Cooking for a Crowd: Episode 8 - Taco Salad

For this weeks crowd meal, I needed it to be two things:

1. Something that could transport well with minimal refrigeration.

2. Something I could easily prepare Sunday morning in someone else's kitchen.

So I chose one of the quickest, easiest crowd meals ever: taco salad. I have served this many times before the days of blogging my meals, because it's so simple! 

Growing up, taco salad was one of my favorite meals. So much yummy in the combination of lettuce, seasoned beef, tomatoes, cheese, tortilla chips, and the most delicious homemade taco salad dressing ever (or catalina if you prefer that name). To this day, that's our staple salad dressing, and my husband loves it just as much as I do. We always mixed the ingredients together and served it as a single dish.

When I got married, I was once served a build-your-own salad bar, which the host called taco salad. Sure, I had seen an in-home salad bar before, but calling it taco salad? What? But they did, and it was much different than the taco salad I knew. Comparing it to said salad, I'd say this version is more more like tacos without the shell. I'm still kind of partial to my precious childhood version, but this build-your-own style works well when you're trying to make an entire meal out of it to serve a bunch of people! 

When serving 40, there are a few pros and cons to doing it this way. 

Pros. 

- Picky people will love you. Not that I support or cater to picky eaters. I do not.

- Anyone with sensitivities to common foods like dairy or corn can still get the same meal as everyone else without any extra effort on your part. 

- You don't have to attempt mixing together giant bowls of pre-dressed salad (which often compresses a fair amount and doesn't go as far, so you'd have to make extra. This adds extra cost and work).

Cons.

- Some people will tend to load up on the meat and go easy on the veggies.

- There are a lot of individual bowls you have to set out with toppings. 

- You need a decent amount of counter/table space to serve the meal.

Every year my husband and I (and now our two kids), head over to the beaches of Lake Michigan for a day trip. This year we decided it would be fun to throw our little green army tent in the trunk and make it a weekend deal and spend Saturday night at a campground. Our plan was to leave from the campground Sunday morning in time to stop by a grocery store to get the ingredients I needed for the crowd meal, and then go straight to church from there. Well, we've been trying to liquidate some of the extra stuff we'd collected over the years from my husband's part-time resale business, and a guy was planning to come by Saturday evening to pick up a lawnmower we had listed for sale. So we scratched the camping idea last minute (I mean, the idea to camp was last minute, too...), and planned to come home in time to meet the guy that evening. We stopped by a grocery store on our way home Saturday, instead, so we would have everything ready to go Sunday morning. 

I had bought the ground beef, tortilla chips, and sour cream earlier in the week so I could control my prices a little better. Beef cost can vary by such a big margin, I wasn't going to chance being able to find it at some remote grocery store for any less than $4/lb. I tried getting the tomatoes locally too, but the selection was very slim and the tomatoes were hardly even ripe, so I saved that for last minute, too. 

Here are the toppings that went into the meal, along with what it cost me:

5 lbs. Ground Beef @1.79/lb - $12.21

5x 16 oz. Sour Cream @ 1.49 - $7.45

4 bags Tortilla Chips @1.69 - 6.76

Garden Lettuce - $0.00

2 heads Iceberg Lettuce - $3.48

Tomatoes @ 1.89/lb - ??

3 lbs. Shredded Cheese - $12.00 

2 pints homemade Salsa - $0.00

3 pints Pinto Beans - $0.60

Somehow I lost my receipt to the store we stopped at on our way home, so I don't have any idea how much I spent on the tomatoes. I got 3-4 large tomatoes, and maybe 6-8 romas? Also I'm guessing on the price of the lettuce and cheese, but am pretty positive I remember correctly.

