I love entertaining on Friday nights. The pressure is off because guests, bless their little hearts, expect a no-fuss meal. Trust me, that is what I give them after a full work week.
With a life that is busy times 10, I'm always on a quest to find new ideas to make cooking in the fast lane easy, delicious and fun. And even on a Friday night, I want to surprise my guests. Not in the oh-my-gosh-the-soup-is-black kind of way. It might be as simple as a `50s-style casserole with an unexpected update using fresh ingredients, or a tea bulb that opens like a water lily in a see-through pot.
Here are five things to cook or buy that make entertaining easier and more fun. I'll start with two alternatives for the main course. They are essentially one-dish meals that only need one side dish (preferably an accompaniment that takes just a few minutes to prepare).
1. Casseroles are groovy, again
"Bake Until Bubbly" (Wiley, $22.95), a new book by Clifford Wright, offers readers casserole recipes that team with fresh ingredients. In the `50s, when casseroles reigned supreme, they were loaded with canned and processed foods. Many of Wright's concoctions incorporate a farmer's market mindset.
"I used very little processed foods in there casseroles," Wright says. "What's wrong with a topping of sauteed bread crumbs rather than crumbled Fritos? They taste better."
I love his Lobster and Mushroom Casserole, a classic Cape Cod party dish that is absolutely luscious. But food cost reality directs me to the chicken aisle, where whole fryers just might be sale-priced. I can throw one in the slow cooker (without any liquid) and cook it overnight on the low setting. Cooled enough to sink my paws into, I can shred the meat and discard skin and bones. Then, if needed, I can easily cut it into bite-size cubes.
Wright's Chicken Strata probably isn't like your grandmother's. It's light and airy, with the earthy taste of butter-sauteed shiitake mushrooms throughout. And it's a great dish in which to use some economical cubed chicken.
The traditional recipe called for canned cream of mushroom soup, but Wright whips up a brandy-enriched cream sauce that is irresistible. Don't panic, the sauce is simple. You just place ingredients in a blender and let it whirl.
And like most strata recipes, it's prepared in advance and refrigerated overnight (or for at least one hour). So the work is done ahead of time. On the side, a mixed green salad loaded with fresh vegetables turns this dish into an easy meal.
2. Home-style Indian food is a hot topic
Cookbooks themed to easy-to-make Indian dishes have been the rage over the last year. I have a stack of them waiting for me to tackle, colorful Post-It flags staggered on pages with recipes to be tested. And although my heart is in the right place, I just haven't made the move.
But I couldn't resist a recipe for Chicken Tikka Masala in Cook's Illustrated magazine. The dish is a Westernized Indian concoction. Many credit its creation to a Bangladeshi chef working in a London curry restaurant in the 1970s. Both the name of the chef and the eatery aren't certain, but many restaurants lay claim to its invention.
It's an irresistible combination of flavors and textures. Chicken breasts are first marinated in fragrant spices, then dipped in a spicy yogurt mixture and broiled. The chicken is paired with a spicy tomato cream sauce that can be made ahead, refrigerated, and gently reheated. Slam the chicken into the marinade before your guests arrive, then dip in yogurt mixture and broil just before serving. If it's been a rough week, you can substitute Trader Joe's Curry Simmer Sauce for the homemade sauce. Want to save money? Use boned and skinned chicken thighs instead of breasts.
Accompany Tikki Masala with basmati rice or sauteed fresh spinach. If you're feeling ambitious, serve both side dishes.
3. Cheese course with easy IDs
While on a French vacation, my friend Marcia Kay Radelet and I fell for the slate boards used to serve cheese. We loved the idea of writing the name of the cheese in chalk next to each selection. With hundreds of cheeses in the marketplace, I like to serve a few new-to-me cheeses when I entertain. But by the time the cheese course rolls around, I often can't remember the specifics. So the chalked info makes easy work of naming each cheese.
Marcia Kay found the slate boards at Crate & Barrel. The charcoal-gray slate is quarried in Vermont and is covered with a food-safe sealer. It is backed with felt and available in two sizes (20-by-12-inch boards are $24.95 and 12-inch- square boards are $18.95 www.crateandbarrel.com).
4. Theater at the table
After dinner, knock their socks off with some tea drama. Teaposies are tight little 1-inch bundles of hand-sewn flowers and silver needle white tea. Place one in a glass teapot and it blooms into a showy flower after boiling water is added. It takes about four to five minutes for the "flower" to fully open.
They are hand-crafted in the Fujian Province of China. The tea is harvested, dried and withered for two hours at 212 degrees to remove impurities. Then each leaf is sorted into bundles by length and weight. These tea bundles are then sewn together with jasmine, calendula, rose, lily, amaranth, camellia, chrysanthemum or carnation flowers to form the design. Before each teaposy is individually vacuum sealed, it is mixed with jasmine flowers to absorb the alluring scent.
I was concerned about safety standards on a food product exported from China. As it turns out, teaposies must meet world-class safety standards. The tea is checked at the Tea Quality Supervision and Inspection Center where a quality safety analysis is performed. While the FDA does not have standards for imported tea, these inspections ensure that they meet the strict standards of Europe and Japan.
Available at Sur La Table (www.surlatable.com), glass teapots for two are $21.95; a set of six assorted teaposies is $19.95.
5. Cookies from Martha plus a wacky cleanup tip:
Most of the cookies featured in Martha Stewart's new cookbook, "Martha Stewart's Cookies" (Potter, $24.95), require a little extra time to make them precise and gorgeous. I chose a humble drop-cookie, an Oatmeal Raisin recipe that requires a lot less time to make than most other selections.
They are a hearty little treat with ingredients that include toasted wheat germ and a generous amount of raisins. You can substitute dried cranberries for the raisins. Or dried cherries or chopped apricots. For chocolate lovers, sub in some coarsely chopped semi-sweet.
M-m-mmm, a perfect finale. Well, almost. How about a whimsical cleanup? Wear some Slipper Genies and scoot around on hardwood, linoleum or tile floors. The micro-fiber bottoms on these dandy slippers will do the dusting. When you're finished, simple toss them into the washing machine. They are available at Sur La Table (www.surlatable.com) for $9.95 (plus shipping if ordered online). Slippers fit women's sizes 6-9.
Too bad they don't make those cleanup slippers for dogs. My terrier could multitask while searching for post-party floor treasure.
