Cooking for a big group - how do you do it?

[Anonymous]

Heading to the beach with several other families and need to feed 14 - with age range from 9 mo. to 70 years.

What would you make??

[Anonymous]

Spaghetti, with sauce from a jar. (It's my beach vacation, after all.) Salad. Garlic bread.

[Anonymous]

I would make what I always make for this situation: large trays of chicken parmagiana. Make & freeze them in advance, and get a few loaves of store-bought frozen garlic bread. At the beach, just pop them in the oven, make a quick salad, open some wine, and you're done. And no pots & pans to clean.

You could also do ziti, lasagna, a casserole, etc. But I would make something along those lines, a dish that can be made the week before at home in large disposable foil pans, frozen, and taken with you. You don't want to spend extra time food shopping & cooking on your vacation.

[Anonymous]

Spaghetti was my first answer, burgers and dogs my second, take out my third.

[Anonymous]

Ina Garten's turkey meatloaf (all 5 pounds of it, or double!), plus frozen Stouffer's mac n' cheese for a crowd, and broccoli. It's a hit with large family gatherings every time.

[Anonymous]

Chicken Encilladas - receipe calls for cooked chicken so I use rotisserie chicken.

[Anonymous]

Paula Deen has an amazing meatloaf too (it's all about the sauce on top). Super easy to make and always gets rave reviews.

[Anonymous]

Rachel Ray has an easy homemade sloppy joe recipe too..it's awesome. Could do that with the mac and cheese trays and salad.

[Anonymous]

I would make either 2 pans of lasagna or a large pot of pasta with meat sauce.
OR
I would make mac n cheese for the kids and grill steak and bakes potatoes for the adults.

[Anonymous]

If it was a winter trip, I'd suggest lasangna - premade before you leave. But I ended up hating that at the beach, because it meant I had to be inside for a long time, as it takes forever to cook.

I know a popular thing is to do tacos and set up a taco bar (so each person can make their own). You could add rice, corn, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce.

[Anonymous]

Pasta and taco bar are excellent ideas - especially pastas where you can cook in advance. If you have any vegetarians, both are easy, too - if you have beans at a taco bar, you really don't need to do anything special for someone who doesn't eat meat or has some kind of allergy.

[Anonymous]

Is there a crockpot? If so, pulled chicken in BBQ sauce (or pork, or beef) or pulled chicken in beans, corn and salsa (use it for tacos or burritos).

grill: flank steak or kabobs.

Cold soup and a sandwich bar.