cooking for ten

[elle.b]

hi i was going to cook a roast dinner for my family on sunday but as often happens its now snowballed and i have ten people coming round.As my pans arent big enough not enough chairs etc i was thinking of doing a buffet type thing.Does anyone have any ideas? i wanted to do something a bit different than the usual.thanks

[roosi]

We dont have a big house and did Xmas for 8 people last yr. It was great. We bought 2 very large dispoable oven dishes made out of foil from Tesco. Did Jamie Oliver roast tatties with rosemary, thyme and goose fat,, mashed tatties, honey roast parsnips and brussel sprouts. We did a ham from Iceland and a pre basted turkey crown from Iceland (they were great - both serve 4-5 - cooked from frozen no joke), and although my partner is a very very keen and rather excellent cook we tried it - no regrets. In the oven practically all at once, made home made gravy and prawn cocktails with home made marie rose sauce paprika and massive lemon wedges for starters. Our dining table was our normal rectangle one which seats 4 plus our dining set from outside!!!!!!! (also square ended, wooden) attached to the end (which coincedently is the same height) this added another 4-5 chairs with one big disposable (also from tesco) tablecloth for around �4. Everyone was served dinner at the table helping themselves straight from the metal oven dishes with big spoons and prongs one for veg another for the meats once carved and a big gravy jug in the middle. It was sincerely the best Xmas I have ever had. And chuck away tins to boot - they really are great and another bonus was that our oven is quite small and these tins "moulded into it" so that the door would shut LOL. It was brilliant, AND my inlaws in 24 yrs had quote "the best time too", made it all worthwhile. Hope this helps you out, and good luck! It was so enjoyable and practically stress free man!

[roosi]

And forgot to add.........we cooked everything a good half hour in advance of everyone coming so it was all made in the oven kep warm - prawn cocktails in fridge - so me and him could collapse briefly in our nice change of clothes with a glass of wine before everyone arrived. Honestly perfect!!!!!! :)

[scoobysoo]

I agree with roosi - you will probably end up making more work for yourself by doing a buffet, plus you will end up with a lot of wastage. You can buy some great roasting joints in Iceland that are already in a roasting tin. You can par boil your potatoes the night before, then just bung them in a disposable baking tray (or you could just do some nice Jersey Royals instead). Could you borrow a couple of chairs?

[scoobysoo]

Another thing I sometimes do when I have a lot of people round is cook a huge vat of rice, a curry, a chilli and a pasta dish, bread and salad, and let people help themselves to that.

[roosi]

Scoobysoo, that sounds like a well good idea too, thanks! I might just try it next time

R
xx

[elle.b]

thankyou all so much! i know what you mean about wasted food with buffets.ive just been and got a HUGE pan from my mums so am gonna go for chilli with garlic bread salad etc.....Roosi the thought of doin what u did fills me with terror! you are a very brave person,think id be a nervous wreck! thanks again x

[puddicat]

Loads of effort there roosi!