Category Archives: Cooking for a crowd

Cooking for a crowd, Saving Money

Thriving In My Thrifty Week–May 4, 2021

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I have a large pansy plant that overwintered in the corner of one of my raised beds. I’m really enjoying it a lot this spring.

The spinach in the raised bed is ready to pick. I picked some that had overwintered in the garden, and these spring-planted ones are next. There are a few snow peas, too, and some artichokes.

We have a bit of a situation going on in regards to our garden. Our big tiller is broken beyond repair and another one is on order. And remains on order. And the store was sent the wrong one. And…..And….And… They say it’s very difficult this year, with Covid, to get things.

We are hoping it gets here by the end of the week. Rob really needs to deeply till the garden. We’ve spread our compost. Leaves and grass clippings have been added weeks ago. We’ve used the tiny tiller to work up a small corner to get a few cabbages, carrots and beets in. We know things won’t grow very well there since we’ve tried doing it like that before. That one is a cultivator, and is for getting a few weeds from the center of the rows, the edges, and maybe roughing up a little area for a second crop of lettuce, and things like that. I’m trying to be patient. I need to try harder. I don’t feel patient one bit:). There are so many lovely plants ready to go out into the garden.

Rob scored big-time this week. He got a pack-and-play, a wagon, and baby gates from a Facebook post. Basically, they said whoever got there first could have the things–don’t call, don’t knock, etc.–just take it from the side of the road. He happened to see the posting 6 minutes after they put it up and it wasn’t far from our home. I made a sheet for it from some flannel I had and now there is a place for the baby to sleep if he needs one here at my house. I still had J’s baby blankets, so put those in there and I’m set.

He also got piles of baby clothes, in various sizes from a garage sale, for a very, very inexpensive price. We sorted them and put them in sizes and will give them to baby when needed. If some never get used, it was still worth the price and we will donate any extra.

We had my niece and nephew all weekend, and Jake and Malcolm shared this sweet moment after church on Sunday. We didn’t do any great, fancy activities with the kids–just stayed close to home, watched movies and t.v., read aloud, took a walk, did school with Jake, and played Safeway Monopoly.

Patsy was given a huge envelope of tickets and she graciously shared with the other kids. When we went to the store to redeem some prizes, the cashiers were extremely generous, so there were lots of tickets to tear open and download into our phones. Over the course of the game, we’ve won lots and lots of water bottles, a large package of toilet paper, some tissues, bread crumbs, vinegar, batteries (although they were out and we didn’t get them yet), waffles, several loaves of French bread, ice cream, a $25 credit on our account, and sour cream. There were a few other things, too. Once we had our $25 credit, they played for the girls, and got them one, too, which was used to buy diapers and baby food. We are thrilled with the prizes, but I will say this year the game takes a lot of time. If I didn’t have such willing helpers, I’m not sure I could find that kind of time in my schedule. But, this year, I’m delighted since I did have so much help and it gave them an activity and me free groceries.

People were hungry this weekend, and I felt like I cooked, washed dishes and went to the store all weekend. Twin pop (popsicles) were the elusive item that was hard to find, but I finally did Sunday afternoon on the third try. Jake was eating so many, and he actually needs both the calories and the liquid, so I try to keep them on hand. The crew ate so many pancakes and syrup they downed an entire container of syrup, so I had to get more of that, too. I love cooking for a crowd, so I was in heaven:)

One of our large upright freezers had a problem. We still don’t know if it is broken, or just got left open. I spent several hours last night sorting and making decisions and re-arranging things amongst the freezers. I pulled out everything that couldn’t ruin in one night like bread, butter, cookies, brownies, nuts, etc. and put them in boxes. Then, I filled all cracks, gaps and spaces with meat, fruits and veggies–things that were most important to me. I spent all day today cooking up things that wouldn’t fit or needed to be used and the few things that did start to thaw. I made pork chili verde, enchilada casseroles from both chicken and pork, mixed fruit crisps, and boiled the 3 remaining packages of beef bones into broth. I’m glad we caught it early. I was able to share some food, and have plenty for us, as well. Best of all, nothing was wasted except a few packages of things that were buried and needed to go away anyway. I’m sure by tomorrow, we will have a better idea of if it’s broken or just got left open on accident. I put all the bread and things in there and a water bottle to see if it freezes.

