How To Feed A Gathering, Enjoy Yourself, AND Have A Clean Kitchen!
Several readers have emailed me asking about ideas for Christmas entertaining when hosting gatherings. Seeing as how this is the best time of the year, we don’t want to be sweating away in the kitchen when our family comes to pay call! (Mama would object to me using the term “sweating”. She says ladies do not sweat, we “glisten”).
Here is what I would do for a meal for a gathering. The best part is, you can start making it today! My timetable begins preparations three days before the event, and leaves you relaxed and with a clean kitchen when your guests arrive!
(Simply click on recipe title to be taken to the recipe and tutorial on how to make it!)
2 to 3 days before the gathering:
Shop for all groceries, make dessert. Refrigerator cakes are wonderful for large gatherings because they can be made so far in advance and rather than getting dry, they actually get better as the days go by. On the day of your event, simply open the fridge and dessert is served!
Personally, I would make one cake per ten to twelve people.
My recomendations are:
These two are crowd pleasers!
1-2 Days Before Gathering
Set table completely. Make sure you have hot sauce and crackers. If you are serving Chili, make sure you have shredded cheese, sour cream, and any other toppings your family likes.
Make your main course. Stews and Chili are great this time of year. More filling than soups, their warmth and meal-in-one convenience can’t be beat for serving a crowd! Whats more, to multiply this chili or stew recipe, all you need to do is double all of the ingredients EXCEPT the meat! The same amount of meat will be just fine if the recipe is doubled, making it very economical. A double recipe will feed at least ten to fifteen people.
Chicken Stew. This is my personal favorite. Also easily customizable if you are feeding one or more vegetarians. Simply use a can of vegetable broth and mix up a separate pot with all the other ingredients except chicken!
Soups, Stews, and chili are wonderful if left in the fridge a day or two (they actually tastes better!) as the flavors have time to develop and blend.
My Crock pot chili can easily be made in a pot on the stove or just fire up the crock pot a day or two before.
Allow stew or chili to cool and store in the refrigerator.
Day of Gathering:
Heat up stew or chili. Make bread, I suggest:
or
Both of these are always hits with my family and friends. I would make about a pan of bread for every eight people or so. This is the only thing you have to bake on the day of the gathering and it is quick! You can even assemble your dry ingredients in a plastic bag a few days ahead of time.
As your guests arrive, your house will be filled with the aroma of your stew or chili, your kitchen will be spotless, your table set, your bread warm, and they’ll wonder how you did it all so effortlessly!
ENJOY YOUR HOLIDAY!
Gratefully,
Christy
For all of the recipes I have posted in the Holiday Baking category (including gift mixes), click here!
I added one more can of tomatoes to what we had left over, less one container of it for my sister-in-law. It’s perfect right now! Yea!
We made this last night. It was so good, but two teaspoons of pepper was way too much pepper and my husband doesn’t like corn (and I only added one can of corn!), and there seemed to be no end of it when trying to get it out of his bowl! He says definitely make it again, with only 1 tsp of pepper and no corn. (I also only used 1 large onion and it was enough.)
thanks for the great recipe!
Hey Darius!! You would have your friends fainting from pleasure with that stuff! What are you waiting for!!!? Hope you had a GREAT Christmas!
Bill! Oooooh You got Dale’s Sauce!! You know, we have the Dale’s restaurant in the town I went to college in. Isn’t it a shame I have never eaten there?
Lol, I love it, I love it, I love it! lol. You are a TRUE Brother!!!!
Gratefully,
Christy
I’ve eaten at Dale’s. Wonderful steals!
I like to make Mexican cornbread to go with soups, stews, and chili.
Make the Butterfinger Cake for sure. It’s awesome. I FINALLY found some Dale’s Marinating Sauce yesterday. My Wallmart finally got some in. I made Cheese steak sandwiches today for the second time. They were much better this time.
My brother hates coconut.. so I’ll be sure to make the cake. It’s a little brothers job to torture his siblings..a job that never ends.
OMG – I’ve never had a hoe cake…I’ve seen paula deen make them on TV – but I’ve never had one before and this looks great!
Hehe, clean kitchen when you have company, that is something you don’t see every day! Oh you would just love this cake, Stephanie, its so very good! I hope y’all are having a great Christmas and all settled in!!! Let me know if you get to make it and how it goes over!
Gratefully,
Christy
That is an awesome menu. Simple and tasty, and I love that it leaves you kitchen clean when company comes! The more I look at that coconut cake, the more I think I need to go out and buy some cool whip (generic of course) and sour cream when we go shopping today. I already have coconut and everything I would need to make the cake. I want to bring it to my sister-in-law’s house for our Christmas Eve dinner. Yummy!