I just wanted to say thank you to everyone here for all that I have learned, and to Poobah for lending me a WSM without which I would have been in a jam.
We celebrated Mom’s 70th birthday on Saturday. Cooking for about 70 people was a rewarding experience! Tiring, but rewarding.
This event was taking place at home, or rather homes. One of my brother’s and I live next door to each other. The main event took place in his yard, with tents, tables, chairs, bar and band being there, with my yard providing a place for the kids to run rampant.
My responsibility in this was all of the food. After spending Thursday and Friday shopping for meat, vegetables, rolls, bread, and all of the other details that go into this. I started early Saturday morning setting up the “kitchen” between our two houses. By 10:30 am, the kitchen was established, consisting of the canopy, 3 Weber gassers (2 of which were mine, one with a side burner, and 1 from my brother), 1 charbroil sink cart with running water, 1 deep fryer, 1 22” Weber Kettle, 1 Charbroil charcoal grill borrowed from my sister-in-law, 2 WSMs one of which was borrowed from Poobah, 2 tables, and assorted coolers, cutting boards and tools. It sounds like a lot of grills, but for an extended period they were all in constant use.
What one doesn’t think about though, is just how much heat is put out by all of this equipment. When you are doing this much cooking remember to eat, and drink plenty! I was so busy in bringing this all together that I had not had anything to eat or drink all day, and at about 3PM when I started to pull the prime rib from the WSMs, after pulling the first one I almost went down for the count. After leaning over the WSM an grabbing the first one, the added blast of heat practically knocked me over. Suddenly I felt weak and horrible. I had to sit down and have my son get me something cold to drink. I struggled through getting the other two prime ribs out and coolered and then left my assistant and son to handle the hors d’oerves for a while as I went into the AC in the house and sat down and had plenty to drink. I made sure that I drank constantly the remainder of the day and was fine.
At 10:30, my assistant, David, arrived. David is actually a Chef and was a valuable asset to getting all of this done. We started all of the prep at 10:30, got the prime rib in the smokers at 11:30, started serving hors d’oerves at 2, served dinner at 5, and finally the cake at 7.
We also hired 2 servers, a bartender, and my Mother’s favorite Irish band.
The “kitchen” with David at the grill and my son at the sink. My son turned out to be a great help all day long. As much as the heat bothers me, he wears a sweat shirt all year long!
Some prime rib ready to slice. This stuff went almost as fast as I could slice it. 45 lbs in total, gone! I lost track of how many people told me that this was the best prime rib that they had ever had in their life, and many inquiries as to how I cooked it. I know that this had to be the first time they had ever had it smoked, well except of course for my immediate family, but my wife also told me that she thought this was the best I had ever made.
Some grilled tomatoes being finished. Real simple. Cut the tops off in a crown shape, grilled with some olive oil and oregano on top, and then add and melt some whole milk mozzarella when they are almost done.
The prime rib and the chicken entrée. The chicken dish was chicken cutlets wrapped around fresh mozzarella and roasted pepper, wrapped by bacon, and grilled.
Went with baked potatoes and grilled potatoes. The grilled potatoes are partially baked, then sliced and grilled with olive oil, garlic and parsley. For the prime rib we also had a horseradish sauce and au jus sauce.
The birthday cake! The creative genius for this came from my 17YO son. It is basically a family tree, with Mom on the top, mom and her 2 brothers with their spouses on the side of the top tier, her 6 children with spouses on the side of the second tier, and her 10 grandchildren on the side of the bottom tier. I edited all photos to put this together and we had them printed on icing sheets to apply to the cake. My wife baked all six cakes needed on Thursday, and then spent Friday filling, assembling and decorating the cake with my boys helping her mix the frosting as she was applying it. My work day ended around 7pm, when I carried this out of my house and brought it next door. Let’s just say that I was a little nervous! After this I was able to start drinking
A surprise visit from one of The Brethren who I had never met before! Jeremy, “SmokinJ” was in attendance. I found out that there is another Brethren that lives 3 blocks from me! Turns out that he is my Mother’s cousin’s daughter’s husband.
45 lbs prime rib …… $255
20 lbs chicken cutlets ………. $56
36 ears of corn …………. $12
40 lbs potatoes ……….. $20
50 tomatoes ………… $35
6 lbs whole milk mozzarella ……………..$21
6 lbs fresh mozarealla ……………$39
5 lbs bacon …………………$14
5 lbs of jalapeno poppers ……………. $12
5 lbs of mozzarella sticks …………… $12
60 mini crab cakes ……….. $28
200 assorted hors d’oerves …………. $25
2 lbs whipped butter ……………. $5
2 lbs whipped honey butter (Thanks to Plowboy for this idea. Great on rolls and corn, or even just off your finger!) ………. $6
100 dinner rolls $12
4 loaves of French bread ………. $8
1 birthday cake ………. $100
The look on Mom’s face ………….. PRICELESS!!!!!!!