Of course, we had just gone to Costco and loaded up on a few things like jumbo bags of cheese and a chicken right before it broke. Obviously, Rob had just barbequed an entire roast beef so the little fridge was full. And, the kids and I, appropriately had just won 5 or 6 loaves of French bread from Safeway and they were in there along with all those popsicles… Hmmmm……I wonder sometimes about my timing:) I even had to stuff the camper freezer with some of the important items I really wanted to save, and every fridge I have is full, no matter how small. We will eat well this week!

Birthdays, Cooking for a crowd, Saving Money

Thriving In My thrifty Week–January 13, 2020–Chewbacca Came To Visit Jake and I cooked!

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It was Jake’s birthday this week. Chewbaca came to Family Sunday Dinner to see him. The Millennium Falcon apparently dropped him off so he could visit Jake during his birthday lunch. Jake was surprised and pleased, but later confided to me that “there was a guy in there, auntie!” Good to know, I said:)

A few family photos were taken.

Everyone had fun! There were quite a few other family members present, and we thoroughly celebrated Rob, Alissa and Jake’s birthdays.

I managed to save quite a bit of money during the week in the food department. I had several meals I wanted to cook for friends and family who had various needs, such as recovery from surgery, sickness, etc. I also had a lunch to pack to share when I went visiting another family and food to make for our meals, too, of course. It was a busy week, I’m telling you!

First, I did a large (for me) grocery shop at Safeway, using a $10/off $50. I purchased more than $50 worth, but it was still nice to have that discount. I used several coupons that I downloaded, one I picked up in the store, and 4 Ibotta rebates, which gained me a $5 Ibotta bonus.

We cooked both a large turkey and a ham this week. They were bought on great sales over the holidays and pulled from the freezers for this super busy week. I boiled the bones from both of them. All of the turkey broth, 2 big kettles of it and a 3rd small one, was used up in 3 large batches of turkey soup.

Several pans of turkey enchiladas were made. When I found a large baggie of frozen corn tortillas leftover from Christmas, I thawed them out and used them up on this project.

I sliced turkey breast very thinly for sandwiches, and turkey pieces were given to some of the families. I made sandwiches with turkey and some 99c/day-old-bread-rack buns when I took the picnic, along with some carrots and cupcakes.

Patsy made a double batch of lemon poppy seed muffins. I made a double batch of pumpkin-chocolate chip muffins, and most of those went out with various meals.

A while back, I was given a bag of white rice. While we love it, we don’t eat it often, as Rob is dieting and I’m diabetic. So, I took the opportunity to made up a huge batch of fried rice with some of it. I added grated carrot, peas, scrambled eggs, onion, some water chestnuts and 1 can of bamboo shoots that I’ve had for quite some time. I seasoned with soy sauce, and made enough for 2 families to have some, and kept a small bowl for us, since we love it so much!

I sliced up ham for one family to go with their fried rice. We ate ham in several ways this week.

Salads were made and shared and also eaten here. Rob eats a lot of salad! A huge chocolate cake was baked for the birthday party on Sunday. I also did some white cupcakes from a boxed mix, which I divided between the birthday party and one family.

The amazing thing is that cooking all this food was not a huge drain on my budget because I chose foods we had in the pantry and freezer to base the meals on, with some additions from the store. Sharing food is one of my favorite things to do and I am always happy when I can make it work as nicely as it did this time. It was a fun, rewarding week, though I must confess that all that cooking made it a busy one!

Now that people are feeling better from their various surgeries and other things, my cooking frenzy is over. It was kind of funny how it all came at once, but that’s how life goes sometimes. This week, I’ll put my energies in other directions, and that’s ok, too. I like variety in my life:)

Cooking for a crowd, Uncategorized

Homeschool Outdoor School–August, 2019

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I have been planning an outdoor school experience for Patsy for a few weeks. When Jake heard she was going camping and doing school, he insisted on some school, too:). He was always going camping—he loves it so much. So, along with the notebook I was making for Patsy to do, I had to make one for Jake, too. For his, I had Rob run off some word searches from the internet, and let him do those. I planned lots of fun, outdoor activities, as well, along with “messy” crafts that were perfect for doing outside.

