Entertaining

Start small, a cup of tea or coffee and some biscuits. move on to light lunches: salad, nice bread and cheese or soup. For main meals serve the dish you most enjoy eating so probably are most comfortable cooking.

There is this vague belief that somehow if you ask friends around for a meal you need to impress them with your culinary expertise or serve very expensive food stuffs. That is rubbish. Inviting someone or people for a meal is done to enjoy their company, food is irrelevant. Invite them and order in fish and chips, nobody will mind.

The best hostess I ever knew who had the best dinner parties, over 25 years had only two menus. When times were good we got bought pate, roast beef, and bought deserts. When she was poorer we got lasagne instead of beef. Nobody noticed the food. No one turned down an invite she just collected a mish mash of friends plus her chaoitc personality and, I nearly forgot, an awful lot of red wine and we all had a wonderful time.

She died 10 years ago and I still miss her and her dinner parties.

M , thanks. For a start, I should clear all the clutter off the chairs and make the sitting room look welcoming.
And make a few biscuits this afternoon.

I agree with starting small. Friends for coffee and a bun or tea and shortbread perhaps. Soup and bread lunch is also a good starting point.
A friend who clearly felt a bit like you seem to, following being widowed some years ago, decided to have a massive dinner party for just about everybody she knew (she has a big house) involving caterers, buying trendy tableware, no expense spared and hoped that it might lead to a few invitations for her. (She lives in a part of the country which is still very “coupley’ when it comes to entertaining)
Result?
Zilch
I really felt for her and it still saddens me.
You could also do Sunday lunch for family or friends whose family live a distance away, it is surprising how many people have a lonely weekend imagining that everybody else is having a non stop social whirl.
BTW I I need to practise what I preach as since Paw died, I have been feeling a lot like you!

I do home made soup along with bread, cheese, pate and a few salad leaves so that people can make a sandwich if they want. People's appetites vary and I find that if you offer simple food people are more likely to take you up on your offer.
What Maw says is very true; a lot of lonely people imagine they're the only ones in that situation.

Thanks everyone. In terms of homemade soup do you have a good recipe?

We are entertaining at lunch time tomorrow. DH's cousin and her husband are holidaying from Devon and staying locally. I'm making salmon and salad with new potatoes. For dessert, I'm making a strawberry pavlova, the meringue shell of which I will have to make this evening. It's such an easy thing to make, but looks npressive if you have time to swirl the meringue into peaks around the top!

My old favourite is a cream tea . Quick and easy to knock up some scones , with a big bowl of clotted cream and a good quality jar of jam - delicious and a bit ' special ' imho .

Hmmm afternoon tea seems very popular. I might do one of those and invite various people.

Maw. That will be another difficult "first". Probably a good idea to not leave it too long and get it over with. Good luck.

Maw, I feel so sorry for your friend. What a horrible bunch of rude and thoughtless people.

We're staying in our son's flat at the moment ( they work abroad so aren't here.) His FiL and partner live just around the corner and they've been very good to them so I must make an effort and ask them for a decent meal.
Hoping to get inspiration from this thread - like you, loopyloo, I've got out of the habit of entertaining.

With the weather getting warmer it is easier to do a salad with cold meats or quiche and a simple desert bought in from Marks or Waitrose. If you go for a tea or coffee party then a small selection of cakes, preferably homemade, will be fine. However it's the company that matters IMHO.

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Looks awful!!!
Loopyloo I have a Morphy Richards soup maker. Bought it after recommendations on GN. Use it regularly for friends coming for lunch. Leek and potato, curried parsnip, carrot and lentil are our favourites. You can prepare the soup maker and because it takes 21 minutes to cook and blend we switch it on when guests arrive. Brilliant!

Afternoon teas? Don’t go overboard. A few ham sandwiches, cucumber sandwiches, (crusts off), scones with jam and cream and some little cakes.

Served with nice pot of tea or prosecco.

When we have stayed with French friends, I noticed that all they ever cooked was a very simple main course. The starter might be charcuterie or salad and the dessert course was usually patisserie from the boulangier.

I actually like cooking and so usually do it myself, but most folk are not that keen on cooking and buying ready-made is perfectly OK.

Well so far I haven't done any of this promised entertaining! I seem to be busy weeding and picking blackcurrants and gooseberries. Grand daughter has a dance festival this weekend and we are providing some drinks. The ice is giving us the greatest difficulty. How to keep it frozen for long enough!