Quick, cheap and easy

[jtur88]

Get a big roasting pan. Fill it with cut up unpeeled (but scrubbed) potatoes, skinned onions, carrots, celery, and a nice beef or pork roast, and season it with lots of fresh-ground black pepper. Put it in the oven at about 350, and go back in the kitchen after 2 or 3 hours, take it out, and set it in the middle of the table on a hotpad. Give every body a fork, a knife and a plate.

Look in the freezer chest of your supermarket for 10-pound bags of frozen leg quarters, usually about 60c a pound. Turn on your broiler, and start assembly-lining them through. Or just pile them all in the big roaster (above), and roast the whole bunch of them. Buy buckets of deli coleslaw and potato salad, and a bunch of fresh-baked French breads.

If you have a pressure cooker, put in a couple pounds of dried red or black beans, along with a lot of onions, carrots, green peppers, some cut up polish sausage, and fill it with water. It'll take less than an hour. Make a big pot of white rice to go with it, while the pressure cooker is sputtering. Everything ready in an hour.

Buy 5 or 6 dozen ears of sweet corn and a few pounds of fresh red tomatoes. Corn cooks a lot faster than most people think, just a couple of minutes at a full boil. Fill an empty can with melted butter for everyone to dip their corn into, and make them eat it outdoors. Make a bunch of hot dogs on the side if you want.

[jasper12]

I would get a supply of paper plates, plastic silverware, plastic cups. You don't want to be doing dishes for every meal for a large crowd. Paper bowls, plastic bowls too. And a large supply of toilet paper, and paper towels. When all my kids are home, it is like that stuff goes quick.