Here’s where the big surprise came in…..I wrote the date down wrong. Really, I did! So, we woke up on Saturday and I leisurely asked Rob to look up which campsite we had, just for fun, and YIKES! we were due down there at the coast that day!!! I called my sister to see if Jake could go with us earlier than we had planned, so they packed him up, came over and helped us get ready and hustled us off on our adventure.

The very first day, there was a ranger program about agates. Rob took the kids down to it and they were hooked! The ranger gave them each 2 agates and they spent hours hunting for more down on the beach in 3 different places. On the 3rd beach we tried, they finally found some. They were excited.

Patsy did bookwork each morning, like language arts, Bible, math, and science. Jake did a few word finds. I read aloud to both of them, mostly things Patsy needed to hear for school–good for them both. I also read a beloved Boxcar Children book to Jake in the evenings. In the afternoons, we did fun activities.

Patsy had chosen 2 simple cooking projects to do on the trip. One was trail mix …

and the other one was Camping Haystacks–mostly a can of chili on top of Fritos with some salad toppings. She loved it! I mean, who wouldn’t want chips for the main part of dinner, right?

Patsy and I went clamming and caught nothing. Jake and Rob did not walk out with us, but instead, Jake dug for gold. He did not find any gold, either, but he made it clear that if he had found any, it was, and I quote, “ALL MINE!”

The weather was amazing. It was in the upper 80’s (or warmer) most of the time. There was wind or a breeze frequently. I heard we escaped some awfully hot weather back in the valley. In this picture, we had gone for a drive and stopped to feed some seagulls.

Patsy and I took a few walks. I have been working on training our dog— if she pulls, the “Haltie” on her nose (black leash) tightens on her nose, which she doesn’t like. If she isn’t pulling, I let her run on the blue leash and let the other one hang loosely. I only tighten the black one if she pulls. I have no idea if anyone else does it that way, but it’s working well. She managed to walk calmly through the entire campground full of dogs and children without going ballistic by the end of the time. I’m starting to take her places with more and more people and animals, and she’s not comfortable, in fact shivering and shaking on the crowded beach one day, but I want her to get used to it.

We read books about fall and decorated fall cookies. I had hoped to bake them before we went, but with our hasty departure I couldn’t, so I had to make them in the camper. It worked, but the oven isn’t the best. Of course, this activity was geared for Jake, but no one argues with cookies around here.

Patsy did another craft..a coconut oil-brown sugar scrub. They both folded some origami animals as well, and decorated sunglasses with duct tape. They had a lot of squirt gun fights.

The tree was a favorite perch all week.

Our other nephew came down the last night after he finished work. Jake immediately roped him into game playing. We had a great visit, although short, and we all headed back to the valley the next morning.

I had Rob develop some pictures of our activities and we put them into a notebook for each kid so they would have good memories to keep about their fun outdoor school.

I am very satisfied with the fact that we are now most of the way through the first 4 weeks of school with Patsy. I hope to finish week 4 today. I love getting started in August. It will give me more leeway during the year when I get super busy. I also love the fact that we could take school on the road, get a lot done, but still have so much time to enjoy the outdoors. It took a lot of planning and a lot of supplies for so many crafts and hands-on activities, but I love to do that.

On Wednesday, the weather started to change. I enjoyed the cooler weather, and came home Thursday to a city that was considerably cooler than it has been, which was a relief. I gave a happy, sun-tanned boy back to his daddy and he’s going to spend the next couple of days snuggling with his mama. I’m going to put the house back together, can up some applesauce and start working outside in the garden and yard a bit over the next few days. Things are quite messy after 2 trips away, but then again, the work will always be here. Little boys and teen-age girls won’t.

Cooking for a crowd, Summer Fun With Kids, Vacations

Our Adventure: A Trip Up the Rogue River and A Beach Trip–August, 2019–Part 1

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We just returned from a big adventure, complements of my sister. She should have been a travel guide…..She planned the trip out to the last minute, got all the accommodations and tickets, and arranged everything. It was amazing. Here’s what we did.

Months ago, she had purchased tickets for the play, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” up at the Keller Auditorium in Portland (Oregon). It was for my birthday present, and started at 2 p.m. on Saturday. We had a wonderful time. It was so well done. I loved it!

When planning the trip, she found the beach house she wanted to rent was only available on this past weekend, the same weekend as the play. She also wanted to go ride the jet boats that go from Gold Beach, Oregon, up the Rogue River 52 miles and back down again. So, we needed to leave on Saturday to make all of that happen. The play caused us to get a late start.

