Ideas for a nice, home-cooked meal for 20 women?

Question

Next week is my turn to cook for the women's shelter. They like hearty, old-fashioned meals (no pasta). I know a million ways to cook chicken, but then so does everyone else and I think they get way too much of it. Any ideas for something a little different, but not too weird, would be great. I'm looking for ideas for main courses and vegetable/side dishes.

Answer 1

I can't think of anything they would like better than some type of comfort foods. How about a good old fashioned fish fry, complete with cornbread, cole slaw and baked beans!!!

SOUTHERN COLE SLAW

1 head of cabbage
1 large onion
4 baby carrots
1 green pepper
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 tablespoon vinegar (or to taste)
1 tablespoon sugar (or to taste)
mayonnaise (about a cup or to taste)

This can be made in a food processor or with a shredder. Best made in food processor. Cut up cabbage, onion, green pepper and baby carrots put in the food processor. Grind until fine.
Transfer to a large bowl. Add sugar, vinegar, salt and mayonnaise. Mix well.

Chill in refrigerator. Very good on hot dogs or serve with pinto beans and cornbread.


R. C.'S SOUTHERN FISH FRY

20 pieces fish (fillet or split in half)
Louisiana Hot Sauce
2 c. meal
1 c. flour
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. black pepper
1 lg., clean paper grocery bag

Liberally coat fish with hot sauce. Combine meal, flour, salt and pepper in grocery bag. Shake to mix thoroughly. Drop fish in bag, fold top and shake to bread fish. Deep fry fish in hot oil until golden brown. For larger appetites or crowds, repeat the above.

SOUTHERN STYLE CORNBREAD

2 c. self-rising white corn meal
2 c. self-rising white flour
2 1/2 c. milk or buttermilk
1/4 c. sugar
4 to 5 tbsp. bacon fat
6 tbsp. bacon fat to grease baking pan
2 eggs

Set oven to 425 degrees. Preheat oven while preparing cornbread mix. Grease baking pan with 6 tablespoons of bacon fat. Place pan in oven just to heat and take out. Mix corn meal and flour into mixing bowl. Stir in milk and mix well. Add sugar, eggs and bacon fat. Mix well. Batter should be pourable. If not add 4 tablespoons of milk, and mix. Pour batter into greased pan. Spoon bacon fat from the insides of pan and spread on top of cornbread batter. Bake until springy and golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Try some butter, try some syrup when serving hot. Use deep baking pan.
Serves 18 to 20.

Answer 2

Well, I was going to suggest Taco Salad..where you make up the meat and then have all the fixings that everyone can add whatever they like, such as corn chips, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, onions, sour cream, etc. You could serve it with Mexican corn or re-fried beans for a complete meal. But I'm not sure if that is what you are looking for. It is easy.

For a vegetable dish..something different is squash casserole. It is pretty simple and my family really loves it. Good luck. :)

Answer 3

Things were tight when I was growing up, so my mom had to make cheap meals with lots of flavor and vitamins. I would mulitply by three on this recipe. Serve with some hardy whole grain rolls or bread. This is a favorite of mine and everyone I serve this to just loves it. It is a meal in itself.

2 lbs of green beans (fresh, canned, or frozen)
5 to 6 medium potatoes cubed
1 large onion, sliced
1 bell pepper diced (optional)
16 oz of beef broth, or chicken broth, or just water (2 cups)
1 lbs of smoked beef sausage, (sliced and the slices halved)

Place green beans and broth into a large pot. Add 1 cup of water. Cover pot and put on a medium-high flame. When the green beans comes to a boil, turn the flame on low. When the green beans are tender, add the potatoes and cook for about 10 minutes. Add the onions and smoked beef sausage. Cook until all vegetables are cooked and the sausage is heated through. Make sure to keep the top on the pot to keep in the vitamins.

Answer 4

I will go with Spanish Tortilla. It's delicious and easy to cook

2 pounds of potatoes
8 eggs
4 slices of bacon (Optional)
500 gr. of ham
1 onion (medium size)
Spices of your choice
Salt

Peel the potatoes and make thin slices. Keep them in water to avoid the oxidation process.

On a medium size pan, put 2 spoons of olive oil, the onion (chopped), the bacon (diced), at cook it for a couple of minutes (do not let the onion to get brown), mixed it. Add the potatoes (all of them) the spices, the ham and mix it all. Cover it and cook it until the potatoes are almost done. Mix them once in a while adding teaspoons of water if necessary.


Whisk the eggs together with a pinch of salt.