We celebrated Mom’s 70th birthday on Saturday. Cooking for about 70 people was a rewarding experience! Tiring, but rewarding.
This event was taking place at home, or rather homes. One of my brother’s and I live next door to each other. The main event took place in his yard, with tents, tables, chairs, bar and band being there, with my yard providing a place for the kids to run rampant.
My responsibility in this was all of the food. After spending Thursday and Friday shopping for meat, vegetables, rolls, bread, and all of the other details that go into this. I started early Saturday morning setting up the “kitchen” between our two houses. By 10:30 am, the kitchen was established, consisting of the canopy, 3 Weber gassers (2 of which were mine, one with a side burner, and 1 from my brother), 1 charbroil sink cart with running water, 1 deep fryer, 1 22” Weber Kettle, 1 Charbroil charcoal grill borrowed from my sister-in-law, 2 WSMs one of which was borrowed from Poobah, 2 tables, and assorted coolers, cutting boards and tools. It sounds like a lot of grills, but for an extended period they were all in constant use.
What one doesn’t think about though, is just how much heat is put out by all of this equipment. When you are doing this much cooking remember to eat, and drink plenty! I was so busy in bringing this all together that I had not had anything to eat or drink all day, and at about 3PM when I started to pull the prime rib from the WSMs, after pulling the first one I almost went down for the count. After leaning over the WSM an grabbing the first one, the added blast of heat practically knocked me over. Suddenly I felt weak and horrible. I had to sit down and have my son get me something cold to drink. I struggled through getting the other two prime ribs out and coolered and then left my assistant and son to handle the hors d’oerves for a while as I went into the AC in the house and sat down and had plenty to drink. I made sure that I drank constantly the remainder of the day and was fine.
At 10:30, my assistant, David, arrived. David is actually a Chef and was a valuable asset to getting all of this done. We started all of the prep at 10:30, got the prime rib in the smokers at 11:30, started serving hors d’oerves at 2, served dinner at 5, and finally the cake at 7.
We also hired 2 servers, a bartender, and my Mother’s favorite Irish band.
The “kitchen” with David at the grill and my son at the sink. My son turned out to be a great help all day long. As much as the heat bothers me, he wears a sweat shirt all year long!
Some prime rib ready to slice. This stuff went almost as fast as I could slice it. 45 lbs in total, gone! I lost track of how many people told me that this was the best prime rib that they had ever had in their life, and many inquiries as to how I cooked it. I know that this had to be the first time they had ever had it smoked, well except of course for my immediate family, but my wife also told me that she thought this was the best I had ever made.
Some grilled tomatoes being finished. Real simple. Cut the tops off in a crown shape, grilled with some olive oil and oregano on top, and then add and melt some whole milk mozzarella when they are almost done.
The prime rib and the chicken entrée. The chicken dish was chicken cutlets wrapped around fresh mozzarella and roasted pepper, wrapped by bacon, and grilled.
Went with baked potatoes and grilled potatoes. The grilled potatoes are partially baked, then sliced and grilled with olive oil, garlic and parsley. For the prime rib we also had a horseradish sauce and au jus sauce.
The birthday cake! The creative genius for this came from my 17YO son. It is basically a family tree, with Mom on the top, mom and her 2 brothers with their spouses on the side of the top tier, her 6 children with spouses on the side of the second tier, and her 10 grandchildren on the side of the bottom tier. I edited all photos to put this together and we had them printed on icing sheets to apply to the cake. My wife baked all six cakes needed on Thursday, and then spent Friday filling, assembling and decorating the cake with my boys helping her mix the frosting as she was applying it. My work day ended around 7pm, when I carried this out of my house and brought it next door. Let’s just say that I was a little nervous! After this I was able to start drinking
A surprise visit from one of The Brethren who I had never met before! Jeremy, “SmokinJ” was in attendance. I found out that there is another Brethren that lives 3 blocks from me! Turns out that he is my Mother’s cousin’s daughter’s husband.
45 lbs prime rib …… $255
20 lbs chicken cutlets ………. $56
36 ears of corn …………. $12
40 lbs potatoes ……….. $20
50 tomatoes ………… $35
6 lbs whole milk mozzarella ……………..$21
6 lbs fresh mozarealla ……………$39
5 lbs bacon …………………$14
5 lbs of jalapeno poppers ……………. $12
5 lbs of mozzarella sticks …………… $12
60 mini crab cakes ……….. $28
200 assorted hors d’oerves …………. $25
2 lbs whipped butter ……………. $5
2 lbs whipped honey butter (Thanks to Plowboy for this idea. Great on rolls and corn, or even just off your finger!) ………. $6
100 dinner rolls $12
4 loaves of French bread ………. $8
1 birthday cake ………. $100
The look on Mom’s face ………….. PRICELESS!!!!!!!
Last edited:
:mrgreen: :mrgreen:
