Ooh … I love homemade chicken pot pie. You could make the filling the day before then fill individual oven dishes. To make it easy, you could add a square of puff pastry on top, put them in the oven in time for dinner. Serve with crudités, nice dessert.
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Oh, sht. Sorry, John. Squiddly Diddly came on, and I got distracted.
John did say the weather was back to normal, so maybe not Austin warm anymore.
Do you grill, John? I’d just grill a whole ton of goodies: different meats, sausages, peppers, onions, etc. Throw some potato salad together, fruit salad, some apps to start things off, and a steel toe boot to kick 'em all in the tuckus.
Scotch eggs! That’s your appetizer.
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Ideas:
From Simply French - Salmon on a bed of Creamed cabbage, side of mashed potatoes
middle recipe in this article http://articles.latimes.com/1993-05-13/food/fo-34496_1_schooling-fish/3
Devilled eggs
Baked potato bar - toppings to include BBQ beef, bacon bits, cheeses, butter, chives
Dessert - ice cream, cake for those who can enjoy it or top your own banana splits or bananas Foster
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Absolutely not, I’m afraid. As mentioned upthread, the BiL is Spanish. Not only that, he makes the best tortilla I know.
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Salmon is do ahead, easy serve and a crowd pleaser. Again, I just plop lemon slices on a whole side of salmon, seal it in foil and throw in oven. Couldn’t be simpler.
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Have we just entered the airspeed of an unladen African or European swallow Q&A portion of the show? 
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Run awayyyy!
“Bravely bold Sir Robin, rode forth from Camelot…”
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If you pick dishes that can be prepped and finished in advance, multiple dishes can make things easier.
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You have to realize that I’m awful old, so any way I can cut work time, I’m on it. In the end, no one will remember the difference.
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In the US, le veneziiane brand gf is pretty amazing. I used it for years in my restaurants and we were pretty well known for our gf offerings
https://www.vitacost.com/le-veneziane-gluten-free-corn-pasta-fettucce
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Excellent advice.
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I really like your idea of individual chicken pot pies. I suppose you could use cornstarch instead of flour to thicken the chicken gravy part. But if they make a GF puff pastry I don’t think I’d want to try it.
Regardless, a great idea for the future in my house.
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I love the look of the Santa Maria grills. I don’t know if I will ever have one but I love ‘em.
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I love bastilla and have made it several times. I don’t like the confectioners sugar on top or honey in the recipe…so I am not honoring some of the traditional elements of it.
Yeah, I don’t do the powdered sugar either, but do top with some cinnamon. Don’t recall my recipe calling for honey… but lots of butter! (c;
The photo I posted used homemade pie dough. I’d make this and just suggest they each bring a dish they like to eat. I wouldn’t make this gf.
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Ask him to contribute his.
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That’s tough. I have relatives too who make especially good versions of certain things. I never want to make those things when they visit for fear of being viewed as trying to “one up” their versions. Not to mention that if they are really good at them, then my neophyte versions will always fall short in the family memory.
Between his and her perfection at certain dishes (I think you mentioned her paella upthread), I think in your shoes I’d start thinking about catering (which I think you also mentioned as a possibility?).
Sometimes shit is just too big to deal with alone. With catering, you can always blame them!
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Who among us hasn’t faced the Thanksgiving Dilemma. Makes me want to wring necks other than the Turkey’s. I too have developed a menu that can pretty much shut everyone up. I can sneak in most of the stuff I like …and adapt the rest. One adaptation is for a guest’s quasi- religious preference. The rest are just … toddler objections. Note: offer your guests plenty of wine.
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I cook and they eat. No complaints.
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