Spaghetti for a Crowd
I have still not gotten used to technically being a "working mom", I still think of myself as a stay at home/home school mom, but it is true I have succumbed to the call of the working world. My official work title is Protestant Hospitality Coordinator. "What does that mean?" you may ask, well I will tell you! I have no idea what that title would mean in your average Protestant Church, I don't go to one bwahahaha, however for the Protestant Chapel on an Air Force base that title pretty much means I am a chef. I love my job! It is tough, too tough and I would not recommend it for just anyone, but for me it is perfect. I am contracted to work 13 hours every week and paid on salary so the extra 2-7 hours I work each week are considered volunteer hours... a new contract will be worked out no worries. Regardless of the crazy hours I still love my job.
Onto the spaghetti! Every Wednesday night the Chapel hosts a free dinner for anyone on base who would like to come, followed by an hour of religious education classes. I cook that dinner. We average anywhere from sixty to one hundred individuals, so I always plan the meals to feed eighty to one hundred servings. I work with a budget of about $300 for each meal some I spend less, some a little more. Spaghetti night helps keep the budget balanced and affords me the opportunity to spoil them with a really nice meal once a month.
If you are planning a spaghetti dinner for about 100 people this is what you will need:
10 pounds of pasta. I always try to get two different types and never the long noodles parents will thank you. I pre boil all of the pasta the day before and refrigerate it. I do stir in about half a stick of butter with each pound of pasta. To heat back up I use two large roasting pans, each pan holds 5-6 pounds of pasta, I put a stick of butter on top of the cold pasta, add just a little water in the bottom and set the roasting pan to about 250*. Stir it often and give yourself no less then two hours. If you have the fridge space you can put the pasta in the roasting pans after boiling it and put the pans straight in the fridge then just pop them in your roaster to reheat.
3 pounds of real butter. I do not count calories, I simply serve good food!
10-12 jars of Sauce. Variety is the spice of life so when possible I try to offer a hot pot of each red sauce, meat sauce, Alfredo sauce and cheese sauce, doing this has yielded great feed back. Not everyone likes red sauce! If you do offer the variety method only buy 3-4 jars of each type of sauce.
120 servings of Garlic bread. Go the easy route on this one, buy the pre-sliced frozen ones and heat them up in the oven before serving. I have a large oven that takes a bit to heat up so about ten minutes per tray of twenty, two trays at a time I can start about thirty minutes before serving to help ensure the bread is at least warm.
Salad bar. Our congregation loves a good salad bar so I try to provide one as often as I can. Spinach, romaine lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, mushrooms, tomatoes, olives, peppers, plus a variety of salad dressing. When the commissary is low on fresh vegetable choices I will get a vegetable platter and fruit platter or figure something out from what is in stock.
Drinks. To keep the cost down I usually serve lemonade and water. I am thinking about adding tea to the mix whenever possible.
This will easily feed 100 people with left overs. I am scaling back the desserts, New Years means a lot of people trying to watch the sweets and the children's RE instructors always appreciate it when the kids are not bouncing off of the walls from a sugar filled dessert.
Happy Serving!!
Onto the spaghetti! Every Wednesday night the Chapel hosts a free dinner for anyone on base who would like to come, followed by an hour of religious education classes. I cook that dinner. We average anywhere from sixty to one hundred individuals, so I always plan the meals to feed eighty to one hundred servings. I work with a budget of about $300 for each meal some I spend less, some a little more. Spaghetti night helps keep the budget balanced and affords me the opportunity to spoil them with a really nice meal once a month.
If you are planning a spaghetti dinner for about 100 people this is what you will need:
10 pounds of pasta. I always try to get two different types and never the long noodles parents will thank you. I pre boil all of the pasta the day before and refrigerate it. I do stir in about half a stick of butter with each pound of pasta. To heat back up I use two large roasting pans, each pan holds 5-6 pounds of pasta, I put a stick of butter on top of the cold pasta, add just a little water in the bottom and set the roasting pan to about 250*. Stir it often and give yourself no less then two hours. If you have the fridge space you can put the pasta in the roasting pans after boiling it and put the pans straight in the fridge then just pop them in your roaster to reheat.
3 pounds of real butter. I do not count calories, I simply serve good food!
10-12 jars of Sauce. Variety is the spice of life so when possible I try to offer a hot pot of each red sauce, meat sauce, Alfredo sauce and cheese sauce, doing this has yielded great feed back. Not everyone likes red sauce! If you do offer the variety method only buy 3-4 jars of each type of sauce.
120 servings of Garlic bread. Go the easy route on this one, buy the pre-sliced frozen ones and heat them up in the oven before serving. I have a large oven that takes a bit to heat up so about ten minutes per tray of twenty, two trays at a time I can start about thirty minutes before serving to help ensure the bread is at least warm.
Salad bar. Our congregation loves a good salad bar so I try to provide one as often as I can. Spinach, romaine lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, mushrooms, tomatoes, olives, peppers, plus a variety of salad dressing. When the commissary is low on fresh vegetable choices I will get a vegetable platter and fruit platter or figure something out from what is in stock.
Drinks. To keep the cost down I usually serve lemonade and water. I am thinking about adding tea to the mix whenever possible.
This will easily feed 100 people with left overs. I am scaling back the desserts, New Years means a lot of people trying to watch the sweets and the children's RE instructors always appreciate it when the kids are not bouncing off of the walls from a sugar filled dessert.
Happy Serving!!
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