Im not much of a cook and don’t have one but my wife had a thing when she wanted to impress at like a work thing or potluck or such. greek salad. super easy to make but people love it. Not me I hate anchovies.

It’s technique that impresses, not the food. Starting with good ingredients goes a long way toward making tasty food. With that said, if you have a two bunches of fresh asparagus that looks wonderful and one cook saute it and the other boils it… Guess which bunch will be more appealing…

My Mother-in-law (MIL) is not my biggest fan and never has been. I, a mid-west redneck, had the audacity to marry her east coast highly educated (multiple dotorates) daughter 21 years ago.

Fast forward to one of their many visits. My wife and I’s two boys are early teens, early double digits and it’s dinner time. My FIL and wife decide they want the BBQ Shrimp Cocktail out of the “Grill to Perfection” cook book. FIL, Wife and oldest son and I will eat that. My MIL hates shrimp and wants cedar planked salmon and my youngest wants a hamburger.

All of the dishes can be cooked on the grill, but all of them take very different techniques and time to cook… So I just did it. I managed to get all 4 dishes onto the table, as well as a side veggie which was brocolini, hot perfectly cooked and on time.

My MIL now always looks forward to visiting and having me cook for her and FIL. They usually host Christmas or Thanksgiving, but the last several years I’ve actually been the one doing the bulk of the cooking.

Bread

Lunch: I’ll make you the best hamburger you’ve ever had, either on the stovetop or the grill. Sides: Corn on the cob, fresh watermelon, homemade salsa and tortilla chips.

Dinner: Fist-sized meatballs with a heavy red sauce of meat and a ton of vegetables. I also use a high-protein pasta that gets cooked, then cooled in the refrigerator. Finished sauce + cold pasta ==> into a baking dish, bake covered; add cheese atop and finish baking. Serve with fresh bread and salad.

Dessert: I find a lot of American desserts are too sweet, so I make a chocolate and raspberry cake that turns down the sugar saturation and highlights the chocolate and the fruit.

I’m a pretty damn good cook for an American man my age who doesn’t work in a kitchen or similar.

Cacio e pere - just cheese and pears, with pasta.

Boil your choice of pasta. I usually prefer penne for this. While that’s happening, dice a pear or two, pan fry them in olive oil. Take some of the pasta water, mix it into some pecorino romano cheese to make a paste. Add pepper. Drain noodles, add them to pan, along with cheese paste. Mix it all together. Done.

If you are an omnivore foodie, gumbo. It impresses me, the depth and complexity of flavor in gumbo is delicious and very “me” if that makes sense, so it is something of myself I am giving to you.

If you are vegan foodie, a cream of mushroom soup made with cashew cream and fancy mushrooms, and some fresh sourdough bread (THE bread, as my kids put it) with a small salad of something fresh from the garden.

If you are my penultimate child and her girlfriend, apparently kimchi grilled cheese, I made them that once and they kept making it forever after, it is a ridiculously delightful sandwich.

Always something I personally like, for sure. I am a pretty experienced home cook at this point though. If you are not, I recommend the menu “Foods of Michochuan are Forever” on NPR, it has something for the meat eaters and the vegans, is outrageously good, uses ingredients that are available, and can be staged ahead of time and just reheated and make rice day of, so that you can enjoy yourself not be cooking all day. The soup I cheat with canned beans and canned tomatoes it’s great.

I didn’t have someone to impress for years now, so I can’t add much. I just wanted to say that I’d be down for some test-impressing for most of the recipes shared so far, in case you want to try it first. It’s a free service I offer.

It’s a dessert, but brownies made from the box, but substitute the oil for melted butter. Super easy, and delicious. The secret is always more butter.

Grilled cheese.

Depends, if I’m cooking Texmex a can of chipotles in adobo sauce.

Sweets? A little bit of vanilla goes a LONG way. And I make my own with everclear and ordered pods split in half.

I know the secret to making a triple decker grilled cheese :-)

And my gf says she can make homemade alfredo or homemade meatballs.

Gumbo

Southern style savory cornbread

Black-eyed peas

Turnip Greens

It sounds like a really basic meal, and by most definitions it is, but it is so delicious.

i do a mean picatta. The classic (in the US where i’m located) is chicken but if i’m trying to impress i make it with fish (rockfish ideally since i’m on the West Coast) or chicken of the woods mushroom (in the right season). For anyone unaware, you flatten your chicken (or mushroom, skip this step for fish), season and dredge with flour, brown it a bit in oil, then simmer in a butter/lemon/caper sauce with a little white wine to help deglaze the pan. Top with chopped parsley.

If you are making the COTW mushroom version you need to slice and simmer in broth for an hour before you begin. Any broth works

serve with mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus. An American classic (by way of Italy like many others).

Lemon curd cookie bars. 2 layers of butter sugar cookie with a thick layer of homemade lemon curd in the middle. Lemon curd is weirdly expensive for something so easy to make. I normally do a huge batch in a 10x15 glass dish (think one size up from a standard 9x13).