Cooking for Thirty... or My Goose Is Cooked

It is Saturday afternoon.  I need to study my German,  but I am distracted with a responsibility I have 'volunteered' to do.  Come to think of it....Rae is the one who 'volunteered' me. 

From June 16-23 the Cuyamungue Institute is having a Centennial Celebration, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founder, Felicitas Goodman.  I have written about the institute a few times, but not sure I have described the facilities.  We are nestled on about 250 acres of land just north of Santa Fe, New Mexico.  In fact we are surrounded by the Pojoaque Pueblo.  We are a small non-profit that runs workshops and does continuing research on body postures depicted in ancient art.

This is a bird's eye view of Cuyamungue Institute. 

I will write some day about the work...but this post is about our facilities...and my concern about my responsibility.  I (Rae) volunteered to be in charge of food.  This may sound like an exciting challenge for those who enjoy cooking and entertaining.  Too bad my niece is getting married this summer or my sister could have saved me.  But she has set aside June for helping Maggie finalize wedding plans....leaving me (along with Rae) to prepare menus and food for about thirty people for seven days. (Normally, our workshops are limited to 10-12 people because of the size of our facilities.)

I put out a plea on Facebook...asking for advice...recipes...menus...anything.   I still am not sure of serving sizes. So how much should I prepare?  I received great ideas and plan to use a few.  One person even remembered Maxine's Chicken Casserole for 30 and suggested that. I also have three great helpers...people who have prepared meals for workshops at the institute and know our limitations. 

We try to have vegetarian menus during workshops....but sometimes prepare chicken that can be added.  I am concerned that there will be people coming with food allergies that I can not address. I wonder how the preparation of the meals can be done in our small kitchen.  We have one kitchen...average sized...one refrigerator and one stove.  We have enough plates, bowls and flatware for 24 people....so I will need to purchase a couple more place settings.  Our dining area can seat 12...so some of the participants will have to use the outside picnic tables....or maybe eat in shifts.

This is our dining table....not large enough for 30 people.

We use this counter as a space for buffet type serving.  Here, Rae is organizing
the cups at the tea station.  We will have to move the tea station to the
outer room so the cooks will have room in the kitchen.

So, those are my concerns...and this is a really boring post, but my head can't stop thinking about menus and food portions.  Will our pots and pans be large enough?  How much is enough?  Will people be happy with soups and salads?  We will have fresh fruits, nuts, chips and salsa out for snacking.  Should I worry about pack rats?...probably not...with so many people there, the pack rats may leave the area.  Will we have enough or will we end up with too many leftovers?  Questions, questions and more questions....but I keep telling myself that things will work out...what will be will be.

Cleaning up after dinner....you can see the small space for
preparing for a large group.

Hmmmm.....maybe I should take the advice of one of my former students....order pizzas!  No...back to my planning....a trip to Costco to make a list for the week....and be thankful that everyone coming to the celebration will be there to celebrate....and have all been there....so they know we have a few limits on what we can do.  I will take pictures and write a blog after this so you will know if I survived.