Cooking for a Crowd

Every Thanksgiving and Christmas season our church hosts an event for ladies to help orient our minds to the true meaning of the holidays, rightly called Holidays Fit for the King. Today, I was honored to lead a seminar on cooking for a crowd and I told the ladies in my seminar that I would post links to the products I talked about this morning, so here they are! Thank you all for allowing me to chat with you today and thank you for being such an interactive group!

Online resources

Food Network Recipes

Allrecipes.com

Dinner for a crowd using spreadsheets A great resource to organize your thoughts digitally, rather than using a notebook.

Temperature Rules! A graphic for quick reference of proper cooking temperatures.

Prepare the perfect ham A breakdown of different hams, as well as tips for a successful ham.

Turkey recipe Alton Brown’s recipe that I’ve successfully used in the past.

Great tools to use in the kitchen

Ziplock bags – Use for more than just storage. Remember, you can also use them to protect printed recipes, phones or tablets that you might be using in the kitchen.

Kitchen timer app

Crock-Pot

Kitchen timer/leave in thermometer

Instant read thermometer

Silicone  basting brush

Immersion blender

Small prep bowls

 

Preparing for Whole Woman Day 2011!

This morning I was reading a post on friend’s blog about being Blessed beyond Measure and was truly encouraged by recalling some of the ways the Lord has chosen to bless me. I think about how the Lord continually provides for my family, how He surounds me with brothers and sisters in Christ, how He protects me…fights for me when Satan tries to discourage, how He encourages and teaches me by using those I think I should be teaching, and in many other ways that would take an entire post to list. That being said, one of the first ways that came to my mind is how He is allowing me to be a part of the steering committee for an AMAZING event that my church hosts every other year (click here for more information)!

In the Summer of last year, I was approached about heading up the food committee for this event and after some prayer Jason and I decided that it would be a great thing for me to do. I never would have guessed all the Lord would do to bless me by making that decision. I have been able to build relationships with a group of godly ladies that I might not have had the opportunity to do so otherwise. Every month we have our monthly planning meeting, which is always such a sweet time of community and fellowship. This month I hosted our last meeting at my house and of course, me being me, had to throw some yummy food into the mix. After the Lord laid on my heart what He wanted me to share during our devotion time I had to rethink a few of my menu choices that would have taken a little too much time/stress to do well. Thankfully the Lord allowed me to find easy things to prepare and serve that weren’t too far out there or expensive, as I will often make things myself since they’re generally more cost effective that way. Here is what we had on the menu…

  • Food
    • Sweet and tangy meatballs
    • Praline cashews (A Southern Season)
    • Baked brie with crackers
    • Fresh fruit
    • Raspberry Tart (Trader Joe’s)
  • Drinks
    • Sweet tea
    • Orange cucumber water
    • Decaf coffee

I was very pleased with how things turned out, minus the slightly burnt brie (that’s what happens when you get caught up talking) and I know that God used our time during the meeting to get a lot accomplished. A few of the ladies asked for the recipes of my meatballs and brie so I figured I could just add them to the blog.