I've lost my mind. Taking 20 people to HHI

[tammymacb]

I'm giving my Dad is "dream come true" ( his words ) and planning a get together at HHI for summer of 2011. I actually had to add on another contract to cover all of the points.

We're planning a GV-
Bedroom 1- Me and DH
Bedroom 2- DD and Cydney in one bed. Nieces - ( 2 young sisters ) in the second bed.
Bedroom 3- Stepson, stepsons wife one bed and Stepdaughter in second bed.
Pull out couch- My teen nephew ( nieces brother )

Studio 1- My oldest daughter, her husband and new baby ( who by then will be 1 )

Studio 2- My parents and my sister ( Mom of nieces and nephew in GV )

Studio 3- My sister, her husband and her two children.

Ack!

There's going to be lots of planning.

Main questions- How to prepare food for everyone. I go with my sister to HHI every summer ( total of 8 usually ) and we split the grocery tab and often grill out and have a nice family time. But, 8-20 is a long jump. I plan on paying for most of the food as it's a trip for my Dad, and my 3rd sister is a single parent and doesn't have a lot of money. We'll be grilling but the sheer volume is overwhelming!

How many people can we realistically expect to feed in the Grand Villa? I'm thinking some of the kids will be eating on picnic tables.

Has anyone done a gathering of this size and cooked most meals? How did you handle it?

 

[BeesKnees]

Unless you have multiple grills going trying to cook for for 20 people means either some people will eat in shifts or some people will have to eat cold food.

How many meals? Do you have restaurant size cookware?

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

Now that's why in the south, "they's cooken fer an army". I think many of you out there, heard it from the good old days . And is there any grocery store's near by? Could help lower the cost. BBQ is a great wait to save money. Just an idea.

 

[gillep]

DH and I have done large beach homes for a week in the summer in OBX with about 18-25 people each time and I think we finally found a system that has worked well regardless of the group.

We buy all the food for breakfasts and lunches but people eat as they please as some people like to get up early others like to sleep late and some people like to eat at the house for a lunch break while others pack a cooler and eat at the beach, and still others like to go out for local fare. Sometimes there will be a group all wanting to eat a larger meal at the same time so someone will do omlettes or pancakes for 4-8 but that is adhoc and there is no pressure for these meals we just make sure we have a large variety of foods for a variety of meals ie. eggs, pancake mix/fixings, cereal, bagels etc.

Dinners are planned ahead of time making it easier to shop plan etc. and people are split into groups of usually 3-5 people and each group is given a dinner or two to prepare/clean up. This makes it so that everyone is helping out and no one is stuck cooking and cleaning for the whole vacation. Also it is very hard if you have too many people all trying to cook it may seem helpful but really there just isn't enough room plus people don't want to cook every night while on vacation so its nice if they only need to do it a few times. Meals that we have found easy to scale are BBQ chicken, hamburgers hot dogs and brats, fajitas with the meat/ vegetables grilled, pastas usually 3 or so varieties with garlic bread salad etc. Usually 2 people from the group cook the meat and the rest make the side dishes etc.

We find that going to costco and getting tons of super large aluminum trays work the best for serving and they can easily be thrown out which cuts down on clean up time which is huge with these big meals. I don't know how much fridge space you have but one of the hardest things we always face is trying not to make too much food as there is usually not too much room for a lot of leftovers but you can squish them if you have large zip lock bags.

Obviously this may not work for everyone but we have done this with multiple different groups with people of multiple different levels of cooking ability and ages even young kids have seemed to like to help and can easily help with a lot of the side dishes that may not require heating or cutting or even just making sure that all the plates/utensils etc are out.

 

[JWG]

WOW! I have no advice, but admire your fortitude.
Will be looking for a trip report

 

[dis-happy]

There's a Sam's Club on island. Last year there was a summer-only membership you could get. Might be worth checking in to (or seeing if someone in your group has a membership).

Easy meals for a crowd:

baked frozen chicken breasts with Greek seasoning; serve with tzatziki sauce, pita bread and hummus, green salad with tomatoes and feta cheese, orzo. You can buy everything on this menu at Sam's, except for the orzo.

Stouffer's lasagne, served with green salad, a veggie and fruit. When cooking for a crowd I love, love, LOVE the big 3# can of green beans and other veggies...it costs around $3. and is very economical.

pork barbeque done in the crock pot and served on hamburger buns (have a couple of families bring their large crock pot if possible--great for keeping side dishes hot too)

Mexican theme: do a batch of seasoned taco meat and build your own burritos. Tortillas, shredded lettuce, cheese, sour cream, olives, etc. Side dishes of refried beans and spanish rice.

Again, all these meals can be done relatively inexpensively by purchasing most of it at Sam's Club.


Finally, shrimp and grits is a low country favorite! Buy some decent southern stone ground grits, cook them up, and add some fresh shrimp purchased locally. Yum!!!

 

[ACDSNY]

Here's some more easy large group meals...

Taco Salad and cut up fruit

Spaghetti, salad and french bread

I second the Costco aluminum pans. Most of our gatherings are at least 20, it's not too much harder to do than 8.

 

[dvcnewgirl]

Op's sister------>I have a Sam's membership and if you are now paying for my room I will let you use it. I have 2 crockpots so that is a great idea. I think Spaghetti and pork BBQ, and Tacos are great ideas. I do a great chicken taco in the crockpot.

