A Precooked Feast

 The worst paart about throwing a dinner party is prepping and cooking for it. Suppose you didn;;t have to? NO you don;t ahve to cater - everything can be made the day and night before.

Regular contributor Dave Tanis wrote about this easy fix in Wednesday's New York Times Food section. Why make everything the day of, creating chaos and stress in an overworked kitchen. Do ti in stages and you can spend the time before cleaning the house and getting yourself ready. He gives spiced roasted lamb with whole wheat za'atar flatbeads. dessert is walnut sponge cake. The spicy lamb pot roast is a mash up between a North african tangine and a Western pot roast .it's fragrant redolent with spices that should be allowed to rest a day before serving. The meat used should be a three inch bone in lamb shoulder . There is a wide array of spices used, from fennel and all spice to ginger and cayenne. The veggies used are, turnips, chilies cabbage and carrots, They;re steamed last minute and served with the stew.  The za'aatar can be bought at any grocery store nowadays. Fresh parsley and thyme is sprinkled on the bread and then it'sbaked for twenty to thirty minutes.

 The whole whear flatbreads made from scratch are easy to bake.. These are an easy three ingrdient, water flour and yeast bread, topped with the equally fragrant za'aatar. Again this cna be made the bay before.dessert is the walnut sponge. This is a light airy cake, perfect after a spicy meal. there are two cups of walmut pieces that are ground into a type of flour in a food processor. It's rich with eggs, using six yolks anwhites spearated. The whites are beaten into a meringue then stirred into the egg mixture to lighten it. don;t overbeat and deflate the airness .A ew streaks are OK.It's baked in a springform pan in a 325Farenheir oven for forty minutes. Let cool and dust with confectioner's sugar. Mr. Tanisha serves it with whipped cream and strawberries but you could try this with ice cream too.Again this could be made not just a day in advance but two days too. It can be kept in a cake container until it's ready to be served.

Don;t spend the day cooking and baking. Do everything the day before.It;s a much easier way of having a dinner party/