Japanese curry is both easy and a crowd pleaser. I saute whatever veggies I have on hand and just add curry mix and water to it (S&B medium spice is my go to brand). Serve with flatbread or rice. It’s very forgiving and customizable to personal taste.

Babish’s Panko Crusted Salmon.

It’s stupid easy & relatively quick. The hardest part for me was the egg white. Had never done it before.

If you’ve never done it before, & break the yolk on the first try… don’t dump the egg, just save it for breakfast. Yes, I dumped the egg.

Link to video, I think it’s the second dish, towards the middle.

Link to recipe is in the video description.

Edit: PipedBot shamed me.Link to recipe if you don’t want to go to YouTube.

Usually a sausage ragu and Brian Lagerstrom’s foccacia. Honestly the foccacia is the real star, I make it for every guest the first time they come over for dinner, even the 2 hour version is delicious. The dough requires a little bit of work but it’s straight forward and I’ve never had a bad result. Main course just needs to be something Italian or Italian adjacent that doesn’t need the oven, since I try to have the bread ready a few minutes before serving. Ragu’s a staple for us because you really just need five ingredients (pasta, crushed tomatoes, onion, garlic and italian sausage) and it’s mostly just sitting around waiting for things to cook, so you have time to talk to your guests.

Mostly depends on the culture / palate of your guest. What I’d make for for someone who mostly eats takeout is quite different from what I’d make for someone that only eats Ramen and Kraft dinner.

Most likely I’d just make macaroni salad or macaroni casserole though, because everyone likes that.

I asked my mom for the family recipe, to use as an example in case you’ve never had it.

Cook some macaroni noodles and then cool it under running water. Cube cheese, ham, pickles. Hard boil a couple of eggs. I like them smashed to a paste and mixed in with the salad, but my family just has them as a side dish. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl with Miracle whip and seasoning salt.

If you want, you can make it a casserole by skipping the pickles + eggs, adding a cup of shredded cheese, and mixing it all together with a can of condensed tomatoe soup. Then bake it in a casserole dish until all the cheese melts.

I can make a mean stir fry. Basically anything on a grill or stovetop