When you’re entertaining, you need to balance money, time and taste.  I just had a grad night party for my eldest and I won’t say it was the cheapest I could have done, but it was reasonable and balanced the time I had available with the money I had available.

My daughter wanted a “simple” barbecue, that is hot dogs and hamburgers. But we were inviting lots of adults, including a few vegetarians and a few who eat no pork.   So first off, I bought all-beef hot dogs. I also decided to buy preformed hamburger patties to save time since we had a few other things going on around the same time.  I decided to add some chicken breasts and a few portobello mushrooms as well.  The hardest part was deciding about how many of each thing to plan on for 45 – 50 people. I figured two hot dogs per person and figured on about half hot dogs, slightly more than half hamburgers, half a dozen mushrooms, and a large tray pack of chicken breasts. (Note: I marinated the chicken breasts in my favorite chicken marinade and split them into two bags. I had one bag left over at the end so just froze them in smaller packs of 2 breasts per bag with some marinade in each bag.  I also had leftover hamburgers, still frozen, and leftover hot dogs, easy to throw in the freezer for later, so those will all get used up.)  We cooked a bit more than we ate last night but had hot dogs for lunch and green salad with sliced chicken and the leftover mushroom sliced up for dinner.

The menu I ended up with was:

• hot dogs
• hamburgers
• barbecued chicken breasts
• barbecued portobello mushrooms
• vegetarian baked beans
• potato salad (homemade and brought by my niece)
• pasta salad with veggies (homemade and brought by my niece)
• Chinese chicken salad (homemade and brought by my girls’ stepmom by request)
• fruit salad
• green salad

For appetizers we had:

• hummus and crackers (brought by a friend)
• chips and salsa (brought by a friend)
• veggies wraps (olives, red peppers, cream cheese, spinach leaves, grated carrots)
• spinach dip (bought at Costco) and French bread cubes
• pretzels and crackers and various dips and cream cheese (my youngest talked me into some raspberry chipolte sauce we sampled at Costco and I had some wasabi mustard dip I’d bought a while back)

And I bought a large sheet cake for dessert. This ended up at about $1 per person and was far better tasting and looking than I could have done! For smaller groups, I would have made dessert but for larger ones this works out great.

Oh I also made two large relish plates for the burgers which included a head of iceberg lettuce, sliced onions, sliced pickles, and sliced tomatoes. Ended up with leftover onions and tomatoes but those will easily get used up in various things or I can always just chop and freeze the onions.

I haven’t added up the cost but my main point was that you need to balance the time you have availalable and figure out what things might make sense to buy pre-made. While I normally make our namburger patties, for a large party I felt good about my decision to buy the preformed ones. Likewise the spinach dip. But I bought fresh fruit and made the fruit salad based on what looked good and ripe at the store (strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, watermelon, grapes and nectarines).  A neighbor was kind enough to loan me some fridge space (as well as outdoor table and chairs) so I made the salad up in the morning and refrigerated it till the party started. I did the same with the relish plates for the burgers.

Oh, for the bean dish I took this four bean casserole recipe in the crockpot and modified it to use vegetarian baked beans intead of the pork and beans and then left out the bacon. It was just as delicious as the original I think and might become my new standard since it’s a bit healthier.

Any of you have tips to share for large parties? This was fun but the largest one I’ve done that wasn’t a total potluck, although I did have some help as noted.  I don’t have an extra frig or freezer as some folks do so the neighbors’ offer of their spare frig space was a lifesaver. Same with the tables and chairs I borrowed. Oh, we did buy plastic table cloths to cover all the tables so they looked coordinated by the time we were done!  We bought a dozen helium ballons and tied a few to each table.  We lucked out with fantastic weather and I think the party was a success.

I’ve somehow fallen out of the habit of using my Crock Pot (aka slow cooker). But a neighbor borrowed my Crockpot the other day, which reminded me of it somehow, so I opted to cook my whole chicken (.79 a pound) in it today. The newer ones cook hotter than the old ones, so I started this on my lunch break (I work from home) and it was done perfectly at dinner (6pm).

After removing the innards and rinsing the bird, I placed it on three balls of foil in the crockpot. This raises it up a bit and gives it a more “roast” kind of texture, which we like.

