Dinner tonight - or last night.

20 to 25 people coming for a dinner buffet ( cold and warm).
Trying to find recipies which taste good, look good and can be prepared at least a day before.
Different ethnic groups- some vegetarians, and no pork.
Any idea would help.

Interesting task, Ul! Will think about it..

Not tonight, but tomorrow night .........

Yarra Room, Rydges Riverwalk Hotel.

La de da!

Up to 25 people!
I'm in utter awe, ul!
You are a brave, brave woman!
I'm thinking. But honestly, I've never cooked for such numbers! I can't imagine it! And I assume you'd want to have almost everything prepared beforehand. I find myself wondering: what's in season right now where you are? Off the top of my head: some rice dishes, lots of fresh salads including some with pasta, others with beans.
Damn, I'm stuck!
I'll see what osso & others suggest & chip in if I think I can add something useful.

For lunch today I brought two frozen shredded beef burritos. I figured I'd eat them both, since they weighed in at just 14oz (about .4 Kg). Then I read the box and discovered the two contained almost 800 calories. Grr! I'm going to be hungry later if I only eat one!

msolga,
it is not the first time-and I always have mixed feelings, between having fun and grumbling.
If this were on a weekend I wouldn't really mind, but in the middle of a week--grrrr.
It is autumn here- and because most of the guest are foreigners I plan some Viennese dishes too.
Meat is easy, but I am not good ( creative) at vegetarian dishes.
So far I am planning on a
Pumpkin soup and a Consumé
different kinds of lettuces and raw/ cooked vegetables-like a miniatur salad bar
Vernison gulash with Spätzle and tiny bread dumplings, craneberries, pears in red wine
Turkey Schnitzel á la Milanaise (cold)
Cheeses, nuts and grapes
Apple strudel, Poppyseed cake and fruit tarteletts, mousse au chocolate

No idea about fish- maybe a variety of smoked fish and the dish for the vegetarians. Rice dish- do you know a good one?

ul, may I recommend the cookbook "Fields of Greens" by Anne Somerville. It is a great vegetarian resource.

I've started at the age of 21 with cooking for 40+ persons, in the Navy, when our cook became ill and the second cook was on holidays ...

ul - for vegetarians/rice: three ideas here (convinced everyone, so far :wink: )

cjhsa,
thanks for the tip- don't know if I can get this one in time, but a good vegetarian cookbook IS missing here.

Thanks Walter- the Auflauf looks good. Family will be the guinea pigs this weekend.
And now I have an "earworm"- Eine Seefahrt, die ist lustig-- there is a line- der Koch in der Kombüse mit den Benen im Gemüse, mit'm Achtern im Kaukau-- :wink:

Actually, I only cooked once when at sea (that's when "they" wanted to know if I could do such). It's really not a pleasure when the dead (!) fish is jumping out of the pan! :wink:

ul - ratatouille can be served hot or room temp. I use a quick stove-top version rather than a baked version.

ul, cold poached fish makes a nice presentation. Regarding the vegetarian dishes, I used to make a veggie loaf. I don't know if I still have the recipe, But I'll look when I get home tomorrow. I think there is a recipe in the Frances Lappe Small Plannet book, if you have that one.

Tonight I had a Boston Market frozen meal. It was disappointing. How can it have 90% of a day's sodium intake and almost no taste? They should've replaced some of the salt in the meat/sauce with herbs and pepper, and put the salt in the mac&cheese, which tasted like glue.

Gawd, I could be a food consultant but I doubt it pays worth poop.

Sorry, Ul. I can't find the recipe for veggie loaf.

Do tell us the menu when you finalize it, ul. I'm still astonished & awed!
And Walter has cooked for masses of people, too!
Four is a challenge for me. I feel such a failure!


Tonight: a not quite Bolognese (sp?) sauce (or rather, a variation based on which vegetables were in my fridge) with penne.

made the trip to the "big smoke" last night, for an industry body dinner and speaker.
Yarra Room, Rydges Riverwalk Hotel Richmond right on the Yarra on bridge st. msolga
porterhouse steal in red wine jus, steamed bok choynd grilled tomato then dessert was a sticky date pudding with buttescotch sauce.

Mumpad had chicken kiev tender and garlicky but not too strong and tiramisu.
much swapping and tasting.

quite nice but not to die for.

got home about midnight.

I went to Pizza Express last night - had gulto (or something) as starters with red pesto and chilli dips and then a nice pizza with mushrooms and jalapeno peppers as toppings, washed down by almost half a bottle of pinot.

Oh and fell in love with a guy on the next table - tall, long blonde hair, jawbone you can cut paper on.

That would have been a very hot evening to be doing all that eating, dapad! (Wasn't the weather ghastly yesterday! )
But come to think of it, I could demolish a sticky date pudding or Tiramisu, anytime!
(I think I know the spot & can picture that hotel, too.)

There you go again, G!

Air con in the car on the way down and in the hotel so the weather didnt make a big difference.
The hotel is an old tramway winching station. they have preserved the original facade on the bridge rd side. Mind you 16 bucks to park for 4 hours was a shock to the system. Paying to park is not something I'm used to.