Cover the potatoes with the eggs, mix it and let it cook at medium low heat, for around 7 minutes, or until you can see bubbles coming up. Place a dish over the pan, turn the tortilla up side down and place the other side over the heat so it cooks well enough and get a golden color in both sides.

Make pieces, like pizza size portions, serve it warm with a green salad.

This is enough for 10 to 15 people, so you just make it twice. It is actually very easy, the only tricky part in to turn the Tortilla up side down to cook it for both sides.

Good luck

Answer 5

What about a buffet style dinner? ...or is that cheating? This recipe serves eight, so it'd have to be double'd to make enough for twenty.

Buffet Taco Salad Recipe

Ingredients:
1 bag Corn chips, large bag
2 pounds Ground beef
2 packages Taco seasoning mix
1 can Kidney beans
12 ounces Cheddar cheese, shredded
1 Onion, chopped
1 head Lettuce, shredded
2 Tomatoes, diced
1 can Enchilada sauce
1 can Black olives, sliced
12 ounces Sour cream
8 ounces Guacamole

Directions:

Brown ground beef with taco seasoning. Place items on buffet in the above order. Each person layers his own salad, starting with corn chips, ground beef and going down the list. Add other ingredients as desired.

It is very filling!

Answer 6

Do a full pork loin stuffed w/ a bread apple stuffing. A full loin will yield about 26 finger sized slices.The fingers in question are mine and they're big
Serve with poached apple rings cut 1/2'
Cortland's are great .
Small red potatoes that are first boiled , then browned w/ butter in a saute pan and finished w/ freshly cut finely chopped parsley
The vegetable is whatever is cheap and compliments the red of the potatoes & apples.
If you have the help , get 4 lbs of fresh green beans & garnish w/ sweet red peppers cut into match sticks and saute'd
Two peppers will do it.
Serve w/ the classic apple cider & dijon mustard sauce

Answer 7

20 plus people is a lot. But I find it simple and cost effective at that number to simply set up a sandwhich production station. Lay out verious breads/rolls, condiments, meats, cheese, and the typical veggies people regularly like on their sandwhiches. This is nice for people to make the sandwhiches they prefer themselves. To compliment this you include bowls of chips, either a pasta or potato salad, and lastly maybe even a simple fruit salad. Have fun.

Answer 8

I'm a vegetarian so the first thing I can think of is a big pot of vegetarian chili with cornbread or corn chips. Yummo! But you could do it with meat if you'd like, ground turkey is better for you than beef. Another good one is this recipe from Giada De Laurentiis: (Ate it when I still ate chicken)

Chicken Spezzatino

2 TBs olive oil
2 celery stalks cut into bite-size pieces
1 carrot, peeled, cut into bite-size pieces
1 small onion, chopped
1 tsp salt plus more to taste
1 tsp ground black pepper, plus more to taste
1 (14 1/2oz) can diced tomatoes with juices
1 (14oz) can reduced sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves torn into pieces
1 TBs tomato paste
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp dried thyme
2 chicken breasts with ribs (about 1 1/2 pounds total)
1 (15oz) can organic kidney beans, drained (and rinsed if not organic)


In a heavy 5 1/2 quart saucepan heat oil over med. flame. Add celery, carrot, onion, saute until onion translucent about 5 min. Add salt & pepper. Stir in tomatoes, broth, basil, tomato paste, bay leaf, and thyme. Add chicken and press to submerge. Bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to med.-low and simmer gently uncovered, turning breasts over and stirring occasionally until chicken is almost cooked through, about 20 min. Add kidney beans and simmer until chicken is cooked through and liquid has reduced to a stew consistency, about 10 min. Discard the bay leaf. Let chicken cool for 5 min. Discard the skin and bones and cut (or shred) the meat into bite-size pieces. Return to the stew and bring to a simmer. Add salt and pepper to taste.

This makes 4-6 main course servings.

Always excellent. Another good one is to make sausage gumbo (or chicken or omit the meat and use just beans) and serve it with benets.

Answer 9

Beef Stew with Biscuits, corn bread or French bread with butter and a variety of Jam. Serve with milk.

For desert serve Vanilla Ice Cream and toppings. They can build their own Ice Cream Sundaes.

Economical and easy for 20 people.

Answer 10

i definetly say no to tacos or taco salad b/c in my experience taco salad NEVER fills you up!! : ) I think the fish idea is great from the johnny depp lover(dont remember exact name) but maybe a little too complicated. stuffed peppers would def. be a great idea. Serve with mashed potatoes, corn, and bread/roll. Good luck.