Besides the prices being unpredictable due to not even knowing what town we were going to stop in for groceries, the meal choice was very convenient and even quicker to prepare than I anticipated. I was able to cook my meat the night before so it was one less thing to do Sunday morning. I also had been meaning to can dry beans all week both in preparation for this meal, and also because I've been wanting to can some for my pantry for a couple years now. It took me just as long to do up a canner full (18 pints) as it would've to cook just enough for this one meal. Because I had bought a 5-lb. bag of pinto beans last month, I already had the beans, and it was so much cheaper than trying to buy them pre-canned at the store. I calculated my cost at 20 cents per pint of home-canned beans! This is an incredible savings. Not that I ever buy canned beans, but in case you're someone that does and is looking for a new way to slash your grocery spending, you may want to consider switching to dry beans.

Leftovers:
In planning for the meal, I was preparing to feed quite a few extra mouths, but when the day came, I only ended up having to serve around 25 people (compared to the usual 40). I had plenty of lettuce in my garden, but didn't have time to pick a lot of extra and wash it that busy weekend, so I bought two heads at the store for backup in case I didn't have enough of our homegrown lettuce. Turned out we didn't need it, due to fewer people than expected. I mixed the ground beef and beans together this time so the beef would stretch some, and I thought I had plenty. Turns out my amounts were just right there. I had a few extra cans of pinto beans with me that I could've added to the meat to stretch it even further, had more people shown up. We also had 2-1/2 containers of sour cream, two bags of tortilla chips, maybe 1/3 or more (can't remember) of the tomatoes I had bought, and just over one pound of cheese left, as well. I feel confident that had we served the anticipated amount, we would've still have enough food for everyone. All in all, I spent much more than I "needed", since I was preparing for a crowd. The leftovers came in handy though, because the next day I needed a last minute, quick meal to take somewhere, and I already had all the ingredients ready to whip together a taco salad, so I am very grateful I had bought extra of everything!

I like to add up my total cost and also figure a per serving rate so I can have notes for reference in the future as I plan and prepare more crowd meals. It helps me knowing what I paid for certain ingredients so I can watch sales easier. It also helps create a challenge where next time I make a certain recipe for my crowd meal, I can try to cut cost even further. I know these numbers probably don't mean as much to you, especially since prices vary greatly depending on where you live. Be aware of that if you're using my reference numbers to compare with your own local stores, in case you live in an area where food prices might be a bit higher. My cost for all the ingredients this month (including the stuff "left over"), I estimate around $48.50. I sure wish I had that missing receipt to know for sure!!! This would put our per serving cost at $0.97. If I calculate the numbers using only the ingredients used divided by actual number of people served, we still would come out just over a dollar per person.

Ways I could've should've cut cost further:
Had I been blessed with more time, my plan was to go to the big town to do most of my shopping. I could've used a coupon I had for a free head of lettuce, plus bought a second one for only $1. That would've saved me $2.48 there. I also planned to stop at the restaurant supply store, since that is the best way for me to save money on cheese. There I can get a 5-lb. bag of cheddar for $12.99, which would've been a savings of $1.41 per pound (a total of $2.82 on the cheese). And tomatoes are usually only $.99/lb there, so that would've brought the price down a few dollars, since I ended up paying twice that at the out-of-town rural store. I figure I could've saved a good $8.00. I guess that was just an added cost to our deciding to take a quick vacation. :)

Salsa - Check!

The first canning of the season has happened. Finally. I mean, it is the end of August. 

But none of this stuff came from my garden! We still have our first tomato trying to turn orange, with all the others plain old, unripe green. My generous brother-in-law offered me these tomatoes from his garden, so I went over and picked a sack full this afternoon, which was just enough to make me a batch of salsa! At last, I have one of the tomato products crossed off my must-can-this-year list, and it is such a good feeling! My handy All American double-stack canner has helped me once again, and I now have 11 pints of salsa sitting on the counter top, the sound of sealing lids filling the air. 

