Graduation Party/I need help with quantities?

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sherin65

Assistant Cook
Joined
Sep 1, 2006
Messages
31
Location
Indiana
My dd is graduating from HS and her party is June 10th. I think there will be about 100 guests, open house style. My menu is listed below. Please feel free to give suggestions. I really need to know how much I will need. I'm getting the food from local vendors but not all the same place. I know they will have guidelines for how much I'll need but I have found those are often way too much food and so much gets wasted. A couple of things I'll make myself.

Entree's
Fried Chicken (2pcs per person?)
Italian Beef (pounds?
BBQ Pork (pounds?

Bread
Small sub buns for beef and pork
Dinner rolls/butter? Y or N?

Sides
Potato casserole(I'll make myself)
Mostacolli(will have meat sauce but I still consider it a side dish)

Salads
Ramen Slaw(I'll make)
Potato salad
Veggie Trays w/dip
Fruit Trays w/dip

Desserts
Graduation Cake(full sheet)
Finger desserts(cookies, cream puffs, cheesecake bites, brownies)

Please give imput and suggestions on amounts.
Thanks
Sher
 
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Your menu sounds great - A lot of variety.

I've done a fair amount of cooking for crowds, including graduation parties for both of my kids (college and H.S), my brother's wedding, etc. The thing to remember is, with so much to chose from you definately do not need to have 100 servings of each dish. No one will eat full servings of everything. Forinstance most will chose 1 meat - not 2 pcs of chicken, italian beef and a bbq pork sandwich. If it was me I would not get more then 75, maybe 100 pieces of chicken. If you have a lot of teenage boys they do love fried chicken.

There is a great website Ellenskitchen.com that gives great guidelines as far as amounts. As I mentioned, you have a wide variety of dishes. Taking that into consideration I would not make more then 50 servings of each indivdual dish. Trust me on this. You will not run out of food - you will still have a lot of leftovers.
 
I've been considering dropping an item or two, do you think I should scale it down a bit? What could I drop?


Sher
 
You could drop a potato dish. Personally with all of the focus on less carbs I would not mess with dinner rolls but would have rolls for the beef/pork sandwiches. I just had cake for desserts at my graduation parties. All of those desserts sound festive and pretty tho. I would also consider leaving out the pasta dish and maybe chosing two entrees.

If you drop some dishes you will have to consider uping the serving amounts of the other dishes to maybe 75 but 50 servings will probably still work for most dishes.

Your menu sounds great but it is alot. You can easily scale down some and still have a beautiful and plentiful spread.
 
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My menu is actually one of the smallest of the parties I've been to over the past few years. It's crazy the amounts of food people put out. I will probably keep the pasta as dd really wants it but might drop the bbq pork. I'll drop the dinner rolls, they were kind of an afterthought anyway. I didn't want potato salad because I don't like it but everyone around here eats it up. Goes at every party we're at, go figure, I think it's yucky.
eta: I was going to just have cake. I've found at smaller parties like Confirmation that if you have cake and dessert bits that the cake sits there. However, her party is so big that I'm afraid just cake may not be enough.
 
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Oh, if your dd requested the pasta dish you must keep that in the mix! Afterall the celebration is about her and her achievements!
 
Hi Sher,

Congratulations to the graduate. Your menu sounds wonderful and full of variety. One factor you should consider is your guest list. There will most likely be other graduation celebrations on that Sunday in June and the younger guests probably have more than one party to attend that day. That means that these guests will be munching on the run eating a grab and go style all day. The Aunts, Uncles and “elder” guests are ones who will sit and consume.

Our catering facility usually uses a factor of 1.5 to prepare food for buffet style events. We always have the option to serve any leftovers in the food courts so our chefs always err on the positive side.

Example: Your entrees = Fried chicken, Italian Beef & BBQ Pork. There are three entrees X 150 portions = 50 portions of each entrée. A reasonable portion for the sandwich is 3 to 4 ounces of meat @ 175 ounces or almost 11 pounds.

Fried chicken 8 cut is 12 chickens or 96 pieces.
Italian Beef @ 10#
BBQ Pork @ 10#
Sub Rolls @ 100


Most sides we portion at 4 ounces per serving. Vegetable and fruit trays are figured at 2 ounces per portion.

Unless you are really fond of rolls and butter I would go light or not at all with rolls considering the other starches on the menu.

To be frugal I would err on over production with items I know I can freeze.

Good luck and I hope all goes well.
 
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You have a menu for 300 people.

Entree's
Fried Chicken (2pcs per person?)
Italian Beef (pounds?
BBQ Pork (pounds?

