Dinner Party

This past week I had a couple over for dinner. Nothing fancy, just basic food for the 4 of us. I like to find out what people like or more importantly what they don t like and cook accordingly. Also, I don t really want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen so I planned for most of this meal to be done in the oven and all finish at once so all I needed to do was plate it and serve it.
This takes just a bit of planning and saves you a lot of time.
My menu was
baked pork steaks
meatloaf
baked potatoes
stuffing
squash casserole
Texas Roadhouse green beans

All but the green beans went in the oven. All baked at 350 degrees. You need to plan what pans you will be using and while the oven is cold place them on the oven rack to make sure they fit. You need to leave some space around the pans for heat distribution.
Earlier I had diced half a butternut squash and boiled it until soft. I mashed it up and added brown sugar and butter, place the mixture in a baking dish that had been sprayed with cooking spray and placed it in the fridge.
You can also make the meatloaf ahead of time and refidgerate and wash and wrap your baked potatos ahead also.
One hour and fifteen minutes before your serving time place the meatloaf and the potatoes at the back of the oven rack.
Now prepare your pork steaks and stuffing. Place them on the oven rack in front of the other two items. The oven rack should be in the center of the oven.
By placing the first two items in a bit earlier it gives them a bit of added cooking time as the temperature of the oven is just slightly lower than you would normally use.
Keep in mind the squash is already cooked and you are merely baking it to heat it through. If there is not enough room on the center rack, you can place in on the next rack down, which is what I did.
Now, set your oven timer for one hour.
The Texas Roadhouse Green are made with canned beans, so place those in a pan on low and go enjoy your company.
Everything will finish at once and Bingo there is dinner.
You can do this with a great many meals. The trick..pans that all fit in the oven and knowing your cooking times and cooking temperatures. A slight adjustment up or down and starting the longer cooking items first saves you a lot of hassles.

Hope you found this useful.

**By searching the blog you can find recipes for the above items.**