Three generations will be gathering for 5 days over the holidays and I’m now in charge of the meal planning. I could use some inspiration.
The details that complicate things:
12 people from age 9 to 88
I will need to drive all the food up to Maine (from Boston) ~ 3 hours away
This will include Christmas Eve and Christmas dinners (and the 80 year olds are very traditional for those meals - think big roast piece of meat, vegetable, and a starch - deviations for those won’t be appreciated I don’t think)
This is a big family gathering so if things require too much prep time, I will just live in the kitchen because we all need to eat breakfast and lunch too - and clean up in-between
I won’t be doing everything alone - my brothers are both competent in the kitchen and all the middle generation helps clean up
Somewhat limited Fridge/Freezer space, so have to just be conscious of that
No real food allergies/issues, but it has to be somewhat accessible for kids (and 80 year olds )
So I’m thinking “fresh” food for the first three meals (through Christmas) and then 2 meals that maybe I can do ahead, freeze, and then just cook/bake off up there. That way things can move from the freezer to the fridge as the week goes along.
So does anyone have any great ideas that come to mind or that you do for a larger crowd without spending all day in the kitchen - can be dinners, sides, or lunches really - we’ll be having them all LOL? The recent thread on baked ziti does make that seem like a good option that I have on the ideas list . . . .
Mississippi pot roast comes to mind, chili, a big pot of spag bol, bread puddings, strata, savory bread puddings or breakfast casseroles like @shrinkrap made recently.
I’m feeding a crowd myself and planning to do two different make-ahead pasta sauces: one a meaty ragu, one lighter/different.
One sauce will be more traditional for the old-fashioned folks in attendance.
We had a full house one year, with 7 house guests for a week, aged 12 to 70 at the time, plus me and my 2 DCs.
These are the meals I remember having at home in our dining room
Take-out pizza one night, after a movie night. The older people had been at an open house and had filled up on appetizers, homemade Chex mix, and cookies
…
Roasted lemon oregano chicken quarters , 12 yo had requested chicken. Then she wouldn’t eat the chicken when it was served . Turns out she only ate boneless skinless chicken breast, something that is almost never cooked at our house. LOL…
…
Caesar salad
meat and rice stuffed grape leaves served warm
cheesecake
…
New Years Day
cold cherry soup
Beef tenderloin
scalloped potatoes.
cauliflower cheese
…
individual lava cakes, one relative brought a kit. This was a pain in our tiny kitchen, to use ramekins to make lava cakes for 10 people , and I would not recommend individual lava cakes for a group larger than 6, or for someone who has been cooking all week. I would make a larger self saucing pudding cake or Pouding Chômeur instead.
…
if I had an open concept house, I would make things like Make Your Own breakfast burritos, taco bowls, Make your own Cobb salad.
I also do Breakfast Casseroles or Stratas when we have company.
I usually make a Huevos Rancheros casserole for Xmas morning
Sticky Buns and Butterhorns are also popular with our family at group gatherings.
As mentioned casseroles, chili and pre-made just reheat makes lots of sense. On that note, this reminds of camping because you have to haul it and you want it easy and no hassle. Along those lines, I’m a fan of sous vide items (or conventionally cooked) in vacuum sealed bags because takes less room in a cooler, easier to store and transport and freezable, and reheat with less mess.
When you get to the location, it’s reheat, cut the bag open and finish…and no containers to haul back home. I’ve made big chunks of meat like tri-tip and pot roast/beef chuck but also stews, chili, soup bases (add stock there). Camping you can store a lot of frozen sealed food in cooler and not worry about a mess, spoilage, etc., for a long trip. Or a lot of food for a long weekend. Some van-lifers or long term road trippers use this method.
Of course you need a vacuum sealer. Don’t really need a sous vide circulator….but at a location with electricity, you can reheat stuff in the bag and way less mess, don’t need to bring as much gear and most SV circulators are compact, or just let it sit in water to defrost. Also you can cook and prep the stuff a long time ahead if you have the freezer space.
thanks for the suggestions - this didn’t get much traction but for posterity here is what I decided on . . . the crowd is now up to 15 for some nights (family friends) . . .
Paella - easy to do a large batch, seafood can be frozen until its needed
Bolognese - already done and frozen
Tacos - sous-vide carnitas done and frozen, standard ground beef and taco seasoning done on the day
Osso Buco - done and frozen
The only part that is a “mistake” so far was the osso buco. I THOUGHT - nice presentation for the holidays, should freeze and reheat well, not that hard to make just takes some time.
BUT - I was suckered in by the beef shanks at Costco (beef not veal), they looked great, lots of meat to bone ratio, not too much fat - all things that can be hard to find when buying veal shanks. They looked large but I misjudged how big they were until I got home. There was no way to cook 15 in my oven - no combination of pots, pans, roasters would fit them all and fit in the oven.
So I had to break out the industrial pans and go for doing them on the stovetop instead of in the oven. This is my largest pan - takes up the entire stovetop - and still didn’t fit them all on one layer. The pic has 10 on the bottom and you can see the 5 more on a second layer. Had to rotate them during cooking, but it worked.
The downside - keeping the presentation “neat” is going to be a fools errand - as handling cooked osso buco is challenging enough - but getting them out of the pan, cooled, into vacuum bags, out of the bags, into something to reheat them, and then to the plate . . . . we’ll see what happens. And they are huge so I only imagine a few people will actually want a whole piece.
Next time I will 100% do boneless short ribs instead.
)
