If you sorta dress up the basics, it won't look like you took the easy way out: e.g. put a caramel sauce on the apple pie (buy it, no one has to know, but I have a recipe for that too), toast sesame seeds and put on the green beans, or add a cream soup to them, put pickles in snazzy glass bowls found at the thrift store, or that you already own, etc. Oh, and have FUN!