Food at our party at home

Corzhens

Corzhens

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We usually hold small parties of up to 50 here at home. For that manageable group, we do the preparing and cooking of food with the help of some hired hands. Mostly barbecue and vegetable dishes, sometimes we also have some steak. However, we are already tired during the party proper so we had a paradigm shift. We now have the food catered by a professional that includes food warmers and food servers. The best.
 
That's really neat. I imagine trying to prepare and cook for 50 different people who probably all have different tastes would be a huge mission. It's great that you're getting a chance to enjoy it more now!
 
cupcakechef said:
Barbecue stuff is always our go-to if we are entertaining too. However we have some vegetarian friends too so we always make sure we have plenty of dishes that are vegetarian friendly too. A bit of a mix of everything!
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We always have barbecue during parties but we hire a person to do the barbecuing because it is a tedious task. Besides, our hands are full - I'm doing the salads and my husband is cooking the other dishes. Although it is way much cheaper than getting a caterer to do the job, we always feel exhausted after the party. And to think that we still have to handle the camera for the souvenir shots. Worse, when we have parlor games for the kids, it's really an overwhelming activity for all of us.
 
Back in the day my house was the house of parties. There was always something going on and there were no caterers. The caterer was me and I'd cook up a storm and everyone would eat to their hearts delight and then the next day I'd be no use to myself. Then my husband got into the barbecues and that was his thing never needing any help.I liked it all some of the times but I got tired and old/older and people went in their separate directions and got caught up with life.
 
winterybella said:
Back in the day my house was the house of parties. There was always something going on and there were no caterers. The caterer was me and I'd cook up a storm and everyone would eat to their hearts delight and then the next day I'd be no use to myself. Then my husband got into the barbecues and that was his thing never needing any help.I liked it all some of the times but I got tired and old/older and people went in their separate directions and got caught up with life.
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Wish I'd been one of your friends 'back in the day'! Sounds wonderful. To be honest, cooking for more than six to eight people terrifies me and I can't say I've ever done it (unless you count my kid's childhood birthday parties). :D I think I'd end up relying on pre-cooked/prepared canapes and stuff I could re-heat.
 
Whenever we had parties we never hired caterers. We did it all ourselves. By the end of the day we would be exhausted but it was well worth it to see everybody having a good time and knowing the day was a success. We would prepare as much as we could ahead of time and then light up the ban when folks arrived and it pretty much went all day. There were other times when we had lobsters so we could prepare them ahead of time and people really enjoyed them. It has been a while since we've done that but it was always a good time.
 
morning glory said:
Wish I'd been one of your friends 'back in the day'! Sounds wonderful. To be honest, cooking for more than six to eight people terrifies me and I can't say I've ever done it (unless you count my kid's childhood birthday parties). :D I think I'd end up relying on pre-cooked/prepared canapes and stuff I could re-heat.
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I have a girlfriend who just loves the excitement of cooking for numbers. Perhaps we were friendly rivals back in the day. We trusted each other's ability and she was probably the only help I might call in from time to time. I'd tell her what to bring and we would have a blast. Do you think you can handle dancing to some calypso Morning Glory? I suspect you can.:dance:
 
winterybella said:
I have a girlfriend who just loves the excitement of cooking for numbers. Perhaps we were friendly rivals back in the day. We trusted each other's ability and she was probably the only help I might call in from time to time. I'd tell her what to bring and we would have a blast. Do you think you can handle dancing to some calypso Morning Glory? I suspect you can.:dance:
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Why not? :dance::dance::dance::dance::dance::dance::woot:
 
Large parties at home we have a mixture of foods large vegitarean pastry bakes from the oven ,mixed Mediterranean veg dishes poached salmon slow cooked pork ,roasted lamb legs on the bbq ,and normal bbq meats ,plenty of salads with seeds and pulses ,new potatoes,good cheese board and mini sweets
 
Berties said:
Large parties at home we have a mixture of foods large vegitarean pastry bakes from the oven ,mixed Mediterranean veg dishes poached salmon slow cooked pork ,roasted lamb legs on the bbq ,and normal bbq meats ,plenty of salads with seeds and pulses ,new potatoes,good cheese board and mini sweets
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Gee, you made me hungry with the enumeration of your menu. Roasted lamb leg or lamb chop is one of my favorite exotic food - I consider it exotic because it is not common here. And that poached salmon you mentioned, I haven't sampled it yet although I am trying to imagine how it would taste. I hope you will invite me to your next home party so I can get a taste of that food you usually prepare and see for myself if it is really true or not. Hahahaaa.
 
I think there are ways you can plan the menu and your cooking schedule to minimize the burden on yourselves when preparing everything. For example you can pick up the tin foil pans and wire holders for them as well as the canned burners that go beneath them at your local restaurant distributor stores for next to nothing. And the nice thing is there are no baking dishes and other stuff to clean up - you just toss out the disposable aluminum pans when done. Similarly you can prep all the items intended to be served cold the day or two before, and for the heated items, decide on a selection of food which can all be cooked together with minimal fuss. I wouldn't be attempting time sensitive stuff like Chicken Picatta or Chicken Marsala, but would instead go for stuff like a roasted ham, some grilled chicken breasts, etc... which take minimal effort.
 
That is a huge number of guests. I love entertaining friends at home and I love organizing and working with all the details carefully planned. I do not think I can manage to pull it off considering that I have to prepare for that huge number of people. I was thinking I would choose to cook something that would not require more time to prepare.
 
We had a big family clan that is why when we are planning to have a party at home ahead of time we are already preparing all the list of recipes of our menu to be serve and all the other things needed to make the party a memorable one for all of us. We do not hire a party planner and a caterer and we are preparing it within ourselves helping hand in hand. And it also happened that starting from my grandmother, mother, aunties and even uncles too are all good cook and it runs in the family that is why there is never a problem when it comes to preparing foods at our party at home.
 
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