Dinner party menu for a novice cook

[seriously1]

Any suggestions for a dinner party menu?
7 adults, 7 kids. 2 adults are vegetarian. I am a novice in the kitchen so would need dishes or recipes with good instructions. Any ideas? Thanks in advance!

[pagas]

I would do some sort of baked pasta, maybe one with meat and one without, a big salad and garlic bread.

[dearprudence]

I agree with pagas - baked pasta sounds good when you have varying diets.

I'd suggest just doing a couple cheese lasagnas, which cuts the step of cooking any sausage/ground beef/chicken and works with the vegetarians and kids.   Don't worry about cooking the noodles, they'll cook in the sauce if you place enough in the bottom of the pan.  Just layer starting with the sauce - sauce, noodle, ricotta blended with mozzarella, parmesean, and garlic; sauce, noodle, ricotta mixture; sauce, noodles, sauce, mozzarella.  Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 30 minutes, then remove foil and bake another 15 minutes.

[livinitup]

Baked Mac & Cheese
Lasagna Roll-ups
Meatballs
Salad
Bread/Garlic Bread

Assorted Cookies for Dessert


Can you follow a recipe?

If yes, find one for:

- lasagna roll-ups. I like this one for a crowd: (It also has a video)
www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/lasagna-rolls-recipe.html
(Skip the first step of making a sauce - you don't need it; skip the prosciutto to keep it vegitarian, you won't miss it; buy 2 jars of sauce - Classico 4 cheese is vegetarian and good)

- baked macaroni and cheese

- Buy a bag of frozen meatballs, pour sauce over them in a slow cooker, serve warm

- Make a big salad

- Good Italian bread - maybe make some into garlic bread

- Buy an assortment of cookies from a good bakery

[usakiwi]

I saw the title and was coming in here to tag pagas - she throws AMAZING looking dinner parties.