 

[DisDaydreamer]

Op's sister------>I have a Sam's membership and if you are now paying for my room I will let you use it. I have 2 crockpots so that is a great idea. I think Spaghetti and pork BBQ, and Tacos are great ideas. I do a great chicken taco in the crockpot.

Crockpots... Good Idea. This is going to be a challenge for sure.

 

[SLM]

Wow! What alot of fun you're going to have! The meal ideas other posters gave sound great-you can also get partially baked pizzas from Guiseppes by the Piggly Wiggly and do your own salads. Pork tenderloins don't take up much room on a grill and feed alot.

 

[CrazyDuck]

If you are doing 20 people.... Did you consider 1 GV and 1 2br? Couldn't that accommodate 20? If anything atleast it would net you 2 full kitchens!

 

[podsnel]

We had a GV last summer for a family reunion. There were 9 adults and 11 kids (we also had a 2 bdrm) and we ate in shifts. I took a couple of pics- post #44 in my TR-

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2267051&page=3

All the kids wanted to sleep together, so we ended up with all of them in the living room most of the nights. We kept the mattresses in the master bdrm during the day. The cousins had SOOOO much fun together! I hope you have a blast!

 

[LIFERBABE]

We had 24 at HHI Memorial Day weekend 2008. Hit Sam's and the Bi-LO for groceries.
1 GV and 5 studios. We all ate in the GV and we had a grill right outside. 1 night we steamed King Crab, salad, Green Beans, rolls. We ate out on the patio at the picnic table. I made brats with peppers and onions in the oven for those that did not want Crab legs.
We grilled out 1 evening. Just put in a big alum pan and keep warm in the oven until time to eat.
The spaghetti is always a hit. We serve salad and french bread. Buy the big bag of meatballs at Sams and the big container of Ragu.
The pans and serving utensils are key for a large group. THe HHI GV's are really big and we never felt crowded and I liked that people could retreat to their own space.
Keep in mind that most of the HHI studios are in the main bldg and the GV's are in far bldgs, so they may not be that close. We had a studio underneath our GV but from what I read, there are not many like that.
We had a blast and plan to have our big reunion at HHI in 2011

 

[Deb & Bill]

I think you have the wrong discussion board. I think you really want www.WTHWasIthinking.com.

 

[DisDaydreamer]

I think you have the wrong discussion board. I think you really want www.WTHWasIthinking.com.

I had to click it to see if it was real

 

[bobbiwoz]

I've never had that many people, but agree with those who suggest an Italian meal, pasta, sauce, meatballs, sausage, and more is always a hit! We did it in VB. A DF was in charge of that meal, she brought a huge crock pot and all of the fixings and it was great, great leftovers for the ones who were still there the next night!

Have a wonderful time, and be a guest yourself and enjoy your family!

Bobbi

 

[BeesKnees]

I think you should make sure that people are happy with crock pot meals. Other than pork butt and beans I find most things that come from them horribly overcooked.

One thing I would do is prepare food in advance. Especially cold-served side items. Potato salad, cole slaw, pasta salad, 3 bean salad, etc. I would also pre-chop vegetables that can take it like carrots, celery, etc. that may be going in other dishes. You want to cut down on how much time you have to spend in the kitchen and how much cooking is required.

Things like bacon and sausage are fine reheated in an oven but would be hard to cook to order for so many.

If you are going to do pasta for 20 people you will need a good cooler and pans that can keep things warm because that much pasta cannot be cooked at one time unless you have restaurant-sized pots.

I would have at least one bowl meal. Soup seems wrong in the summer but chili is a year-round. Corn bread for that many should easily fit in the oven.

One of my summer-time favorites is a ceviche but I am guess that probably would not go over well with such a large crowd.

Peel and eat shrimp is a good option. Usually most people like shrimp even if they don't care for seafood in general. Shrimp cooked without their shells is pretty bland unless you garlic or butter it up.

I would cheat one night and order pizza since there is no way you can make it homemade for so many.

 

[rentayenta]

I think you have the wrong discussion board. I think you really want www.WTHWasIthinking.com.

I clicked it too looking for some gnarly family drama!

 

[LIFERBABE]

Sams and Costco have great restaurant style meals and pre cut veggies that do not require alot of prep. SAMs has a great potato salad that I prefer over homemade. A veggie tray goes a long way too

we cooked pasta for 42 people in the pots provided in the GV at SSR. We Cooked it and transferred to an alum pan tossed in olive oil. If you need an extra boiler or pot call mousekeeping they will lend you one. Just wash and return when finished.

Cooking does not have to be a chore. You can buy many prepared foods these days

the rotisserrie chickens from Sams are also great for salads, or main course

 

[BeesKnees]

Sams and Costco have great restaurant style meals and pre cut veggies that do not require alot of prep. SAMs has a great potato salad that I prefer over homemade. A veggie tray goes a long way too

we cooked pasta for 42 people in the pots provided in the GV at SSR. We Cooked it and transferred to an alum pan tossed in olive oil. If you need an extra boiler or pot call mousekeeping they will lend you one. Just wash and return when finished.

Cooking does not have to be a chore. You can buy many prepared foods these days

the rotisserrie chickens from Sams are also great for salads, or main course

There again, you have to be careful nowadays and make sure your guests are okay with being served "prepared" foods. You don't want to serve them something they don't want to or may even refuse to eat. An earlier suggestion was boxed lasagna. Even being someone's guest would make it hard for me to eat it. I would certainly be thinking of ways to avoid it without hurting anyone's feelings.