Having a party!

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huntsmoke41

Newbie
Original poster
Sep 25, 2014
22
10
Pennsylvania
Hello all! My Lil girl just turned 1 year old. We're having a party on March 14th. My Ole lady wants to pay for a caterer. I wanna do the food myself. Does anyone have any recommendations for cooking for large crowds? We're expecting upwards of 90 guests. Not sure what I can pull off but I'd love some feedback.
 
Ummmmmmm..........is this a party for your little girl or the town you live in?  I'd start with some cake and ice cream and a few very close relatives that your 1 year old knows well.  Just sayin......
 
Here in Hawaii we throw a feast, aka a lu'au, for our kids first b-day! It's the biggest party we host for our kids...

To the original question, what kind of equipment and kitchen available to you would dictate what you can cook.

Just my gut feeling but go with the caterer and enjoy the party!
 
Ummmmmmm..........is this a party for your little girl or the town you live in?  I'd start with some cake and ice cream and a few very close relatives that your 1 year old knows well.  Just sayin......
Yeah, no kidding. The Ole lady got a bit carried away with the guest list. I doubt our one year old will have any clue as to what's going on! Lol.
 
Here in Hawaii we throw a feast, aka a lu'au, for our kids first b-day! It's the biggest party we host for our kids...

To the original question, what kind of equipment and kitchen available to you would dictate what you can cook.

Just my gut feeling but go with the caterer and enjoy the party!
I have access to a full commercial kitchen at the banquet facility at my firehouse. Maybe you're right, go with caterer so I can enjoy myself.
 
Here is some math and info... 

For Pulled Pork, relatively cheap and easy, you need to figure 6oz per person for sandwiches, 8oz per for plated meat. Men will eat 2 sandwiches, ladies and kids one sandwich. For PP Sandwiches...

6oz PP X 90 people  =  540oz PP /  16oz  =  33.75lbs  / .50 (50% yield after cooking and removing fat) = 67.5lbs Raw Pork  /  8lb avg. =  8-9 Pork Butts. More if there are a lot of men. Add one portion per man.

Rolls... 90 X 1.5ea  =  135rolls  /  12  =  ~11 to 12 Dozen 

BBQ Sauce... 90 X 1.5oz  =  135oz

Beans... 90 X 3oz  =  270oz / 32  =  8.5 Qt of Beans

Potato Salad... 90  X  3oz  =  270oz  /  16  =  ~17lbs Salad

Quite a bit of work plus you probably need a alternate meat like Chicken Leg Quarters for those that don't eat or like pork and Mac 'n Cheese if there are a lot of kids. If you like to cook it's fun. I did a Pig Roast (115 Pounder) for a combo Birthday party for the middle girl and Christening for the new Baby. There were 50 people plus I had 3 Pro Chef friends there backing me up...Still prep'd 3 days, 12 hours up with the pig and spent way more time feeding folks than Partying...Congrats on the Baby and Good Luck...JJ
 
I have access to a full commercial kitchen at the banquet facility at my firehouse. Maybe you're right, go with caterer so I can enjoy myself.
how far is that from home?

how much smoking/bbq space you got?

Firehouse you say?  maybe get some of the other firemen to help?

What chefJimmy says is pretty close to the way I estimate amounts too.

I have found that at times I can buy potato salad in large amounts at Sams for cheaper than it costs me to make it, and since its the most labor intensive thing to make (other than 12 hours of smoking meat) that is a no brainer for me
 
​I did my Daughters wedding rehearsal dinner, no smoked meat I say get a caterer. I spent most of the time in the kitchen. Enjoy your company. 
 
 
Here is some math and info... 

For Pulled Pork, relatively cheap and easy, you need to figure 6oz per person for sandwiches, 8oz per for plated meat. Men will eat 2 sandwiches, ladies and kids one sandwich. For PP Sandwiches...

6oz PP X 90 people  =  540oz PP /  16oz  =  33.75lbs  / .50 (50% yield after cooking and removing fat) = 67.5lbs Raw Pork  /  8lb avg. =  8-9 Pork Butts. More if there are a lot of men. Add one portion per man.

