Feeding the masses

I'm not talking about feeding hoards of teens this time around, although this would work well for that, too.

L's sister and 3 kids were here for a little over a week and each year it seems they spend more and more time at our house as opposed to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Yet, their schedule is very flexible and dependent upon the needs and desires of the grandparents, obviously. So, one day I was faced with the assumption I'd be feeding some or all of them dinner, oppressive heat, inefficient AC in the front part of the downstairs and no AC (and minimal air circulation) in the kitchen, yet the threat of thunderstorms (minimizing my desire to cook out).

So, I tossed two roasts into the crock pot around 11 pm the night before (after trimming as much fat off them as I could...they were frozen solid when I put them in) along with a bottle of bbq sauce, cooked on low all night. Removed the meat in the morning and let cool a little so I could dig through it....cut it in smaller chuncks (about 4" or so) and picked out as much of the fat pieces as I could. REturned the meat to the crockpot. Kept it on low. Took the crock pot to the deck and plugged it in (a garage would work as well and I've used our front porch when it's been raining--I think I'm the only one here w/o a garage that would work well). By dinner time, voila! bbq shredded beef.

For sides, I mixed frozen (although fresh works just as well) whole green beans with olive oil, garlic, and kosher salt in a disposable aluminim pan, covered and stuck it all on the grill along with a dozen potatoes that I'd chopped, seasoned, mixed with oil, popped into a similar coverd pan. That stuff just needs to cook, so if it had rained, no back and forth tending was required...just put it on and take it off about 30 or so minutes later (you can pre-cook the potatoes in the microwave it you want to).

We put some grapes and melon slices on the table during the meal and told the kids that a fancy bowl of cut up fruit (gonna-rot peaches with blueberries and sliced gonna-rot strawberries) was desert, and we were done.

By the way, I believe for those of us without a cow in the freezer, that roasts are BOGO this week at Kroger.

Oh, and I have enough meat left frozen for 1.5 meals (sandwiches and potato topping?) and enough for lunches or a meal with only part of my family in the fridge--the cousins didn't eat too much because they'd had a late lunch out earlier.