Ideas for Hubby's Birthday Dinner

[Veronica]

Y'all always have such wonderful ideas, and I'm hoping you can help me plan my husband's birthday dinner this weekend. We're having 8 people over . . . most of whom like everything except seafood, but one who really likes red meat (my husband) and one who doesn't (my mother)! Both will tolerate each other's favorite foods, but I'd like to please my husband but make something lean enough that my mom will enjoy, too. I want the main dish to be something that I haven't served before. These are some of the things I've served at some of my husband's previous birthday parties:

marinated pork tenderloin
lasagna
marinated flank steak
chicken enchiladas
chicken, rice & artichoke casserole
steaks on the grill

If you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them. I would prefer something that I can prepare in advance and spend no more than a half hour getting on the table. Something with lean beef would probably be preferable, but, at this point, I'm open to anything. It's already Monday & I haven't come up w/a menu yet, so I'd appreciate your suggestions!

I can probably come up with side dishes, but if you have suggestions, I'd appreciate them, too.

For dessert, I'll make my husband's favorite--pecan pie--and a blueberry coffee cake.

Thank you!!

[JA]

My husbands favorite is the Filet Mignon with Peppercorn Mustard Sauce from October '98. Served with mashed potatoes, most of the prep work can be done ahead.

Julie

[Jewel]

My family's favorite sounds simple, but its got a very elegant presentation. Because it's a crock pot recipe, it also has the added bonus of making the house smell wonderful, which is always nice when company is coming! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/biggrin.gif I call it Mushroom Stroganoff, and I'm trying to include the link to the Crock Pot Cooking thread we did a few weeks back: http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/Forum1/HTML/005659.html

About halfway down the thread, if you're interested. If you go that way, it would have to be about a 5 or 6 lb roast, so I would say double the recipe. May be hard to do with so many people! The good part about this one is that you can pre-cube the beef and put it in a ziploc the night before, and pre-cut all the veggies. All you have to do in the morning is open cans and toss the pre-cuts into the big crock pot! Good luck!

[Susann]

A while back, Ed posted a recipe for a delicious port mushroom sauce. It is out of this world with a good steak. Phoebe had the brilliant idea of serving it with tofu and noodles, which might make your Mom happy. You should be able to do a search for it. Let me know if you can't find it.