Expert: Teri Davis Newman - 10/29/2009

Question
QUESTION: We are planning a 21st birthday party for our son in two months time (18 December), the theme of which will be 'The Godfather. There will be 120 guests ranging mainly from students to grandparent age. We are fairly good with food and willing to seek out good ingredients although our budget is not limitless. Cooking/preparation facilities in the hall are spacious but there are only two ovens although we anticipate spending a day or two preparing food. We have two freezers so are able to prepare/freeze and defrost where appropriate. It will be a noisy,lively, informal celebration with live music and thus no need for 'over-sophisticated food' We're thinking bold/rustic/wholesome/flavoursome/colourful/abundant etc any advice please?

ANSWER: Since there's no specific question here that I can directly answer, I'm assuming you want ideas that fit your theme.
Antipasti platters, Pasta, Sausage and peppers, garlic bread, Caesar salad, cake, beer & wine.  Zoot suits and fedora hats! Sinatra on the music system. Pizza for the kids (Dominos will cut you a deal on large 1-topping pies) and soft drinks.  I've got recipes for all these dishes that are knock-your-socks-off good!
Here's the rule of catering as to how much you will need per person:
7 ounces of cooked meat entree
4 ounces of each side dish up to 3
3 ounces of salad greens
1 4 ounce dessert serving
6-8 appetizer bites per person
16 oz of non-alcoholic beverage
2 oz of chips per person
1 oz of dip per person
Multiply the ounces times the number of guests and then divide by 16 to give you pounds of food and the beverage by 128 to give you the number of gallons of beverage you will need.




---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for your unbelievably quick reply. It must be 5am where you are! I think perhaps I should have been more specific with my question. We're fine on the theme/dress/music/decoration and the mix of food is as we anticipated. I guess it's about the main dishes, say sausages & peppers (hot? recipe?) and pasta (cold would be easy but in Dec we feel as much as possible should be hot, but facilities are limited in the hall - any suggestions please?).

Answer
This is scaled up for 60 people--you'll need to double it.

40 lbs sweet or hot Italian link sausage
40 sliced green bell peppers
10 15 oz can whole tomatoes
10 15oz can tomato sauce
10 tsp minced garlic
10 TBS basil
20 TBS olive oil
20 TBS sugar
Steam sausages for 15-20 minutes to get rid of some of the fat. Empty
skillet, add olive oil and saute the peppers and garlic for 3 mins, add the
basil and tomato products. Stir in the sugar and then add sausages back to
pan, cover and put in 350 oven for 2-3 hours.
Reheat in a microwave or keep hot in a steam table
Serve over pasta or on the side with pasta and sauce--here's my famous sauce

Make a batch of this:
Spaghetti/Pasta sauce.
1-11/2 lbs ground beef
4 15oz cans any cheap tomato sauce
1 6 oz can tomato paste
1 tsp Basil
2 tsp garlic powder
1 TBS Italian Seasoning blend (Spice Islands)
1 bay leaf
2 tsp fennel seed
1/2 c. sugar (trust me)
1 tsp accent
crushed red pepper (for hot and spicy, optional)
Brown the beef, add the rest of the stuff, bring to a boil. Cool, boil,
cool, boil. When ready to serve, cook you favorite pasta shape according to
the directions on the box. Reheat the sauce and ladle over the cooked
drained pasta.
If you like it, you can make it in large batches--but make this as a test batch and here's the dinner size of the sausage and peppers for a test batch:
4 lbs sweet or hot Italian link sausage
4 sliced green bell peppers
1 15 oz can whole tomatoes
1 15oz can tomato sauce
1 tsp minced garlic
1 TBS basil
2 TBS olive oil
2 TBS sugar
Steam sausages for 15-20 minutes to get rid of some of the fat. Empty
skillet, add olive oil and saute the peppers and garlic for 3 mins, add the
basil and tomato products. Stir in the sugar and then add sausages back to
pan, cover and put in 350 oven for 2 hours.

ENJOY!!