I was in charge of the meals for everyone. Everyone included: My sister, Gail, 3 of her children, myself, Rob and Patsy, and a friend, Debbie, and her 7 children. Jake and his big sister, Caitlyn, came on Sunday night, as he doesn’t do well on boats. So, I packed a picnic for 13 to eat in the cars on the road. We pulled into the hotel around 12:30 a.m. Sunday morning. It’s a distance from here, and we didn’t leave until early evening.

The hotel included breakfast the next morning, which we enjoyed tremendously. The kids loved the waffles with the heart shapes in the center. Rob and I packed a large picnic for the 13 of us who where going on the boats, plus drinks, while the rest of the crew enjoyed the hotel swimming pool. Then, we were off for our 11:30 departure time.

Rob really, really wanted to do this trip. In fact, he declared to Gail (my sister) that he would crawl into the boat if he had to, when the subject was first brought up. He had to!

It was so worth it to him!

At the 2 rest stops, they sent a van down a steep hill to drive him (and us) up to the top, where we could use the restrooms and at lunch time, eat our picnic.

I had a blast, too! My little friend, Delaney, fell asleep between Rob and I on the way back. It was super funny because we were getting splashed with large amounts of water going down the rapids. We tried to shield her the best we could with a blanket that was for that purpose, but in the process, I was absolutely soaked. It was dripping off my hair and down my face. Some got on her, too. Through it all, she never woke up. The people behind us (and us) kept looking down and asking if she woke up, and each time the answer was “no.” Pretty soon, we were all in gales of laughter as each new wave of water doused us, and the child still slept. I guess she was tired:). When she was good and ready, she woke up and enjoyed the rest of the ride.

We saw so much beautiful scenery. There was a lot of wildlife. We saw ducks, egrets, osprey, a bald eagle, otters, deer, and a seal or sea lion–not sure which, and more.

There were a couple balancing on various small rocks. The boat driver was very skilled and got us up pretty close to this one.

We were on the water for around 6-1/2 –7 hours. We went the 104 miles, and had 2 stops. We went from the cool, balmy coast to the dry, scorching hot interior, and back down to the cooler coast once again. The driver did a great job of cooling us off with water when it was hot, and keeping us dry when it wasn’t. Running the rapids was fun. We all had a blast.

We got back into the vehicles, handed each kid a granola bar, and headed an hour north to the town of Bandon.

It was pretty late by the time we arrived, but I had dinner all planned and it didn’t take long to get it on the table. I had taco meat and refried beans premade and they were warmed up. Tortillas, garden tomatoes, lettuce and pre-shredded cheese were put out, along with a Costco bag of corn chips and some salsa. Every scrap was devoured.

Our Monday was very full of fun, as well. I’ll continue writing about our trip tomorrow in Part 2, as this post is getting pretty long, and there’s lots more to tell.

Cooking for a crowd

A Formal and casual Dinner for a crowd–January 2019

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This was a week of contrasts. We fed 2 different groups of kids 2 very different meals.

Last Saturday, we were very involved with a formal dinner for the high school youth group from church. The event was held at my sister’s house and our 2 families did all the cooking.

We ended up having about 24 youth, and 12 college-aged and adult helpers. My brother-in-law rearranged their house so that there were 3 large tables in the living area and all the youth were able to sit down.

We had gluten free and dairy free students coming, one that was allergic to fish and one that was allergic to shellfish, so needed to make it allergy friendly. We had at least one vegetarian as well. It was quite a challenge.

We served the meal in courses. We had the “waiters” take orders, noting special dietary needs and kept all questionable food completely separated from the other food, even on the grill. Rob used foil and separate pans/dishes to do this.

Our waiters kept really good track of what each student needed using sticky notes.

The first course was appetizers. Rob barbecued shrimp skewers with peppers and onions threaded on in between the shrimp. We made 2 kinds of potato skins–one with olive oil, green onions and rosemary and one with cheese, bacon bits and green onion. We had purchased mozzarella sticks, served with marinara and ranch. The last appetizer was cheesy bread sticks. The bread sticks were purchased and cheese was sprinkled on top and they were baked to melt the cheese.

There were fancy drinks. They had sugar around the rims of the glasses and the kids could choose their favorites. Unlike a restaurant, they could have free refills and some had several!

