in the fridge tonight so it is defrosted.

I usually cut back the amount of butter-- but since this is your first time, maybe stick with the recipe as printed first.

I use the same wines I drink .. can't say if it makes a difference because I've always done the same.

We tend to like the browned bits of panko and shallot on top-- so I will do a quick flash under the broiler. I don't brown it all.. just enough that there are some slightly browned pieces but not so much you overcook the shrimp.

Enjoy!

Sounds like you’re set for now, but I wanted to add this idea to consider for next time. I haven’t tried it yet because I can’t find either of ny springform pans, but it looks great. Butternut squash lasgna pie https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1023449-butternut-squash-lasagna-pie

For my overnight guests, I did a ham in the crockpot, a broccoli casserole (no noodles, just sauce and muenster cheese) and baked acorn squash. They enjoyed it. I had wilted cucumber salad as a side and apple crisp w/ice cream for dessert.

I'm copying lots of these suggestions--especially the shrimp scampi! Here's one more for the future--our favorite baked salmon made super easy with this packaged rub Seeded Salmon Rub. You can get it from their website or on Az. It is foolproof and looks very pretty with the sliced lemon on top. You can see the cooking instruction in the link.

ETA: just looked at the cooking instructions. I do not add the final garnish of sweet red wine and butter.

I also keep a recipe box full of menus that I served to various visitors over the years...I add notes about how things turn out, where to find the recipe and whether or not the amount purchased was too much or too little. Flipping through the cards helps me make sure I don't repeat for a visitor, and that I recall good recipes from the past that may have fallen by the wayside over the years.

Shoot, Oly. I saved that recipe from the times and meant to make it this week while dh was traveling. Oops, he got back today and I forgot. Going to have to try it one of these days.

Assuming there are no dietary or religious restrictions, I find pork tenderloin an easy main entree meat to work with. It cooks quickly and can "rest" while guests arrive, etc. It can be savory, or also have that fall-like sweet with apple/squash flavors.

An easy menu would be:

Marinated pork tenderloin (marinate the morning of, with a garlic/herb concoction). Roast, slice, serve with a mustard gravy--gravies can be made ahead of time and heated before serving, or they can be a quick mix of the tenderloin drippings.

Roasted new potatoes with garlic and rosemary. Or a wild rice pilaf.

Fall salad with ingredients that can be prepared in advance, like quinoa or farrow, roasted root vegetable, and apple cider vinaigrette over a bed of greens. Add walnuts, crumbled bleu cheese.

Also, make a good soup when you have time, and freeze it so you can serve it later. You can thaw it the morning of, serve with a salad and good bread. Most soups get better with time.

I rarely prepare desserts myself, and rely on local bakeries and specialty shops.

Do you like Chicken Marbella? I made it once because I kept reading rave reviews in the cooking forum. I never follow a recipe exactly... iirc, I used breasts and made it sans capers and extra olives, but I took a quick pic to remind me that it would be a good easy company meal.

Another recipe with raves from the cooking forum is Korean Beef Bowl. It's so quick and easy to make, but I use sliced beef rather than hamburger. To me it looks company worthy and I have been thinking of trying it out on some friends soon. :)

Jojoco, I make the same pinwheel recipe with flank steak, pounded and marinated first. Everyone loves it— and I never thought to try it with chicken. I’ll bet it would be great with a butterflied pork roast also. Thanks for posting!

@jojoco i do a similar chicken dish-- but I roll the chicken with a mixture of sauteed spinach and shallots mixed with herbs and parmesan... and roll the chicken spiral in grated parmesan (fine powder) before baking. It's not only great served on a dollop of marinara for a dinner party but I also slice it up for a pretty Christmas Eve appetizer.

Would love it with pork too-- great idea, @Kswl!

I live a marinated flank steak (soy sauce, honey, lemon, veg oil, green onions) with rice and broccoli. easy peasy