Recipe Help: make-ahead, dairy-free for a picky crowd

I'm hosting a family gathering of 12 adults and 4 kids this Sunday at my home for Mother's day and I'm having trouble to come up with something to serve. Here are my constraints:

• Crowd of picky eaters. Nothing exotic, "ethnic", spicy, or "weird".
• I don't have much time to cook on Sunday. I'd like to make as much as possible ahead of time (Friday night/Saturday) and either reheat or quickly assemble and cook in the oven. Even on those days, I won't have huge chunks of time to work on something (I'm not pulling out the smoker).
• For temporary medical reasons, one of the guests of honor cannot eat dairy. The main dish should be dairy-free. (This killed my original lasagna idea).
• Also, a couple old people won't consider anything that resembles soup to be an entree (no chili, no stew). If I served a nice DIY chili bar, I'd hear comments like "Nice soup, where's the meal?", which I'd like to avoid.

I've got whatever the home-cook's equivalent of writer's block is. Any help?

Thanks,
Michael

Honey baked ham, roasted vegetables, dairy free potato salad, and a green salad. You could always make egg stratas or quiche without cheese, or have one with cheese and one without. I substitute soy milk for just about anything that calls for milk with good results. Chicken or meat pies, chicken salad, fajitas. Sauasage and peppers, just heat them up. Pasta with meat sauce, or ravioli with meat filling, you could fill manicotti with spinach and meat, just keep off the cheese and let people add their own at the table. Briskets, corned beef and cabbage etc..

Will they eat lamb? If so, my standby in this situation is to get a big, fatty lamb shoulder. I just throw it in the oven at about 225 degrees before going to bed, and it can cook as long as you want it to. Just take it out whenever, shred the meat and toss it with lemon juice and mint (+salt and pepper), if such things are allowed by your crowd. I've done pomegranate juice instead of the lemon with success too. You can even hold the pre-shredded and flavored meat in a slow cooker during the whole party, adding a little extra liquid every hour or so if you want. Put some pita halves on the table, and let people fill their own.

Though I do think this works best with lamb, a fatty pork shoulder would probably work too.

Thanks, all good ideas. (I forgot to mention "no pork"). We kicked around a few of these ideas already. I wanted to do the chicken pot pie idea (or chicken and dumplings) but we fear the old people will think it's too much like soup. Brisket got nixed because it's a Jewish holiday thing. It's ALWAYS on the table at gatherings and people tire of it quickly.

The quiche an interesting path, if I served some sort of meat along side it (old people: "pie is not dinner"). It might be possible to make a quiche and a couple roast chickens.

Thanks,
Michael

I like the shredded lamb idea, Kenny. That's about the level of effort I can deal with. I'll definitely run this by my wife.

Best,
Michael

Would a bolognese be too much like soup? You could make a large batch and have dairy and non-dairy toppings like your chili bar. Maybe a version of arroz con pollo or chicken marbella, which are pretty easy to make ahead?

eatchicago wrote:...roast chickens.

If I remember right, you're a fan of the high heat chicken roasting method. That's cool, but if you do go with chicken in this situation, you might want to try my preferred technique, which is to roast at 200 degrees, then crank up the oven to 450 for just the last 15 minutes to crisp the skin. The advantage of this for larger parties is that the timing doesn't matter. You can cook the thing for 2 hours, 3 hours, 4 hours - it really won't matter. I also think it tastes better than high heat, but that might just be me.

Note: this not a USDA approved method for cooking a chicken, so you can start at 350 degrees for the first 20 minutes or so if you're concerned, then turn the oven to 200 and cook 'til whenever.

There's always fried chicken - you don't even have to reheat that. Cornbread, slow cooker baked beans, rice pilaf or potatoes. I like baked potatoes topped with broccoli, bacon, cheese, sour cream and salsa - if the potatoes are baked the night before you can have your guests top them with whatever they want and heat them up all on one baking pan.

Situations like this scream spaghetti and meatballs to me, but I'm Italian and that was our go-to set up for big family meals.

You can make up a big batch of sauce before hand. I personally would fry up 2-3 lbs of good Italian sausage with onions and peppers the night before and leave it in the fridge overnight and just warm it in the oven an hour before everyone arrives.

So you've got spaghetti & meatballs, sausage & peppers and all you need to do the day of the event is re-warm some stuff and boil pasta. (if you're in the mood stop by a local joint and get a few lbs of Italian beef to warm up if these are big eaters)
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Put out some antipasti, throw together a big tossed salad and your done.

And of you pick up tiramisu and cannoli from a nearby Italian bakery, well in my family that's an award winning spread.

On the spaghetti and sauce idea, it's possible, but I go the bolognese route very often for my wife's side of the family (they're even pickier) and spaghetti and meat sauce is the one thing they always eat. I'm pretty tired of eating it and tired of making it, personally.

Having just spoken to my sister (a guest of honor), the lamb thing is out (she won't eat lamb for some un-explainable reason ).

I'm gonna do the roast chickens. I am a fan of high-roast chicken, but mainly for weeknight meals since it's so quick. A couple basic oven roast chickens ala Kennyz, along with a few simple sides, seem to be the best plan. Proper fried chicken is way too labor-intensive.

Fortunately, I'm cooking for my side of the family. My wife's side of the family won't eat any meat that has bones in it when served. (in my opinion, if that's your restriction, you shouldn't eat meat at all).

