Cooking for a group can be a lot of fun, and with adequate planning, it doesn't have to be stressful. It seems like we often think that cooking for people outside of our immediate family has to involve something big and fancy, and dinner hostesses often stick to a 'turkey dinner' sort of menu. Not that I have anything against turkey; I enjoy both cooking and eating it. Just because I'm having dinner guests, though, doesn't mean I feel a compulsion to pull out the cranberry sauce.
This Saturday evening, Matt and I enjoyed a casual evening with friends from the Catholic Student Association at our home. Matt wound up having to go in to work, so I spent the bulk of the day on my own in the kitchen. It was surprisingly relaxing; I knew what I was making and how long each thing cooked, so I started with the time we planned to eat dinner and worked backward, assigning each dish or dishes an appropriate time slot in the oven. For example:
10:00 squash halves in
11:00 squash halves out
12:10 beans on
1:30 squash bake in
2:30 squash bake out
[3:00 pick Matt up from work]
3:40 bread rising
4:00 crumble crust in
4:20 crumble crust out
4:55 pie in
[5:00 straighten house]
5:30 apples on to stew
5:40 pie out, bread in
5:55 squash bake in to warm up
6:00 bread out, apple crumble in to brown topping
6:10 squash bake out, apple crumble out, beans done
6:15 dinner
It was so nice to be standing in the kitchen 15 minutes before I was expecting people to walk in the door, knowing that everything was going to be finished at the same time and I didn't have to worry about hurrying anything!
It snowed this morning, so we may finally have to give up pretending that it is still autumn; yesterday evening was definitely not yet winter, though, and we made a wonderfully autumnal meal to celebrate: one of the girls brought a green salad, and I made calico beans, butternut squash bake, and purple potato bread, with pecan pie and apple crumble for dessert, and hot apple cider to drink!
Calico beans is a dish I grew up on, and one Matt has come to enjoy since moving to Alaska. For me, it is a favorite not only because of how it tastes, but also how easy it is to make: throw everything in a slow cooker for 6 hours, and dinner is ready!
Calico Beans
2 lb ground beef
1 lb bacon
0.5 onion, diced
1 can great northern beans, drained
1 can chopped green beans, drained
1 can pork and beans, drained
2 cans kidney beans, drained
0.75 c brown sugar
1 c ketchup
3 Tbsp vinegar, white or cider
2 tsp salt
Cook bacon. Remove to paper towels, drain grease from pan. Chop into pieces roughly an inch long. In same pan, brown ground beef and onion. Combine all ingredients in slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 5 to 6 hours. Serves 10.
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