Salads were next. They got their choice of dressings and customized salads without cheese or bacon if requested or needed.

The main course consisted of risotto, teriyaki chicken or salmon topped with mango-peach chutney sauce, garlic green beans and was decorated with spiralized zucchini and cilantro. Rob was able to cook the beans, chicken and salmon on the big grill outside, which helped the kitchen prep tremendously.

We dipped strawberries in chocolate and made gluten-free mini-cheesecakes with cherry topping and chocolate decorations for dessert. It was so pretty and tasted so good. We dipped a few berries in dairy-free chocolate, but did not make dairy-free cheesecakes. The student was still happy because he could have a yummy strawberry and some extra chocolate candy we got for him.

That event turned out very, very well. It was so fun to see the kids and some adults dressed up and they ate SO much food! We had a ball doing the event. The kids were delighted to have this experience and were happily talking about it the next day at church, I’ve heard. They went off ice skating afterwards, but we collapsed! It was worth it, though.

The second event this week was feeding the college aged kids their Tuesday night dinner. It was just coincidence that our turn for that was this week as well. It was kept quite simple.

We got ham for 77c/lb at Winco and Rob barbequed 2 of them. He sliced them and put them in our big roaster. I made southwestern beans with soaked pink beans, onion, green salsa verde and ham broth. We used 6 heads of romaine and one head of head lettuce to make a huge bowl of salad. Then, we put toppings such as olives, cheese, tomatoes, and tortilla salad toppers out so they could create their own southwestern salads. Some canned corn, oranges and brownies and made from a boxed mix finished out the dinner. There were around 35 people there–more than expected, but the food held out! Hallelujah! Those kids are a cheerful, appreciative bunch every time we feed them. It makes it fun to do.

Cooking for a crowd, Saving Money

Thriving In My Thrifty Week-January 13, 2018

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This week was an interesting one. I did a couple of things that were out of the ordinary.

I went with my sister to visit our friend, Harnet. She has moved a little farther away from us, so we carpooled a lot of the way, saving me some gas. Even better, my sister and I got to visit for way longer than if we had driven separately. We had coffee, lunch, did errands, and visited. It was a fun day. It was on my normal shopping day, so I did not go to the grocery store. Danait wanted to wear all her gear and ride her bike, so my sister took her outside for a while to do that. Brrr…..they didn’t last long, but it was fun for them both while it did!

Rob made Jake “Almanzo” pancakes for breakfast this morning. Every since we read “The Long Winter” and Almanzo ate stacks of pancakes, Jake has been fascinated with the idea. Rob makes them small, only about 3 inches across, so he we can make a stack. Last night, we were helping with a youth event, and after Rob finished barbecuing, Jake had had enough of it all, and went home with “Unckie.”

The youth event was a formal dinner. A few weeks ago, the youth pastor asked my sister if she could make a dinner for the kids, with “real plates and courses.” Of course, my sister said she could, and roped us in. In the end, over 20 kids sat down and ate dinner at my sister’s house, in their fancy clothes (or not in a couple of cases–there were a couple in jeans, but still always welcome). Then, they went ice skating. I’m planning to do a post later in the week showing what we cooked, but here I’m going to highlight the money-saving things we did.

Rob cooked 4 things outside on a very large BBQ. He did 1 of the appetizers, the vegetables and the chicken and fish. That saved us a lot of commotion in the kitchen. He shopped around quite a bit for the best price on salmon. It varied greatly in price, according to where it was purchased. He finally found 2-lb bags for $7.99, an amazing deal.

We used between 120-150 glass plates. We were able to use hers, mine and borrow more until we had enough. (In addition to the over 20 youth, there were 12 adults and college age helpers that came for the actual event and we fed them, too, making it a crowd of around 35. Yikes!). I had some nice paper napkins someone had given me long ago that we used, and we took 24 sets of silverware over there. I bought that set years and years ago at Walmart and they are very lightly made, but they all match and I use them for large gatherings.

We tried to get the best prices on the food that we could. For instance, I got most of the cream cheese on sale over the Christmas holidays and picked up a few more boxes at Winco when I realized I had not purchased enough for the cheesecakes. Their brand was quite inexpensive–I’m not sure if they had leftover from the holidays, but I was happy to see that price! I used dipping chocolates we had on hand for the decorations and home-canned cherry pie filling for the topping.