Fried Chicken: Switch to Buffalo Wings (1-mild/1-spicy) (5-6 lbs)
Italian Beef: Make a slow Cooker Pot (4-6 lbs)
BBQ Pork: Cut// Serve sliced turkey breast (4-5 lbs)

Bread
Small sub buns for beef and pork
Dinner rolls/butter? Y or N?

Small sub buns (8 to pkg// 6 bags)
2 loaves of bread (white/wheat)

Sides
Potato casserole(I'll make myself)
Mostacolli(will have meat sauce but I still consider it a side dish)

Good Job!

Salads
Ramen Slaw(I'll make)
Potato salad
Veggie Trays w/dip
Fruit Trays w/dip

Cut veggie & fruit trays (not needed)

Desserts
Graduation Cake(full sheet)
Finger desserts(cookies, cream puffs, cheesecake bites, brownies)

Cut Finger desserts (not needed)

Beverages:
Bottled Water (1 case)
Sports Drinks (24....3 8 pks...lemon lime & orange)
Soda (4 - 2 litres, Pepsi & Sprite)
Tea/Coffee (pot of ea.)


Families gather for graduation parties. Graduating class members rarely attend unless they are buddies. (But all the kids think they are coming.)
(Had a graduate in my home in 2005)
 
I don't know, IMO I would keep the veggie tray. The veggies trays don't exactly disappear (except for the carrots!) but they are always appreciated by those watching their waistline. I always have a veggie tray - just not a huge one and I cut extra carrots to replenish as they dissappear.

I do agree that not as many come to Graduation parties as the kids expect, at least that has been my experience.
 
I'm in the exact same position, but I have to plan over here and execute over there (Indiana).
100 people
graduation party (nephew)

But we are serving all of my nephew's favorite foods instead of a set menu. I had one, but my sis thought that we should make BK's favorites.

Would you please share your recipe for the ramen slaw? I'd like to have something like that as a backup.

Our menu:

Chicken salad sandwiches
BBQ meatballs
Nacho bar
Deviled Eggs
Rosemary/Parmesan appetizers
Crabbies
Vegetable & dip
Cheese tray

This is going to be hors d'oeuvre for a pre-supper open house around 4 - 7 pm. We are hoping that people will come hungry, but not too hungry. ;) I'm having problems with amounts and also with pricing things as I can't get the prices online.

Good luck! Maybe we can share war stories.:LOL:
 
Would you please share your recipe for the ramen slaw? I'd like to have something like that as a backup.

Ramen Slaw

1 pkg. uncooked Ramen chicken flavor noodles(crumbled)

1/2 head cabbage
1 bunch of chinese cabbage (or Napa cabbage)
***I use 2 bags of precut slaw mix instead of the two different cabbages

1 small bunch green onions

1pkg. sliced almonds
1 sm. pkg of sunflower seeds ****I use a couple of handfuls of the almonds and sunflower seeds until I like the amount
1 TBl sesame seeds

2TBL vinegar
1/2 cup oil
4 TBL sugar
1 pkg seasoning from Ramen noodle pkg.

Mix all together. Pour dressing over just before serving.
 
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:) One thing I think you can eliminate is the potato casserole and just go with a really good potato salad it will go great with everything else.
If you do chicken wings instead of fried you could also use the little drummetes(more meat) I would do at least pounds 20 pounds they are a popular item and dissapear quick you can do the celery and carrot sticks with them and the blue cheese dressing.
I have made up to 10 pounds of chicken wings for girl parties of 20-25 and they are gone in no time.
Another thing you can do is serve chips and dip before the meal to fill them up a bit before they hit the buffet it will slow down their appetites a bit.
 
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PytnPlace said:
I don't know, IMO I would keep the veggie tray. The veggies trays don't exactly disappear (except for the carrots!) but they are always appreciated by those watching their waistline. I always have a veggie tray - just not a huge one and I cut extra carrots to replenish as they dissappear.

I do agree that not as many come to Graduation parties as the kids expect, at least that has been my experience.

Actually one dish that I had recently (as a middle eastern favorite of all things) was simply sliced apples with honey to dip in. I thought it was kind of a healthy alternative kind of thing, but the kids were all over it. Anyway, I thought I'd throw that suggestion out there.

I liked the Buffalo Wings suggestion made earlier except that if this graduation party is anything like my sons', then you want to do everything you can to discourage sticky spicy-sauce covered fingers.
 
There will be bowls of chips. I forgot to mention that before.


Do you think I should have a "hot" vegetable? I wasn't planning on it since I have the veggie trays but now I'm wondering if I should have one......

Sher
 
Oh nip that idea in the bud!! You are perfectly fine with the veggie tray. People are coming and going and nibbling on the way. Your menu is great - don't need to add a thing. Enjoy!!!
 
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