How To Cook Out for 60 People

I’m old now. I can wear black socks with shorts if I want. I can hike my pants up to my nipples, and dadgummit I can yell at those damn kids to GET OFF MY LAWN if I want. Yup, I’m 40.

So what did I do for my birthday? I cooked for 60 people, of course. If you’re doing the same, you’d be smart to have them bring the sides. Like that raspberry/blueberry Jello centerpiece up top. I didn’t know people still made things like that.

While your guests make themselves comfortable (and no, that’s not all of them) …

… fire up the grill. And answer at least seven people asking, “What, you got stuck cooking at your own party?”

Slap some pre-made burgers down, as many as you can fit on the grill at once. Unless you’ve got a really new and/or really expensive grill, you’ve got a hotspot. Unload the first ones done …

… and keep going on the rest.

When you’re done with the burgers, reload with brats and hot dogs.

Do a second round of everything while your mother-in-law loads everything onto a table with some paper plates and plastic forks.

And that’s it.

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I’ll be back tomorrow with an actual recipe. And now that summer’s over, and we don’t mind heating up the kitchen so much, you can expect to see “real recipes” a lot more often. I’ve got a huge list of requests to start working through. Sign up using the form to the right to make sure you get them all.

And thanks for letting me post my birthday pics and claim it’s a “How To” article.

Want more like this? For more recipes like this, that you can hold right in your hands, and write on, take notes, tear pages out if you want (Gosh, you're tough on books, aren't you?) you might be interested in How To Cook Like Your Grandmother, 2nd edition, Illustrated. Or to learn your way around the kitchen, check out Starting From Scratch: The Owner's Manual for Your Kitchen.