Holiday Meals
During the holidays, many of you may gather together, enjoy your holiday meal, sitting around socializing, and exchanging gifts. Sometimes this happens at the same home every year, as a family get together. People can always find a place to sit and enjoy their holiday meal, but what do you do when you have prepared a large meal for a lot of people. My step-mother does this every year, with about 25 people or more. She has a lot of food to prepare, keep warm while it is set out. Of course, there are those who also prepare dishes and desserts which are included.
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How do you feed a lot of people without a lot of space?
Most of you simply set food in bowls on the table, which is fine for a small family meal. It doesn’t work so well when people are sitting at the table, trying to eat, while a line of people is reaching over to get to the food in order to fill their plates.
Countertops is our remedy!
One area is the countertop that is with the kitchen island. There is counter top space on each end. One end is used for the desserts, napkins and paper plates for the desserts.
The other end is where items like rolls, bread, cole slaw, potato salad is set at. The main area for using the countertop in order to serve food, buffet style, as family lines up, grabs their plate and starts dishing out their food. Add some color using holiday dinnerware. Instead of using a lot of bowls which really do not keep the food hot, we use various other items such as a large and small crockpot for the meats. The small one is great for dinner slices of ham, while the larger one holds the turkey meat that has been removed from the bone. |
Keeping The Food HotFor large amounts such as turkey, chicken, etc, you can plug in your slow cooker or use a chafing server such as the popular Winware 8 Qt Stainless Steel Chafer, Full Size Chafer for which you need to place sterno in the sterno holders. Personally, I don’t care for using sterno because you may run out, as well as they can be difficult to stay lit.
Programmable Cook and Carry Oval Slow Cooker |
Buffet ServersThe smaller buffet servers are for gravy, veggies, mashed potatoes, stuffing balls, etc.
Oster CKSTBSTW00 Buffet Server This Oster Buffet Server is made from stainless steel. It is perfect for veggies and gravy. 3 separate pans that are 2 ½ quart size. The buffet pans are easily cleaned in the dishwasher. Simply fill the pans and plug it in. |
MaxiMatic EWM-6171 Elite Platinum 3-Tray 2-1/2-Quart Buffet Server, Stainless
This buffet server also runs by plugging into an outlet, but each buffet tray has its own adjustable temperature control for settings: low, medium or high. 3 Buffet pans with lids that also have an opening to serve from. Buffet pans are 2-1/2-Quart |