Rolls... 90 X 1.5ea  =  135rolls  /  12  =  ~11 to 12 Dozen 

BBQ Sauce... 90 X 1.5oz  =  135oz

Beans... 90 X 3oz  =  270oz / 32  =  8.5 Qt of Beans

Potato Salad... 90  X  3oz  =  270oz  /  16  =  ~17lbs Salad

Quite a bit of work plus you probably need a alternate meat like Chicken Leg Quarters for those that don't eat or like pork and Mac 'n Cheese if there are a lot of kids. If you like to cook it's fun. I did a Pig Roast (115 Pounder) for a combo Birthday party for the middle girl and Christening for the new Baby. There were 50 people plus I had 3 Pro Chef friends there backing me up...Still prep'd 3 days, 12 hours up with the pig and spent way more time feeding folks than Partying...Congrats on the Baby and Good Luck...JJ
JJ - is spot on with this. If you want to do some chicken I highly suggest chicken thighs. Buy about 10 family packs (usually about 12 in each pack), put rub on them, place them in the fridge overnight and then run them through the smoker in batches till done. Best thing is they only take about 3 hrs. per batch so you can cook them all in one day, then bag them up and re-heat them in foil pans in that commercial kitchen.

Basically if you plan ahead you can do everything on that menu ahead of time, then just pay a few friends to do the re-heating and re-stocking of the food line. Re-heating should be easy with a big commercial kitchen, put everything into big foil turkey pans, cover with foil, and pop them into a 250° oven for about 4-5 hrs. Yes 4-5 hrs.! Your heating a lot of mass from fridge cold and you don't want to heat it to fast and scorch the bottom while leaving the middle cold. Heat it slowly and give it time so it stays moist - you can put about 1 cup of apple juice into each pan of meat as well to help it along.

Good luck! .... and don't forget the pictures!

Johnny
 
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Thanks for all the input. We got prices from caterers, looks like we're definitely gonna handle it ourselves. Unfortunately think we're not gonna do anything smoked due to limited smoker space. Looks like I'm gonna do chicken marsala, baked ziti, mixed vegetables, salad, garlic bread, prob some kinda rice to go w the marsala. Maybe baked ham as another meat choice.
 
Thanks for all the input. We got prices from caterers, looks like we're definitely gonna handle it ourselves. Unfortunately think we're not gonna do anything smoked due to limited smoker space. Looks like I'm gonna do chicken marsala, baked ziti, mixed vegetables, salad, garlic bread, prob some kinda rice to go w the marsala. Maybe baked ham as another meat choice.
You can cook pulled pork way in advance....so you could make tons of that at least for sliders and such.
 
Thanks for all the input. We got prices from caterers, looks like we're definitely gonna handle it ourselves. Unfortunately think we're not gonna do anything smoked due to limited smoker space. Looks like I'm gonna do chicken marsala, baked ziti, mixed vegetables, salad, garlic bread, prob some kinda rice to go w the marsala. Maybe baked ham as another meat choice.
Sausage and peppers are easy to make Kielbasi and kraut Rice Pilaf is another one that gets eaten. Good Luck post some pics when you do it.
 
Sounds like a great time! Happy B-Day to the little lady! 
 
You can cook pulled pork way in advance....so you could make tons of that at least for sliders and such.
We have made Pulled Pork and then gotten the inexpensive rolls for sliders. They go mad for them.  Add a few onions, pickles, and homemade sauce and they can be a real time saver.  I agree that you can do a lot of prep work and get it ready.  

Also,  if you have friends and family close by feel free to enlist their help and kitchens as well.  Spread the love, and let them feel like they helped.  Use their ice chests to keep things warm and it will lessen the stress on you and "she that must be obeyed" 
wife.gif
.

Then still enjoy the part for yourself.  No need to stress and wear you and your family out.

Best of luck on your efforts, I know it will be a fun event.
 
Just did some shopping, all the chicken I need, all the ziti, tomato sauce, whole tomatoes, rice for the chicken marsala. All for $70.00. Still have alot of other stuff to get, but I'm watching sales flyers and such for deals. I'll do my best to keep everything posted. If y'all don't hear back, that means I'm totally overwhelmed and I'm in shut down mode!
 
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