[getting the joke out of the way]
Hopefully not one with anything to do with death rays, but I’ll take what I can get. 1960’s style, even.
[/GTJOOTW]
Okay, I need to cook lunch for 66 people. I have enough ovens and stoves, but would like to keep the washing down to a minimum, so try to stick to ovens.
Something simple would be nice, too, because most of the help I’m going to get will be those who haven’t really cooked before. Anyone who asks me to make roux will be shot.
Seriously, though, I thinking maybe roast chicken and potatoes will be a good idea, it scales well, but I’m hoping for something a bit more interesting than that - last year, someone did a tuna bake thing that was quite fantastic.
All measurements approximate. This recipe fixes itself.
Roughly 7 pounds of stuffing mix
30 cups water
65-70 pieces of chicken (I like boneless skinless breasts best)
180 ounces condensed cream o’ mushroom soup (17 little cans)
6 cups sour cream
Mix stuffing mix and water. Add seasonings to taste (sage, thyme, rosemary, salt, pepper.) If you’re feeling really adventurous, add some sauteed celery, onions and mushrooms.
Place chicken in single layer in baking dishes. Combine soup and sour cream and pour over the chicken. Cover with stuffing. Bake at 375 until chicken’s done, about 35 minutes for a family size recipe.
You now have protein, starch and gravy. Throw in some steamed veggies and a salad, whip up a few dinner rolls if you’re really ambitious and serve sorbet with those vanilla cookie things and a sprig of mint for desert. (It’s a rich main course, so keep the desert light.)
Lasagna. Easy, scales like you wouldn’t believe and can be made vegetarian if needed. The only skill needed is browning the meat and layering. Kids make this all the time.
You can also make WhyNot’s recipe with rice, slightly modified.
The menu Dr.J and I made for his retreat a couple weeks ago fed the crowd pretty well. We did hummus with pita chips (requires nothing but a food processor, serving dishes, and cookie sheets if you’re making your own pita chips) for an appetizer, then we had a buffet of pork loins (one skillet apiece) with dipping sauces (stove top, but simple and fairly clean), beer can chicken (on the grill, so you only need serving dishes), spaghetti with marinara (two stockpots) for the veggies, a salad bar (couple cutting boards and serving dishes), rosemary-garlic smashed potatoes (one pot and one bowl), and apple-cranberry bread pudding with caramel bourbon sauce for dessert (one mixing dish, baking dishes, and a saucepan). All so simple I can and will do them on my own (I’m one of those people who views cooking as a necessary evil to be gotten through as quickly and easily as possible if you want to eat), and they all went over really well. People especially loved my bread pudding, but with that group I have to wonder if that was just because of the bourbon.
At any rate, we made two pork loins, two chickens, one largish pot of spaghetti, a mountain of salad, and two dishes of bread pudding. Out of that, we fed 20-25 people, had midnight snacks and breakfasts the next day, and wound up throwing out a lot of salad at the end of the weekend. For your group, I’d say three pork loins, four chickens, big pot of spaghetti, mountain of salad, and three or four dishes of bread pudding. I’d only make a double batch of the bourbon sauce, though; a little of that goes a very long way. If you want any of the recipes, I’m happy to post them.