Pumpkins

Apparently last Thursday when I went out to check the garden and capture pictures for you all, I neglected to peek down inside the middle of the pumpkin plants! I went out a couple days later and discovered there were some nice, BIG pumpkins out there! The one shown on the left was the longest I found, at around 12 inches long. The one pictured in the middle was the biggest overall (approximately 10 inches from stem to blossom end), and the other one shows a few of my pie pumpkins. Unfortunately I also noticed that the terrible gray squash beetles have showed their ugly faces and have been devouring my plants. I spent an evening out there dusting the plants with Diatomaceous Earth until I ran out of that, crushed a few beetle egg clusters, and weeded half of the pumpkin patch (something I hadn't done since they were very tiny plants). Now I need to go out with some soapy water and try to get those squash beetles. I hear when they arrive, it's a hard battle to fight against them. The bad news is that it has been raining here, which makes it hard for me to get out to find them, but the rain has been much needed and will help the fruit that has started growing, continue further into maturity.

Our Pitiful Garden Bears Fruit

This has been a rough year in our garden. It started out pretty well, but got rocky about the time we planted it all outdoors. As usual (but it seems quite a bit worse than usual), our plants are so slow growing. The pepper plants, which we started indoors five months ago are roughly 8 inches tall. EIGHT INCHES! In five months. 

But today. Today I went out and saw progress on these petite little things. We have a few buds! Which means we might actually get some peppers this year! Think the plants can hold up any fruit? I highly doubt that we'll get anything of significant size, since the plants obviously don't seem to be getting very many nutrients to promote much growth at all. But still, these flowers brought some excitement.

Our lettuce has finally been producing well, and we have enjoyed many a delicious salad in these last 2-3 weeks. We have a fair amount without going overboard like we did last year. It produces just a tad faster than we can eat it. 

My experimental pumpkin patch has had its share of ups and downs, as well. They took off with a great start, and transplanted incredibly well. They grew and grew, but then slowed down for awhile, but with the nice rain we've been getting lately, they have exploded once again. I can water with the hose, but nothing makes plants grow like a good summer downpour. Recently I saw our first few little round pumpkins, so it's time to be flooding that patch with water to help them grow big and fast. 

We've had a time with these pests though. This is the third year I've grown squash, but it's the first we've seen cucumber beetles. They are such pests! I heard they can do a lot of damage in a little time, so at first sighting I started crushing all the eggs I could see. This was back before the plants were very big, which made the job a bit easier. Next, I needed to target the full-grown beetles, so I mixed a sugar-water solution and sprayed it on all the plants. It seemed to have helped, since the leaves haven't been getting eaten like they were. Checking on the plants a couple days later there did appear to be fewer beetles, but they were still attacking the stalks, flowers, and base of each plant. I only applied the sugar once, so maybe another shot at it would've rid them entirely. 

My next plan of attack was diatomaceous earth. I had a giant bag left from last year, so I generously dusted every bit of the plant I could. I'm not sure how effective that was, but I think I need to do it again. I've had so many buds die and fall off already, I can't afford to lose any more. Thankfully there seem to be a growing number of them opening, so I may still get a decent harvest.

The sad part is that my larger variety pumpkins seem to be dying in the center of the plant hills. I'm guessing this must be from the cucumber beetles attacking the stem. I haven't noticed it happening to my pie pumpkins yet. I planted those using seeds I had saved from my best one two years ago, and those plants seem to be so hearty and healthy this year! 

 Look! A little pumpkin!

I planted some beets, hoping to get a few to eat fresh and also some to make borscht. Aaron doesn't prefer plain canned beets but loves them pickled, so last year I only made pickled beets. I found myself wishing I had some plain ones just to eat, and also thoroughly enjoyed the borscht I made with the few stragglers that were left in the garden, so I wanted to plan on having some this year so I could make it again! I wrote a blog post with the recipe, which you can find here. 

The deer came through and ate the tops off most of the plants, but don't seem to have been back in the beets since. I was afraid they were all done for, but they have nice, lush leaves once again.

