Mad Cook
Master Chef
Has anyone frozen uncooked shaped homemade bread dough and then thawed it and baked it? It would be very useful when I have a houseful of overnight guests.
It's my 70th in February. So far the provisional list of people to invite to the Birthday Bash is up to 25 with probably 6 or 7 staying over (I live in a large but only two-bedroom bungalow so they'd better bring their sleeping bags and air beds!). Just a friendly little gathering at home - well, no point in going to all that trouble for only half a dozen.
I'm thinking of North African food (cook in advance with minimum last minute panic and guests can help themselves at point of service). I've already started laying down the wine on the one-a-week basis and over here it's the accepted thing to turn up to parties with a bottle of wine. Invitations will specify "No birthday gifts".
It's a long time since I catered for such a crowd - my mother's 80th, I think, so Y2K!
Before that in the 1990s I catered a Christmas party for 140 guests for a group I belonged to - both vegetarian and carnivores. Some vegetarians complained that there was too much carnivore food and some carnivores complained that there was too much veggie food so I probably got the balance right.
Considering I was doing it at "cost" (just claiming the price of the ingredients) and working late into the night boning out and stuffing a turkey with a boned chicken then a boned duck, then a pheasant (do not EVER try to bone out a pheasant!!!) stuffed with home-made stuffing, and made a couple of huge gorgeous raised veggie pies with all sorts of yummy things in the filling as the table centres, a dozen quiches (veggie and non-veggie), quantities of veggie and carnivore acceptable vol-au-vents to say nothing of the salads and desserts, I was a bit peeved at the complaints!
It's my 70th in February. So far the provisional list of people to invite to the Birthday Bash is up to 25 with probably 6 or 7 staying over (I live in a large but only two-bedroom bungalow so they'd better bring their sleeping bags and air beds!). Just a friendly little gathering at home - well, no point in going to all that trouble for only half a dozen.
I'm thinking of North African food (cook in advance with minimum last minute panic and guests can help themselves at point of service). I've already started laying down the wine on the one-a-week basis and over here it's the accepted thing to turn up to parties with a bottle of wine. Invitations will specify "No birthday gifts".
It's a long time since I catered for such a crowd - my mother's 80th, I think, so Y2K!
Before that in the 1990s I catered a Christmas party for 140 guests for a group I belonged to - both vegetarian and carnivores. Some vegetarians complained that there was too much carnivore food and some carnivores complained that there was too much veggie food so I probably got the balance right.
Considering I was doing it at "cost" (just claiming the price of the ingredients) and working late into the night boning out and stuffing a turkey with a boned chicken then a boned duck, then a pheasant (do not EVER try to bone out a pheasant!!!) stuffed with home-made stuffing, and made a couple of huge gorgeous raised veggie pies with all sorts of yummy things in the filling as the table centres, a dozen quiches (veggie and non-veggie), quantities of veggie and carnivore acceptable vol-au-vents to say nothing of the salads and desserts, I was a bit peeved at the complaints!
