Great Christmas dish for 80?

Well for the third year now I am making Christmas dinner for a pretty large group (over 16 hours will total about 80) and was trying to think of something new and fantastic to do this time around but at the same time not too overwhelming in the grand scheme of things. Any ideas?

Also with such a large stretch of time I do usually make a starting batch of almost everything and then just make more as the day goes on as needed...

What kind of Budget are you working with? Are you doing a buffet with several options or just one main dish?

Why not play with the classic Alsatian winter dish choucroute (sauerkraut and various meats.) You could also make Irish Corned Beef and Cabbage for those not fond of kraut. So, you have 2 cabbage dishes, a variety of sausages and braised meats (maybe some blood pudding.) You could make some Irish mashed potatoes (champ) and make some boiled redskin potatoes. Toss some vegetables in the braise with about 30 mins to an hour left, and drop some rustic bread on the table and encourage people to rip off pieces to sop up the liquid...

Now that I'm talking about it, I think that is what I'm gonna do, hehe.

Found this Food & Wine recipe for Parmesan Brussels Sprouts and made them for Thanksgiving dinner. They were a big hit. Even with the people at the table who swore that they did not like brussels sprouts. We've actually had them twice since.

They couldn't be easier to make. Bake them for about half an hour and then add some grated parmesan cheese at the end. The charring and the shredding make them a little different.

Parmesan Brussels Sprouts - Food & Wine
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/shre ... ls-sprouts

Well in regards to the people that I am making it for I try to go traditional for the holiday (thank you though Stephen I will have to keep that one in mind, possibly for New Years and especially as I am Irish...even if I am not the hostess or guest of honor it seems like I always get tapped to provide the food for a lot of my friends' gatherings ). As for budget...well to simply put I am making dinner for all of my my coworkers at the EMS service I work for, typically they volunteer to work that day so I think they deserve as good of a home cooked Christmas meal as anyone else gets...for the last two years I have made do with everything out of my own pocket (and we who do EMS don't exactly do it for the money lol), but this year I was going to try to get donations from local stores as I am not as capable to do it all by myself this year. It's all according to the response I get but be sure that if it is worth it I will make it work out somehow...I always do. For the serving I have everything in place for everyone to serve themselves buffet style, we usually just rotate the crews through and they make up their own to-go boxes. The brussel sprouts could be an idea, I have always loved them but know they typically don't go well with others.

OMG Reservations! Just kidding, that's a lot of people!

OMG Reservations!

LMAO Heather...........

OMG Reservations! Just kidding, that's a lot of people!

ROFL! Luckily it's not all at once, just a LOT of food... We have three shifts (staggered) to cover the day and once I give dispatch the green light it will be a couple of trucks at a time over about 14-16 hours. The worst I've ever had was 4 crews (9 people to include a cop that tagged along when he heard about it) at one time. Wow just realized that since I moved this year, maybe I should warn the new neighbors not to be alarmed when a bunch of ambulances start lining up outside my building

Warning the neighbors might be a good idea......

Sorry I wasn't more help..... hmmm, actually if you need an extra pair of hands... PM me I might be able to help ya out!
That would be a volunteer position of course!

Well, I guess it's not too traditional, but I had Christmas at my house a couple of years ago and served baked ziti. This worked out for vegetarians and meat-eaters alike. I had some frozen meatballs and veggieballs that I cooked in separate pots so people could add those if they wanted to. Even though it wasn't the most traditional food, everybody seemed ok with it, and it was pretty easy. Lasagna would also be good, but the ziti was just super easy.

Wow you guys have come up with some pretty great ideas and I do thank all of you for your suggestions. While I pretty much have the menu planned out nothing is set in stone yet as I will do most of the shopping Tuesday. Even if I don't use what I've been given here so far I will certainly be thinking about doing them at a different point (if you couldn't tell I love to cook for large groups!) I've been basically looking at ways to revamp old favorites and think that they will go over pretty well. One thing I will different is instead of the usual standard for corn I am going to make oven roasted corn on the cob. Basically it's rinsing off the whole ear husk on, putting the whole thing in the oven and roasting it. I can do at least 15 of these at a time and once they come out of the oven wrap them in foil. They stay warm for hours and it's so simple but they taste wonderful! I've been experimenting on the guys that work my shift in our dispatch and they really liked it. I also tried out a different recipe for roasting a turkey with a smaller group of friends and very much liked the results. Real butter, fresh sage, and roasted garlic coating, finishing off during the last hour with a pomegranate molasses glaze. By the way, does anyone know where I can actually buy pomegranate molasses? I couldn't find any and thus had to make it myself. Not really too difficult but pretty time consuming. I also want to find a good way to prepare sweet potatoes so that people actually want them, I really do like them but don't want to end up with a ton of leftovers! I'll post that as a separate thread though.

(BTW Ellen I know plenty of people who go non traditional, there's one family I know that do tacos for Christmas )

Mandy,

I don't think I've ever purchased pomegranate molasses, but I'd call Lotsa Pasta, Burgers and/or Dolls. Paul's Fruit Market might be another place.

Regarding the sweet potatoes. I'm not a big fan of the sugary, sweet, marshmellow thing so, I was flipping through my cookbooks to see if I could find any less-sugary recipes for you. I found one that's interesting. It's from a cookbook my great-grandmother from South Carolina (Willie Bell) gave to my mother when she was first married. The "Home Comfort Cookbook" published in 1938. Looks pretty simple. Still sweet, but the apples might be a good combo with the sweet potatoes. Here's the recipe. Although it's not called for in the ingredients, I'd probably add butter to the mix.

Sweet Potatoes and Apples
-------------------------------
2 cups apples
1-1/2 cups sweet potatoes
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
Apple water

Boil apples and sweet potatoes separately until nearly tender. Drain, combine and mash. Add remaining ingredients, using just enough apple water (about 1/2 cup) to soften and hold them together.