As I mentioned before, I was so busy this week with the dinner, and was gone on my normal shopping day that I didn’t have a chance to go shopping, except early one morning to pick up just a very few items. This is helping me with my project of cleaning out the fridge and using some stockpile items. I’ll see how many days I can make it, but I’m pretty sure I may run out of some things this week. We’ll see! At this point, I really, really want to clean out that fridge–it needs a good wash very badly.

Cooking for a crowd, Saving Money

Thriving In My Thrifty Week–December 30, 2018

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We have been doing a lot of cleaning and reorganizing.  While doing so, we noticed that this dresser had drawers that were completely broken, so Rob repaired it.  We got this dresser years and years ago, for the first 2 girls we adopted, over 30 years ago.  It has been painted and repaired many times, and it’s now back in great condition once again.

We collected a few bags of torn wrapping paper from Christmas, and have been using it to start fires in the mornings, along with kindling that Rob cut from free scrap wood collected around town.  There are a few businesses around town that use wood to make products such as flooring and doors, and they put bins of free scrap wood out for anyone to take.  Sometimes he gets really nice scraps and uses them for cutting boards, and the rest we use to start fires.

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I made broth from the turkey bones from Christmas.  I froze most of it.

We were given a Christmas gift that enabled us to do a Costco run.  We didn’t choose what some would call exciting items–we got toilet paper, ziplocks, garbage bags, things such as that, but it was exciting to me to get those things stocked back up.  We got a few food items as well.  We also got a date out of it.  We dropped Patsy off at a youth event, went to Costco, and bought one of those yummy cooked chickens and one container of salad and ate our lunch in the car.

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Jake’s greens are growing!  (There is a Columbine flower coming up, as I used a pot that had that in there just in case the seeds didn’t sprout for him). He was under the weather today when he was here, and hasn’t looked at them lately, but I know he will be here next weekend and hopefully can see them then.  He was not himself, but was glad to snuggle on the couch under blankets and do the forbidden act of eating crackers on the couch while asking me 4-5 times to take his temperature with the thermometer.  I’m not sure why it fascinated him so much–he didn’t have a fever any of the numerous times we took it, but it did.  I kept him here for only part of the afternoon, just to keep his normal Sunday schedule, then sent him home.  Hopefully he will get over it quickly.

Patsy was able to do 2 more work projects with the youth group this week, and is well on her way to earning the money she needs for the retreat she wants to go on.

We helped prepare lunch for the teens today.  I made a large tossed salad, purchased 4 large sodas for 88c each on sale, and bought one large tub of ice cream.  I made hot fudge sauce with mint in it and got some clearance red and green M & M’s for toppers. My sister ordered pizza for the main dish.  It was very easy today.

As I mentioned last week, I had used my grocery budget up.  But, Rob ate all the salad stuff and a few other things were running low.  I decided to start in on January’s grocery money. I made a plan of what I thought I would use for the next 2 weeks, knowing full well I will need to grab lettuce at least weekly.  I had several things that helped me out.  1) There were several free items on my Safeway rewards that I needed to use before Dec. 31, so I got those–2 boxes of Safeway pasta, 1 dozen eggs, and $2 off a bakery item (I used it towards a package of  gf buns), and a bag of mini chocolate chips.  While I was there, I got 99c/1/2 gallon milk, cottage cheese, 99c sour cream and a few more items like 88c soda.  I also used a few Bottle Drop dollars to help out with that store’s haul.  2) I got a few Christmas clearance items at Fred Meyers, while getting produce: a package of Christmas cards at 75% off for next year, and the Christmas M and M’s.  3) I earned around $6 with Ibotta rebates.  4) When I stopped at Winco for the ice cream I’d forgotten I had promised to pick up for Patsy, I saw ham for 77c/lb.  I immediately grabbed the 2 allowed.

I spent a $10 JoAnn reward they sent me.  I also spent a little fun money I had.  I did not buy fabric, as I have plenty, but little odds and ends and some clearance Christmas paper.  I found one Star Wars print that had no Christmas markings at all for Jake’s upcoming birthday, some leopard print paper for Michaela sometime, and a few ribbons that went with those and the other rolls I picked up.  It was great that there were several selections that were not Christmas-y at all, and I will use them for birthdays.  What wasn’t inexpensive was the package of iron-on patches I bought to mend some of Patsy’s clothes, but hopefully they will work to fix the holes.

