Help! Catering ideas needed for a Baptism reception at home

Mummy_Jo

I'm planning my daughter's baptism for the end of May and potentially have a lot of people coming (at least 50) I have explored all avenues: Sunday Lunch in a pub, outside catering (brought to the house) and buffet at a restaurant. The best of the above is buffet at a restaurant but at £10.00 per head... I don't want to spend £500.
So, I am now seriously thinking of catering at home. I realise this will be a lot of work and so I am looking to see if anyone can help with labour saving tips and ideas to reduce the unecessary stress and workload. I am thinking of staying away from traditional buffet food as its time consuming to prepare and as a mum of a 2 year old as well as a little baby I need to make things easy on myself.
One of my suggestions is to cook a joint of beef and have hot roast beef sandwiches. We have a MAKRO card so can get some things bulk buy. I want to do nice food as cheaply as poss. My family hate chilli and curry so they are out - that was the only other thing that I could think of.

The service starts at 10.30 so not much time on the morning to actually do much planning.

All ideas, hints and tips greatly appreciated:j

samcantcope

I was going to do this as well, but i found a pub called 2for1 local to me i paid for sunday lunch for 40 people incl desserts and it came to £300. and that included a £50 fee for hiring the private room to have the lunch, not sure if you have one of these pubs by you, they are a large chain of pubs so just a idea,
if you do it at home lots of somasa's/onion bhagi's always go down well(cant spell) they only take 20 mins to warm through in the oven, which you can quickly do when you get back, lots of sausage rolls and nibbles, cheat where you can with ready made stuff.

Good luck and try and enjoy the day.

elainew

We hired a pub function room for my wee girls naming day--NEVER AGAIN!!! The food was disgusting--tasted like reheats or straight out of the freezer. We paid alot of money for it too so was NOT HAPPY !
If we had to do it again I would buy platters from sainsburys of sandwhiches or a lot of prepacked food like sausage rolls, selection of meats crusty bread dips and bowls of salads ( most of it prepared the night before)

Have a wonderful day and stress free

Elaine x

Gingernutmeg

Hot roast beef sandwiches sound lovely ... but an awful lot of work. Remember that you're going to have to roast the beef (have you got an oven big enough?/ who will stay and watch the meat as it cooks?), then carve it and serve it to fifty people who will get anxious waiting their turn ... I know that you're not keen on a buffet but having something where people can help themselves is always a good idea, and it can give you a bit of breathing space in that there is a lot you can get ready before hand (ie bowls of crisps, crackers, bread etc, stuff on trays ready to put out or put in the oven). Makro is great for this kind of thing, and they do stuff like frozen gateaux that you can just defrost and serve. A big pile of profiteroles or something like that always goes down an absolute bomb

The only thing you do need to watch with a buffet (or any kind of catering) is to make sure that you've got enough cold space to store the food correctly. In terms of food safety, I was always taught during trainings that food left out of refrigeration for over three hours is no longer fit for consumption. I know that nobody follows those rules at home lol but you need to be careful with so much food/so many people ... you want them to have good memories of your day!! Also, try and recruit as many people as possible to help you, both before and after!!

I'm not sure whether this is possible but have you spoken to the buffet place to see whether you could supply some of the food yourself? We held a party for my grandparents last year at a local pub, and we managed to negotiate a deal where they provided a basic buffet and we provided the extras - a ham, some pate, homemade pork pies, cheese platters, bread, a few special family dishes and all of the desserts. They added a little bit to the basic cost to cover serving and washing up etc, but it worked out so much cheaper than going with their standard 'buffet' - it made it more personal too. Like I said, some places might think you're a bit cheeky for asking this but it's always worth a try!

Catering at home can initially look cheaper but it's wise to really think about it and cost it carefully. Remember that as well as the food you're going to need to buy disposable plates, glasses, napkins, cutlery etc. There's also the added hassle of preparing your home and cleaning up afterwards - if you go elsewhere then you pay for the priviledge of having someone else clean up for you. There's also the added cost of booze - if you do a function at home you're generally stuck providing it yourself, but if you have it in a pub then people just assume that they have to buy it for themselves ... Also, thinking practically, can you actually fit fifty people in your house lol? (I don't mean to be rude here at all but there's nothing worse than a party where you can't move - remember that if you're catering yourself the last thing you're going to want is a kitchen full of people getting in the way. Can you cope if it's throwing it down and there's no outside space?

And finally lol ... tif you are wanting to cater for yourself, there's a great book by Lorna Wing called 'Party Food', which has some great ideas for food etc. What's really helpful is that at the front of the book there are loads of tables that show you how much food and booze to prepare for different kinds and lengths of parties.

pookienoodle

Something that would be pefect for the time of year and not as boring as a buffet is Afternoon tea.

Make some home made scones,cakes,maybe toasted tea cakes and a small selection of sandwiches (buy anything you are not confident making.)