I didn’t follow a recipe today, but sprinkled salt and seasoned pepper all over the bird, then put it breast side up on the foil balls. I poured a few spoonfuls of honey over it, squeezed a whole lemon over it (and a bit inside the cavity), then sprinkled some “Sate” seasoning from Penzy’s I’d gotten as a gift. Put the cover on and cooked on low until about 5pm, at which point I turned the heat up to high just to be sure. I’ve never had “overdone” chicken in the crockpot. I mean, it’s never dry at least.

To go with I reheated some of the Tuscan White Beans I made the other day and made up a batch of yellow rice that I got from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food. I used turmeric instead of saffron, being cheap.

When I buy a roast, I usually cook half and save half, either whole, sliced, or chopped. I vacuum seal it and throw it in the freezer for a bit. I was in the mood for some pulled pork sandwiches but didn’t feel like paying as much attention as my regular recipes call for. (But if you feel like doing a bit more here’s another recipe for pulled pork.

For last night’s dinner, I went the easy route, defrosting the pork roast (which was cubed already) and dumping a bottle of barbecue sauce on it. You can make your own barbecue sauce or use store-bought.

When it’s falling apart done, shred with some forks. Serve on buns with coleslaw.

I have used a great pulled pork recipe many times with great praise from family and friends. I was in the grocery store perusing the magazines by the checkout stand and one called “Quick and Simple” caught my eye, probably because of the starburst promo calling out “17 Budget-Friendly Recipes.” They had a pulled pork recipe in there from a guy who has a tv show called The Poor Chef that sounded good and it was quite similar to my recipe I got from who knows where originally. I point that out because people, particularly new cooks, are often hesitant to alter a recipe. I think if you compare the ingredient list for these two you’ll see that the actual ingredients are about identical. The main difference is some minor variations in the proportions (more brown sugar, less vinegar, more black pepper, etc. ) So if you’re a bit shy of one ingredient in a recipe like this, experiment!

I had bought a pork roast a while back and made a Cuban Pork Roast with half of it. I threw the other half in the freezer. I used that for my pulled pork the other night.

1 onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbs chili powder
1 tsp black pepper
1 12-oz bottle chili sauce (look near the ketchup!)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
2-3 pound boneless pork roast

Put all the ingredients in a slow cooker and stir around a bit to coat the pork.

If you have an older slow cooker, cook about 8-10 hours. (You can get the whole thing ready the night before and refrigerate, but really it’s pretty quick to throw together.) If you have a newer slow cooker, consider adjusting the time a bit. I find my newer one cooks so hot that meals are usually done in half the time called for in older recipes. In this case, I cooked the meat from 12-4, then shredded it, let it cook another half hour or so in the sauce, then refrigerated until we were ready to eat. I heated it up on the stove while I mixed up some coleslaw to go with it.

Definitely a winning recipe.

Cruising the meat aisle on Sunday when I did my shopping, I brought home a beef roast. Can’t remember the exact cut. It was boneless. It was also tied with strings, which I cut off given that I was going to slow cooker it. I’d been wanting to try some variation of the soda-onion soup-crockpot roast I’d seen rave reviews of on various cooking lists to which I subscribe.

I almost gave in this morning for a sure thing roast. I had a can of cranberry jelly in the pantry and the tried and true cranberry pot roast recipe was calling strongly. But, as I often do, I resisted and held out for the new and untried recipe. It is super simple. It is, as I’d read, very very good.

1 beef roast
1 envelope onion soup mix
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can of soda

Put it all in your slow cooker. If you have an older one that doesn’t spit and bubble even on low, I’d cook it it on low 8-10 hours hours or high 4-6 hours. If you have a newer model, like mine, that boils (not just simmers!) even on low, allow about 5 hours on low and don’t even think about cooking it on high. Really, you just need to get to know your own slow cooker and follow their guidelines. There is a huge difference between newer and older models.

I’ve seen variations of this recipe with and without the “cream of” soup, one with a packet of brown gravy mix, one with fresh mushrooms, and one with a packet of Italian dressing mix and a beer instead of the soda!

This produced a nice au jus that was a bit thicker than you’d get without the “cream of” soup but not as thick as a gravy. If you want a gravy, take out the roast and stir in some flour and water (2 Tbs flour mixed with 3 Tbs cup cold water) and let it simmer a bit while you do the rest of dinner prep.

I served it with rice and cooked carrots and it was a huge hit.