How is your week going?  Are you getting organized after the holiday and back to schedule?  I hope to during this upcoming week after a little more holiday fun:)

Cooking for a crowd

Feeding A Crowd–Nov. 2018

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There were 2 occasions in the past week that we fed crowds.  I’m sharing the menus in hopes of giving good ideas to those who need or want to feed large groups on a budget.

The first occasion was over at my sister’s house.  She was hosting a high school gathering.  There was no way to know if there would be 5 kids or 40.  It was a bit of a challenge.  She decided to serve salad bar, baked potato bar, fruit salad and ham.  Her reasoning for these choices was to provide many, many options for the kids who needed to eat gluten-free, dairy free, or chose to be vegetarians.  There are some of each in the youth group.

She got the hams and asked Rob to BBQ them the day before.  She asked me to bring desserts.  She cut and chopped, cooked and simmered the rest.  It was all delicious.

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In the end, there were about 20 people at the gathering, so there was too much food.  (Better too much than too little–that’s our motto!) We were able to send the rest of the berry-apple crisp to an evening youth activity and they ate a bunch more of it there.  We all ate salad for a couple of days afterwards, along with potatoes.  She made a twice-baked potato casserole with some of them, using the cheese as well.  She plans to freeze some of that, as an experiment to see how it freezes, for another  day. We were both pleased.  There was lots of food.  The kids loved it.  Everyone, no matter what their dietary needs, had plenty to eat.  There was plenty of opportunity for them to visit with one another, then have their discussion/lesson.  (By that time, I was long gone, with Jake in tow, so they could focus on the youth)

The second occasion this week was feeding the college-aged kids at church.  There are several teams who rotate through with this project, so we have a turn about once a month.  My niece, Alissa, is really enjoying being a part of this project.  We are not only practicing her cooking skills, but are using it as part of her homeschool math.  She has been figuring out budget, cost, helping shop and cook, and figuring out how much food is needed for “x” amount of people, etc.

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We pulled out the big roaster oven this month.  It was about 1/2 full of chili.  I made the chili Sunday night, using soaked pinto beans from the huge 50 pound bag Rob got for such a low price a while back.  There is a budget from the church for this project, so they bought hamburger and the rest of the ingredients.  The chili was refrigerated and was very easy to put into the roaster yesterday, warmed and transported with no fuss.

Alissa wanted to make potato soup. We used 10 lbs of potatoes, celery, onion, milk and a tiny bit of sweet rice flour and filled 2 crock pots each 1/2 full.  That way, neither pot, or the roasted sloshed over on the trip to the church.  Rob put the crock pots in a box, wedged in with dish towels, and that helped, too.

Rob made cornbread from mixes.  A large pan of regular, and a small pan of gluten-free were plenty for the job. We put out honey and butter.  He shredded a brick of cheese and cut onions, to put in the chili, or the potato soup, as desired.  It was desired.  The entire 2-lb brick was consumed.

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Alissa made 2 boxes of brownie mix, and added crushed peppermint to one of them.  I made some pumpkin-chocolate chip muffins for the gluten-free people.  I had previously made them, and froze them to make yesterday easier.

In the end, there was hearty chili with toppings, potato soup with cheese if desired, cornbread, muffins, brownies, and a veggie plate. Water is always the drink they put out for that group, and they always set up the tables and put out paper goods.  When they move on to their singing/Bible study, we clean up and parcel out the leftovers, as is their practice for that group.  We leave them in rows on the table, in little take-home cartons, baggies and bowls and the kids take them home for the next day’s lunch.  It’s a really good system, I think.  The attendance seems to pretty consistent, around 25–more or less, so it’s getting easier to plan for how much to cook each time.

This was a very low-cost meal.  I shopped around, and got the best prices on the food items that were purchased, but did not need many expensive ingredients.  Potato soup was very simple, and inexpensive, and they LOVED it!  The chili was a hit, too, and the cornbread was almost gone.  I bought very few veggies, and most of them were still there:). We are still getting a feel for what this group likes, as we have not been doing this for long, and I’m coming to the conclusion that it’s FOOD that they like:). They are so appreciative, say thank-you many times, and generally let us know over and over how much they like it—who wouldn’t want to cook for them? 🙂  They are a joy to feed.