At the end of may strawberries will have dropped to a more reasonable price,so those with cream or icecream would be great.

hot food for 50 is a lot of work so do something you can do in advance and
then you can ENJOY the day.

MrsTinks

I would say buffet... although is your home big enough for 50 people? Check if you have a village hall near by, we can hire our village one for a very small fee toward upkeep etc so I'd use something like that and then ask really good friends if I could hijac a shelf in their fridges if they lived nearby
You can cook a LOT in advance (cous cous salad, pasta salad, sausage rolls (make your own with ready made puff pastry and franfurters - they taste sooo much better and for extra yum put a little mozzarella in each and home made pizza's taste nice cold too - check the OS board for recipies)

Lillibet_2

This is almost exactly what we did for my sons baptism for 60 people last April. We used a 7 bird roast and had it in the church hall but the same principal, cooked it at home first (I got up at 4.30am to switch the oven on!) then transported it to the church hall well wrapped up in foil & tea towels inside an insualted cool bag to keep it hot & allow it to rest. We served it into pitta bread which we had pre-cut & cling filmed the night before, with a selection of sliced salads ( I think tomatoes, cucumber & watercress) & mozerella cheese (primarily for the vegaterians) (also pre cut & cling-flimed the previosu evening) for people to add themselves & lots of different relishes. Pudding was the cake. Worked out about £3.50 per head including lots of wine (bought usign a tesco discount code), mineral water & OJ with the meal & tea & coffee afterwards & everyone loved it becuase it was better than buffet food (which I hate with a passion!).:D Dead easy & no hassle. Beef would be easier still as you could do 2 peices in one oven (or enlist a neighbour's oven) rather than trying to squeeze a huge peice of meat in like we did:rolleyes: I would suggest timing the cooking so that you get it out just as you are leaving & leaving it to rest (well wrapped up in foil) in the turned off oven, beef needs more resting time than poultry so this would work in your favour, and you can carve it still warm straight into your sandwiches on your return. we made a featuer of the carving, doing it in front of everyone, but you coudl do this in your kitchen & just bring out plates of carved meat!

Good luck & enjoy your day;)

milliejon

I agree with PookieNoodle. We were due to have my son Baptised back in October. I had planned to have afternoon tea with scones, cakes etc. I put this on the invitations too so that people weren't expecting anything more.

As it fell through - my brother is going to be the Godfather but his daughter came down with a dose of chicken pox, and I didn't fancy not having my brother as Godfather or infecting the church - we didn't lose any deposit we may have paid by hiring somewhere.

We're looking to re-arrange our Christening for April or May too and will still do the Afternoon Tea thing. Best of luck with whatever you decide.

Mummy_Jo

Thanks for all the replies.:D

Firstly, as samcantcope suggested we went out today to check out the 241 place near to us. I can't believe that I hadn't thought of it before as we use it so much when we go up North to visit my parents. Its really good value for money and the food is quite good. The one here in Swindon however is not. We turned up at 12.40 - right in the middle of Sunday lunch. The place was empty and the food was awful. My whole plate was freezing... Needless to say we've discounted that as an idea which is a shame as I had thought it was brilliant.

As to some of the other suggestions. The church hall can not be used as it is attached to the church and there is a wedding in the afternoon which is why our service is at 10.30.

With regards to fitting 50 people in the house. We think it will work we don't have a massive house or anything but the previous owners put on a 22ft long conservatory which can fit a lot of people in it. We also have a 3 metre by 9 metre party gazeebo which is perfect for these sort of things.

For the roast beef I was thinking of cooking it the day before and allowing it to cool then carving it. On the morning I was going to make some gravy and put the lot into the slow cooker for it to heat up whilst I am at church. I would buy bread rolls and leave them and beef on the table and allow people to make up their own sandwiches. This would leave the oven free as well to heat up anything else that I think may be needed. I think that doing it this way is also ok for food health side of things too.

I am not afraid of cooking. I cook everything from scratch at home. I'm just concerned about having the time with two small children. I do have a big chest freezer so can make use of that.

As gingernutmeg has rightly said though I do need to make sure that I cost out things like plates, glasses, cutlery etc... I have no idea how much that lot would cost.

Keep the suggestions coming I am really grateful:j

i1189

Something that we have done a few times is a barbecue. Not burgers and stuff though!

Last year we did a barbecue on Boxing Day - we have 2 barbecues and did roast pork on one and roast veggies on the other. This left the oven free for mini jacket potatoes and other bits. It is easy to cater for lots of people this way. You could do some salads and stuff beforehand as well.

Could you ask people to bring their own plates and cutlery? Or do you know anyone in the catering trade who could lend you some?

Mummy_Jo

Just out of interest. What about the weather? I notice that your bbq was at xmas. Did you have an alternative plan should it rain/snow?