Cooking for a Crowd: Episode 2

Well this month's Crowd Meal didn't go as planned. I had everything all figured out, shopping done over a week ago, and turkey thawing in the refrigerator since Monday. I was going to make Turkey Noodle Soup with a turkey I had bought at .55/lb. the week of Thanksgiving. We're getting half a beef this month and I've been working on clearing out my deep freezer so we have plenty of room for it, so it worked out perfectly that I was in charge of the crowd meal in time to get the 20 lb. tom out of the way. I had the most brilliant idea to get a large one and use some of the meat for the crowd meal and still have a few pounds for Aaron's lunches. Cost for his lunches have been much higher than I prefer, so I was pretty excited to have meat for sandwiches at such a low price.

But plans changed.

As I said, I had pulled the turkey out of the freezer on Monday so it would be thawed in time to roast Friday. I figured that would be easier than trying to cook a turkey and take care of all the rest of the food prep as well on Saturday, leaving me no extra time to work with in case of something else coming up on Aaron's day home. So Friday morning I pulled out my electric roaster and got to work! I didn't even think of a turkey being too big for it for some reason. I knew the bird wouldn't fit in my in-oven roasting pan, so the electric one was my only option. Thankfully it was just the right size. After reading up on the directions (this was my first time cooking a turkey), I found great reviews on how the roaster makes the meat even more moist and takes less cooking time than an oven-cooked turkey. Schweet!

When the clock reached the "should be almost done" time, I checked on it, but the temperature wasn't up where it needed to be yet. I started getting hungry for moist turkey dipped in homemade barbecue sauce. Yum. But it needed more time. Later that afternoon, it still wasn't quite there! Everything looked good, juices were starting to run clear, but it still wasn't at 180*. We had plans to be out of town for the evening, so I figured I'd have just enough time to de-bone it before we had to leave. Fast forward a good hour, and I was ready to dig in! The meat had fallen off the legs by now and it was so nice and moist, so I pulled it out and started carving. It had been in there since 11am, making for a good 5 hours of cooking time, which was twice what directions said it should take. Once I cut into some of the darker meat on the back the juices weren't quite as pretty as I had been finding elsewhere. It still was barely done, so I put it back in and turned the temperature down so it wouldn't be way overdone when we got back later that evening. We were going to be gone a few hours, which would just about double the time it had already been cooking. When we got back, the first thing Aaron did when he got in the door was check on it. It wasn't hot. Sometime while we were gone the roaster had shut off! So, Tom still wasn't really done. After analyzing it (keeping in mind how fragile meat is), we decided it was still salvageable at this point. It was late though and I was tired and honestly didn't feel like shredding a turkey at that hour, so we turned the heat back up and went to bed. 

I checked it once in the middle of the night and things were looking good. But in the morning, Aaron was up and lifted the lid ... to find an almost cold turkey. It no longer smelled like Thanksgiving. It looked yucky. It was officially trash. (sigh) There goes my eleven and some dollar deal. There goes Aaron's lunch meat. And there goes my plan for the big meal. What a way to wake up in the morning! Now I had to come up with a plan B and I only had that day to do it! The only thing we could come up with was chili and cornbread, so that's what we ended up making. 

I already had the beef, and just needed a few extra ingredients to supplement what I already had in order to pull off a meal to feed 40. I bought more dry beans, cornmeal, and some sour cream. Here's what everything ended up costing:

$21.96 for the pot of chili. Tomatoes were canned from the garden, so besides some spices and salt, the only expense I had into it was 6 lbs. of beef ($11.88), 2 lbs. dry beans (3.50), and 48oz. sour cream for serving (6.58). It made for a nice meaty chili, and my husband raved about it all day. He couldn't stop telling me that my chili is his favorite. Lots of meat. Not too much hot spice. Not too many beans. So I guess it was just right. I trust his opinion.

$9.00 for the cornbread. I had planned on making two oblong pans full and made some mix for easy prep when I got there, since cornbread tastes so much better warm. 1/3 of the people didn't end up showing, so we really only needed half the cornbread mix I had prepared. So technically, the expense was more like $5.00, since I still have half of the mix leftover. This dollar amount covers the butter and maple syrup to go with it as well. I like serving maple syrup with cornbread especially when feeding others because it makes so much less mess than honey and is easier to transport. It does cost a bit less as well, and tastes at least as good! 

Leftovers included 1/2 container sour cream, which was something I had chopped from our personal grocery list this month in order to cut costs. I have enchiladas on the menu sometime in the next week so with the sour cream leftover, now we'll be able to have some with that meal! Also, we had a bit of soup left. Aaron took some this morning for his lunch, and we have enough still in the refrigerator for a supper and one more lunch. And there's the other half of the cornbread mix.

All in all, my expense was $30.96 (or $26.96 if I'm only counting what cornbread I actually made). I'm pretty happy with that number considering I didn't have time to plan for sales or any extra cost cutting. Generally I aim for a $30 budget when I'm doing a crowd meal, so I was hovering right around that line. (Let's just forget about that $11 turkey I had to throw out, okay?)