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#Post#: 76320--------------------------------------------------
Long weekend hosting in the country - ideas needed
By: JeanFromBNA Date: July 13, 2022, 2:38 pm
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We are hosting my MILs 90th birthday party in August. We expect
to have about 20+ family members from out of town. Some will be
staying at our house, some at a cabin down the road, some closer
to town about 30 minutes or more away. What do you suggest for
feeding people over several days when the nearest grocery store
is 20 minutes away? We have the party menu planned, but that's
one meal for one day. I don't want to spend the whole time
cooking and cleaning dishes, so I think easy to prepare or
pre-prepared would be best. Not sure how many will be staying
out here, and how many will be expecting food, but I'm looking
for creative ideas besides soda and chips and cookies, which is
all I can think of anymore.
#Post#: 76323--------------------------------------------------
Re: Long weekend hosting in the country - ideas needed
By: Rose Red Date: July 13, 2022, 3:35 pm
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Will you be preparing all the meals or do you mind if they fend
for themselves once in a while? If you don't mind if they help
themselves, just keep basics in the kitchen. Bread, cold cuts,
peanut butter, jelly, eggs, cheese, canned goods, cereal, fruit,
etc. I'm a fan of frozen appetizers; just heat up and serve on a
platter.
You can also do crock pot meals and soups so you're not spending
all day over a stove; just one and done. Serve with some crusty
bread and/or salad and you're good to go.
Provide a list of nearby restaurants for those who wish to dine
out. Or order pizza or Chinese food for one or two meals.
#Post#: 76326--------------------------------------------------
Re: Long weekend hosting in the country - ideas needed
By: Bada Date: July 13, 2022, 5:10 pm
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Chili isn't the best hot weather food, but it's filling and goes
far. If it's mostly beans, that makes it really easy even if
the stores are far.
I purchased on online cookbook fom The Family Freezer with a
crockpot dump recipe I absolutely love a while back. I don't
see it available for free, but here's a similar recipe she
posted that maybe you could try:
HTML https://thefamilyfreezer.com/2013/02/13/slow-cooker-turkey-black-bean-chili/
#Post#: 76329--------------------------------------------------
Re: Long weekend hosting in the country - ideas needed
By: Winterlight Date: July 13, 2022, 5:58 pm
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I'd plan general meal outlines.
Breakfast- cereal/toast with spreads or whatever.
Lunch- Sandwich and salad fixings.
Dinner- Grill or slow cooker meals. Check the weather so you're
not trying to grill in the rain. If you've got a chest freezer,
you can make your slow cooker meals ahead of time, then pull
them out on the day.
#Post#: 76335--------------------------------------------------
Re: Long weekend hosting in the country - ideas needed
By: Rho Date: July 13, 2022, 10:00 pm
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if you are sending out a schedule send out time frames for
lunches and dinner. Guests can skip or rustle up their own
breakfasts. Prima donnas will know lunch ends 1:30 and if they
wander in at 2:00 too bad so sad.
FWIW I have hosted up to 50 out of towners over several 3-4
day weekends.
#Post#: 76355--------------------------------------------------
Re: Long weekend hosting in the country - ideas needed
By: jpcher Date: July 14, 2022, 2:46 pm
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What is on your party meal menu? Knowing that would help us so
we don't overlap suggestions.
The first thing that came to my mind was lasagna, feeds a crowd
and can be made ahead of time and frozen. Serve with bread and
garden salad.
Sloppy Joes is another easy-to-make crowd pleaser, which can
also be frozen.
Pre-chop up a whole bunch of veggies (carrots, peppers,
radishes, red onion, cucumber, etc.) and store them in separate
baggies for an easy add to a couple of garden salads to be
served at any meal.
DD#2 makes a great pasta BLT salad. You can precook/prechop and
freeze the bacon, precook the pasta (store it in the fridge for
up to three days, it's actually better when cold), then at time
of service chop up a bunch of lettuce, add a bunch of grape
tomatoes (DD#2 chops these in halve, but I don't think it's
necessary because it is time consuming), add the pasta, bacon
and dress with Bacon Flavored Ranch dressing.