 The cucumbers seem to be doing pretty good, too. By this time last year I was in the middle of pickle season, so they are definitely late this year. I spotted cucumber beetles on these plants as well, but not in the quantity that were over in the pumpkin patch. I dusted the cukes heavily with diatomaceous earth right away, so it was more of a preventative measure than a war on cucumber beetles. This was a couple weeks ago, but I did see a few while out weeding this morning, so I need to go reapply the DE powder again. I think I can stay on top of them here as long as it doesn't rain so much that I can't spread diatomaceous earth.

And then there are the tomatoes. These things have been all over the place. They didn't take too well to transplanting, suffered some weird deficiency that turned the plants all black and purply, and got flooded during the national emergency that was declared in our area, but the buds are plentiful and growing tomatoes! I am super excited to see fruit after wondering if I'd lose all my plants over and over throughout the summer. I have never had such a roller coaster ride watching plants before, but every time the tomatoes showed progress, something else would happen. Actually the latest was something coming through lopping the tops off the plants right through the tomato cages. I thought deer were the most likely culprit, but didn't know they ate tomato plants? My pantry is bare of most all my tomato products, so I need these things to survive. Things are looking hopeful now, but until I see a few red ones, I'm still holding my breath. Here's to anticipating homemade salsa and chili!

Cooking for a Crowd: Episode 7 - Ice Cream Sundaes

This last weekend has brought more than just extra cooking for our monthly crowd meal. Each year we host a big party at our house and that just so happened to be this past Saturday. There's always a lot of work going into hosting an event of that size (we were planning for 100), but we enjoy hosting everybody, being able to catch up with friends, and watching them all have a good time. Plus, we get the added bonus of a cleaned-up homeplace and some leftover food!

Speaking of food (since Cooking for a Crowd is all about finding budget-worthy meals for high guest count), I made sloppy joe using 25 lbs. of ground beef, which I found locally for 1.59/lb, and the hamburger buns were bought from a bakery "thrift store" at $0.75/package. We had a good 5 lbs. of sloppy joe leftover, and lots of buns, which I have been cutting up and freezing as crumbs for meatloaf or hamburgers, and cubes for egg casseroles. I normally have homemade bread around that I  canuse for those recipes, but since these burger buns were left over and otherwise would've gone in the trash (which essentially is throwing money away), I figure I might as well try and use 'em, since I make things requiring bread crumbs/cubes fairly regularly. I'll see how convenient it actually is having them in the freezer, since I know it can take a little while for bread to thaw. I did put them in pre-measured portions, which I recommend! Last winter I froze extra cornbread in crumbs for the same purpose, but dumped them all in one bag. When it came time that I needed to use them, it was one giant, frozen bread chunk, and it was no easy chore breaking apart as much as I needed while still frozen. I'm hoping the smaller portions will help solve that problem. 

Knowing I had a party to host Saturday and Crowd Dessert on Sunday, I didn't have time to make anything over the weekend for the dessert. So, since we also had ice cream at the party, I got an extra pail for the Sunday meal. The ice cream toppings that were leftover went with it on Sunday, as well. It was not the most inexpensive dessert I could've come up with, but it was easy, and I was willing to pay a little extra for the convenience.  

When Sunday rolled around, I ended up staying home due to not feeling well, so Aaron took the ice cream over. He didn't come back with any, so I assume it all got eaten. It was a one gallon container, which I found on sale for $5.99. The toppings were sprinkles (around 1 1/2 cups worth), and homemade chocolate magic shell. I'm not sure if the magic shell must've hardened, if he stuck it in the fridge while over there, or if people didn't consume as much as I expected, because a decent portion of what I sent with him came back. I'm not sure the exact cost of the toppings, but all in all, it was an $8+ dessert. Divide that by 40, and you get around 21c/serving. That's twice the Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars, and three times the cost of last month's Snickerdoodle Cookies.