Thanks for all the help in breaking through my cooker's block.

Best,
Michael

Fortunately, I'm cooking for my side of the family. My wife's side of the family won't eat any meat that has bones in it when served. (in my opinion, if that's your restriction, you shouldn't eat meat at all).

Holy schmoley. Is divorce an option??

I feel your pain, I feel your pain.
My brother is a high glycemic index, ovo-lacto vegetarian. (at least he's not vegan)
His kids are vegetarians who don't eat vegetables (I know?)

Anymore at family gatherings, when he says what I can I bring?
I say "whatever you want to eat"
I can't deal with it any more.
The kids I can make mac n chees or pizza for,
but I just can't make 3 different mains to accomodate everyone's
eating requirements.

I long for the days when you cooked whatever you wanted and people ate it.

irisarbor wrote:His kids are vegetarians who don't eat vegetables (I know?)...The kids I can make mac n chees or pizza for...

What else do they eat? I just can't think of that many options, so I was curious.
I was one of those nerds that loved veggies (although butter didn't hurt).

mac n cheese
pizza
pasta
pasta
pasta
cereal and milk
yogurt
fruit
guac n chips
cheese
ice cream
chips
peanut butter and jelly
etc.

actually they don't LOOK any worse for it...
they are all weight appropriate, and lately the youngest, an 11 yr old boy has been "sampling" some meat from time to time.
When he comes over, he's like, Auntie, you have any more of that steak?

So, after a moderately long discussion last night, we came to the conclusion to buy the chickens (from D'Candela). Figuring I'd need to roast 3 chickens to satisfy this crowd (something I've never done in my oven), we're going to take the easy path and just pick them up from a known entity.

We're going to make a couple simple hors d'oeuvres, roasted asparagus, dairy-free potato salad, and a green salad.

Thanks again for all the advice.

Best
Michael

What about dessert?

Pie Lady wrote:What about dessert?

My wife is baking a cake on Saturday night, type undetermined. For the diabetics in the group, we're picking up something from Bulldog Bakery, one of the only places in the Chicago area who will make almost anything in their repertoire in a "no sugar added" version, with advance notice. Their NSA cherry cheesecake is a huge hit with my 93-year-old diabetic grandmother, a guest of great honor.

Bulldog Bakery
(773) 539-9781
3207 N Elston Ave
Chicago, IL 60618

eatchicago wrote:So, after a moderately long discussion last night, we came to the conclusion to buy the chickens (from D'Candela). Figuring I'd need to roast 3 chickens to satisfy this crowd (something I've never done in my oven), we're going to take the easy path and just pick them up from a known entity.

We're going to make a couple simple hors d'oeuvres, roasted asparagus, dairy-free potato salad, and a green salad.

Excellent call, Michael. At least where I live, people don't serve (quality) chicken enough. Done well (which I know you can accomplish), roast chicken is fit for a king.

Please let us know how it works out!

So, here's how it went:

--Three roast chickens from D'Candela. A huge hit. (in my opinion, the best roast chicken in town).
--Green salad with dijon vinagrette: I had a hard time finding salad greens at the farmers market, so I got red leaf, arugula, and radicchio at the regular market.
--Nichols Farm fingerling potato salad with chives: A huge hit. I thought I'd have a ton of leftovers. I have one serving left.
--Roasted asparagus with hard boiled eggs: I significantly over-estimated how many of my family members would eat asparagus. I have a lot of leftovers, but that's not a problem.
--Achatz no sugar added apple pie. Grandma took the rest of it home.
--My wife baked this St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake and it was very, very good.

I felt a little defeated by buying the entree, but sometimes you have to give in to time constraints. Overall, everyone left happy and well-fed, and I got to hold to some level of my ideals of home cooking and good, real food. (Although my sister did show up with a bag of desserts for her and her kids because she obviously doesn't trust that I'll provide enough processed junk for them, seriously).

Thanks again.

Best,
Michael

I see cream of asparagus soup in your future...nice work, eatchicago! Nothing wrong with buying an entree, especially when you are entertaining a crowd of picky eaters, have a family of your own to worry about, and can buy a good one from a non-factory kind of place. It's completely different from the Sandra Lee assertion that it's impossible to cook from scratch on a weeknight for an average family of four (who will eat whatever you make, let's not forget that!)

I am very curious about the NSA Achatz pie, how would you compare it to their regular pie?

Mhays wrote:I see cream of asparagus soup in your future...nice work, eatchicago! Nothing wrong with buying an entree, especially when you are entertaining a crowd of picky eaters, have a family of your own to worry about, and can buy a good one from a non-factory kind of place. It's completely different from the Sandra Lee assertion that it's impossible to cook from scratch on a weeknight for an average family of four (who will eat whatever you make, let's not forget that!)

I am very curious about the NSA Achatz pie, how would you compare it to their regular pie?

I spent the better part of the winter eating cream of asparagus soup, so we'll be eating a lot of leftovers tonight and I'm hoping our vegetarian babysitter will have some for lunch today.

I didn't taste much of the pie (only a tiny bit of crust, which was pretty good). I was too focused on the gooey butter cake My grandmother was very fond of the pie. When I asked her if she wanted to take the rest of it home, she quietly shrugged, which, in my grandmother's language is the equivalent of doing backflips and screaming "YES!"