Breakfast -- There are a whole lot of egg casserole recipes out
there that you can prepare in advance which are easy and serves
a crowd.
I do like RoseRed's thought of having available food for
whomever wants to fend for themselves, unless you are actually
planning on having sit-down scheduled meals with all attendees?
If that's the case, then don't open your kitchen for
free-for-alls.
I do agree with Rho -- Maybe send out an invitation type thing
"We're planning on Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner at these times."
type of thing.
#Post#: 76367--------------------------------------------------
Re: Long weekend hosting in the country - ideas needed
By: JeanFromBNA Date: July 15, 2022, 1:54 pm
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The party menu is pulled pork BBQ sandwiches and Nashville hot
chicken and chicken tenders, with mac & cheese, baked beans,
green beans, deviled eggs, chips, birthday cake, cookies. I
think I'm forgetting some sides & apps. We had about 20 items on
the menu not including drinks.
My husband will probably want to make a big Sunday breakfast. He
makes his own buttermilk biscuits, which are state fair-worthy.
Other than that, we don't plan on making any other sit down
meals, since we're not sure how many will be there.
There are no nearby restaurants to speak of. The nearest
restaurant is about a half hour away. But like I said, I don't
care for cooking much, and don't like to spend time cleaning up
after a lot of cooking, so I like the idea of food people can
pick out of the fridge themselves.
I hadn't thought about making a schedule, and meal outlines, so
thanks for that. Slow cooker or the grill outside is a good idea
since Tennessee feels like the surface of the sun in summer.
#Post#: 76372--------------------------------------------------
Re: Long weekend hosting in the country - ideas needed
By: Gellchom Date: July 15, 2022, 3:18 pm
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My best advice about feeding house guests is about breakfast.
Here is the system developed over three generations of my
family! (We always had lots of house guests).
Put out stuff that people like for breakfast, such as bread or
bagels, fruit, cheese, cereal, yogurt, hard boiled eggs, peanut
butter, cream cheese, butter, jam, juice, etc. You don't need
all these things -- it's not a hotel buffet! -- just enough so
that they will find something they eat and can easily serve
themselves. Have the coffee and teabags ready and waiting with
sugar and sweetener out (they know the milk is in the
refrigerator), dishes, cups, glasses, napkins, and cutlery out
on the counter or table.
Here's the secret: You eat your breakfast and beat it out of
there before they get to the kitchen, so they can just take care
of themselves. Trust me; this works way better than asking them
what they want, and them telling you, "Oh, just anything," and
round and round. No one wants that in the morning!
#Post#: 76376--------------------------------------------------
Re: Long weekend hosting in the country - ideas needed
By: jpcher Date: July 15, 2022, 5:55 pm
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Thanks for the update, JeanFromBNA. One more question -- you
said "several days" so I'm thinking 3 days and 2 nights?
Your comments "we don't plan on making any other sit down meals,
since we're not sure how many will be there." and " so I like
the idea of food people can pick out of the fridge themselves."
changes things a bit.
In which case, gellchom and Rho's thoughts put together are
great ideas. 'Publish' a set meal-time schedule. Something like
"Our kitchen will be open from 8-10am for breakfast, 12-1:30pm
for lunch, and 6-8 for dinner."
Then set the food allotted for each meal out on the counter and
let people serve themselves. (I'm not crazy about people
scrounging through the fridge, but that depends on your family
style) gellchom gave good ideas for breakfast Saturday morning.
I'm betting you're going to have a lot of leftover food from the
bday party (sounds like a great feast!) so put that out for
lunch the next day.
You could also have lunchmeat, cheeses, breads, etc. for lunch,
depending on your leftover volume.
Dinner? Heat up the grill and have hamburgers/hot dogs/chicken
breasts available and let the guests cook their own choice.
You get the idea.
#Post#: 76386--------------------------------------------------
Re: Long weekend hosting in the country - ideas needed
By: TootsNYC Date: July 16, 2022, 11:01 am
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also, this is family, so you might consider asking if one of the
other folks would take over a meal.
You can do the shopping, but they could do the planning and
cooking.
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