Over here, the culture requires us to invite house guests to partake in the meal when they arrive during meal times. So let's say it is 30 minutes before meal time and there arrived some house guests, that's always a problem we had encountered before. So what we do is to have canned goods in the cupboard. One of the easiest dish for house guests is the corned beef omelet. We sautee the corned beef and include green peas (we also have that always) and whip into an omelet. Match that with instant soup and we have a decent meal for the guests.
Last night we were hurrying home because of the unusual traffic on the road. I forgot that we had no food for dinner. And it was raining so hard so we didn't even think of calling up for food delivery (I pity the delivery guy in that bad weather). It's a good thing that there was that last pack of tocino - the cured pork with reddish color. Boiled in water for 10 minutes to make sure the pork is cooked, it will be fried until the color turns to brown. For garnishings, we had salted eggs with green tomatoes. It was a sumptuous dinner somehow.
I've always believed in keeping extras on hand in case someone showed up. My Nana would have a Sunday dinner every week. The whole extended family didn't usually show up, because the family was huge, so gatherings of that size usually required some advance preparation, but she always had jars of pickled vegetables and olives on hand, so someone could make up a relish tray, and she would extend the meal with appetizers made with cold cuts and cheese, which were always available in the pantry, or down the cellar, and add some canned vegetables in with whatever she was cooking. I learned from that, and am pretty good with stretching food if I need to. I do miss the large assortment of pickled goods she always had at the house, and she also always had some sort of cake and cookies.
It's never a bad idea to have some instant soups and canned food in your cupboard, but I prefer giving my guests a slice of cake and a cup of a delicious coffee.
Eh, great idea. I usually go for the "I'm gonna rush to the grocery store and buy some crackers or some snacks and drinks" approach when we have unexpected house guests. They never complain. I mean, let's be serious: who complains about free snacks?