Party planning - food??

[DistrictCommissioner]

i think over Covid & several years of transience (therefore not having any guests to invite!) I’ve lost my party planning muscle.

I want to invite around 50 adults & kids around in the late afternoon, imagining them eating early evening standing around/where they can find a spot, & (mostly) heading home.

What would you feed them?! Wavering between the Ooni (pizza oven), or lots of frozen party bits from Iceland or wherever, or doing a big chilli & rice…? Help!

Have you got the capacity to do any of those things and still mingle with your guests?

Choose something that won’t mean you’re in the kitchen the whole day!

Chilli is the easiest option, meat and veg option, rice, tortilla chips, guacamole, salsa, sour cream, grated cheese.
Although cooking rice for 50 is going to be a bit more of a challenge in a domestic kitchen.
Also depends a bit on the age of the kids.
Pizza for 50 would take a lot of oven space.

Pizza for 50 in ooni would take even longer!!!

I would do the chilli but with cous cous Instow rice. Its easier and doesn't need cooker space. Then tortilla chips and various dips on the side.

Instead of **

You could do chill with jacket potatoes crisped up in the pizza oven?

Just order a big takeaway

save the drama, enjoy spending time with guests and it’s much more likely to please everyone

what about a barbecue?

I've done pizza for 20 in the ooni but 50 is a lot longer standing cooking. I'd do chilli. Make ahead, easy to do a veggie one too. Plenty of sides eg garlic bread to bulk it out

Chilli!
Lots of sides, rice, coleslaw, jackets, tortilla chips, wraps, salsa, sauces.

Party bits for the kids.

Chilli, jacket potatoes, Tortilla chips, guacamole, grated cheese, sour cream, jalapeños, salsa/pico de gallo.

People can have chilli on a jacket or chilli nachos.

Rice for 50 would be a complete ballache, both to cook, and to keep at a sensible eating temp without poisoning everyone.

Anything else would mean too much for you to do during the party and you wouldn't be able to mingle.

If you're planning to be in the garden, we once did a big party on bonfire night where we put a pot of cooked chilli on the bbq to keep warm and chucked spuds in the bonfire. It worked well.

We usually borrow oonis from friends as it takes too long to just cook them in ours. Is this a possibility with friends making them too?

otherwise I’d do jacket potatoes or chilli.

You could try roast veggies (onions, squash, peppers, courgettes or whatever you can get hold of and within your budget), couscous (you could add some fresh herbs like coriander and parsley at the end and also bulk it up with canned chickpeas). Other sides could include pan-fried seeds and nuts (pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, pine nuts), a big pot of yogurt mixed with minced garlic and olive oil (and cumin?), feta cheese or any other crumbly cheese to put on top, and homemade houmous (will be cheaper made than shop bought. Check ottolenghi or Moro for recipe). Everything can be served at room temperature so you can prepare all ahead of time and then relax. You could also add some sausages when roasting the veggies. Good luck!

I'd do more of a buffet, as in my experience people often don't want to eat a full meal type thing at a party. It also means you can do loads of it in advance. Have fun!

You could also ask some of the guests you know well to bring something…
also thinking of baguette and Brie cheese with chutney or something sweet to eat with it.

Don’t do a chili

they’re really not liked by many

Honestly for 50 people I would buy platters from Morrisons food to order - they're the best value around and the quality is good. It's just too many to cater for in a domestic kitchen in my view without knackering myself in the process and spending all evening sorting and monitoring the food.

I'm doing similar in a few weekends time. We have ordered sandwiches and wraps and sausage rolls from Costco. Going to do a big Thai curry with rice (not everyone takes this or at least not a full portion of rice as it's a buffet), chilled tomatoy pasta, then like cold meat, cheese type things. Then plenty of crisps and cakes and snacks. Noone has ever gone hungry before so hopefully this will be enough.