Last weekend, we had a family weekend. There was fourteen of us and we took turns with different meals. My mom made the comment that I am using to cooking for crowds and that is true. What isn’t is that everyone has a lot of experience doing it. With the size and frequency of gathering with my wife’s family, I have cooked for thirty many times, often without much warning.
Probably everyone has thrown a party. In a limited extent, people have some knowledge about what it takes. But, throwing a graduation party is really a different than breakfast for fifteen. I thought that I would take some time to talk about some tips today.
The photo above is not last weekend but a typical night in Spain. The way that they do it, people in attendance all bring something to share. I would say it is kind of ‘pot lucky’ which is a little bit different than a weekend getaway. But, certainly another idea.
Here are some things that I think make a difference.
- Don’t expect perfection. It’s not a wedding, just a meal. Relax and go with the flow.
- Calculating proportions: take what you eat or your family eats and extrapolate the total count
- Keep dishes simple like soup and rolls, chili dogs, scrambled eggs, spaghetti or lasagna.
- The oven is your friend. If not cooking in it, it can be used to keep stuff warm so that everything can be served at the same time.
- Don’t be afraid to have others contribute, it lightens the load
- If you are limited by silverware or table space, people can eat in waves.
- Prep as many things as possible before cooking. Have ingredients cut and ready to cook. It is way more important the larger the meal.
A sample menu for our weekend was Friday night: pizza (we cheated), Saturday Morning: frozen cinnamon rolls, sausage links and scrambled eggs, Saturday Evening: build your own tacos and Sunday morning: pancakes and sausage with leftovers thrown in. Notice that we didn’t plan for lunch. There was plenty of leftover pizza and other snacks around to bridge the gap. Truthfully, I wasn’t hungry anyway given that we had a large and late breakfast.
End Your Programming Routine: You can do this. Unless you are running a restaurant or you simply want to spend your time cooking, the point is to get in and get out. That being said, cooking itself can be family time. So, relax and it will be what it is.
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