Finish off the salad and prepare to meet your guests? (3,7)

'finish off' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are verbs in their base form, I cannot understand how one could define the other.

'the salad and prepare to meet your guests?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is found in the answer.
'prepare' could be 'dress' (dressing is a kind of preparing) and 'dress' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'geed' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?