Company’s coming … now! Time to improvise a menu

When I lived in Little Rock, I ate out with friends once or twice a week, covering a range of cuisines and conversation topics. But the best meals were in our homes. The food was seldom fancy, but we were at ease.

So I asked on Facebook, “Say I called and invited myself to lunch or dinner. What could you make me using only what you have on hand?”

Some folks offered a menu. From Virginia: “I would make from scratch chicken noodle soup with the leftover roast chicken from last night. Or grilled chicken thighs over salad with goat cheese. Or panko-crusted fried pork chops with roasted cauliflower and butternut squash. Or my favorite pork tacos with avocado cream and Thai chili slaw. You are in luck — I went to the grocery store recently.”

From South Carolina: “A quiche, frittata or omelet with tomatoes and basil or onion, mushrooms, spinach. Or a pasta dish with olive oil and tomatoes and fresh parmesan plus good bread sliced and grilled on a black skillet with Irish butter or olive oil. With mixed green salad and homemade mustard red wine vinegar dressing.”

From Indiana: “Would you prefer pork, lamb, chicken or beef? And would you like that roasted, BBQ’d, smoked, stirfried or baked? And would you prefer broccoli, green beans, kale or zucchini? Since we raise most of our own meats and do our own butchering, the pasture’s the limit!”

Others were simpler — pancakes, pasta, pizza, tacos, chili, cheese and crackers, “some kind of egg thing.” From Chicago: “You like instant ramen?” And North Little Rock: “A quesadilla. Or a grilled cheese sandwich. Which is about the same thing.”

Some offered leftovers: Tex-Mex casserole and hot fudge cake, homemade chicken pot pie. Many offered soup — chicken and rice, vegetable beef, gingered butternut, and this appetizer from Seattle: “Homemade (but from the freezer) chicken-garlic-ginger-carrot soup. With a side of kale.”

And a simple menu from a grad school friend in Minnesota mentions the key ingredient in having friends over: releasing the anxiety of letting guests see that our cleanliness and neatness standards are, well, probably just like theirs. “I’d feed you spaghetti with a hearty red sauce, salad and good red wine, and I wouldn’t bother to clean up the house because we’ve practically been roommates, and I know you’ll love me no matter what!”