# Utimate stupidity - need help recreating Mexican menu



## CharlieD (Nov 20, 2007)

Last year I did this Mexican party.  It went well, thanks to many who helped me with the recipes here.   The one thing I did not do and about to shoot my self, I did not write anything down. 

I do have pretty good Idea about recipes, but not sure about quantities. So dear professionals please help me with the numbers.

Menu is very simple open taco bar for about 150 people adults and kids.

Here is quick run down:

Soft and/or hard shell tacos depends on availability  
Ground meat      
Shredded lettuce   
Bell peppers   (maybe, sliced or diced)
Tomatoes  
Red onions        
Guacamole        
Maybe some chili peppers  
Spanish rice like  
Some kind of beans, if I can find refried would be the best if not I’ll make this mixture: beans, read onion, garlic and salt all put thru food processor
Tortilla chips 
Salsa 

Anything else? I’m open for any advice on menu and for sure need help with the numbers.
The even is kosher that is why there is no dairy products.


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## CharlieD (Nov 20, 2007)

Need to keep this one on the top, because need your help really bad.


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## expatgirl (Nov 20, 2007)

Charlie, I just know that you've included them but I'm going to say it anyway----sour cream and shredded cheese are a must.  Chill---everything is going to be just fine---you can't screw up this dish--really you can't.......what a wonderful thing that you're doing........


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## Bilby (Nov 20, 2007)

Trouble is it is kosher so can't do the cheese and sour cream, not unless you use soy products which is a possibillity but I would anticipate most people would view them with mistrust.

I'm sorry Charlie that I can't help you with quantities, but I have to say that I love your thread title!


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## Yakuta (Nov 20, 2007)

Hi Charlie, I did a babyshower with a mexican menu for 60 - 65 people and I can tell you what I made.  You have Kosher restrictions so no cheese and sour cream which normally would not be fine to my palate but then again your guests are already used to it so it should be fine.  

Mango, Pineapple and Peach Salsa - I used everything fresh but canned versions would work fine.  I chopped it all superfine you can put it in a food processor and then added red onions, cilantro, jalapeno and lime juice to it.  Serve with chips of your choice

Also made an Indian Mexican version of patties with potatoes, corn, jalapeno, red pepper (finely diced), cilantro and cumin powder.  Stir it all together and make little balls, roll them in yellow cornmeal and fried them until golden brown.  

For the main course I made an Enchilada style casserole that was super easy to make.  I used flour tortillas not the corn ones.  I also prepared some chili (ground beef, beans, spices, tomatoes and cocoa powder almost like a mole sauce).  I layered the tortillas in a foil pan (just tore them and spread them in the pan) poured chili over it and repeated.  I also added cheddar cheese but you can omit it.  Just ensure you sprinkle the top with lots of freshly chopped green onions, tomatoes and black olives 

Cover and bake - One dish meal done

We also had a chicken fajita bar.  So similar to your idea but we used grilled chicken (that was pre-cooked and sliced).  Also sauteed some green and red bell peppers and red onions and mixed it all together with the chicken so it was easy to assemble.  Served sour cream, cheese and gaucamole on the side.  You can just use a fresh tomato salsa and gaucamole.  

Also had spanish rice like you plan on having

Corn bread was made by a friend.  It may be something you may want to think about.  It's easy to make a couple of pans of it and cut them up and keep them moist.  I have a recipe that I have tweaked that makes super moist corn bread.  If you like send me a PT.

Dessert was a cake so did not have to go through the trouble of making anything more.  

For drinks since we don't drink and anyway it was a baby shower there was a delicious punch.  If you feel so inclined to make it here is how I made it. 

Mango Tang Powder (from Sams Club)
Mixed with water
Add Sprite last minute

Garnish with lime slices and mint and serve

The lifesavers were the following things that I bought.  Now it may not meet Kosher requirements but I am still sharing it

- Ready made guacamole from SAMS
- Ready made shredded lettuce from SAMS
- Ready made large packs of tortilla from SAMS
- Chili was made ahead of time and frozen (used black beans instead of kidney)
- Assembling Enchilada like a casserole saves a lot of time and the end result is just as good and impressive.  No one cares if they did not get the pretty rolls of enchiladas it's all about the taste.


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## jkath (Nov 20, 2007)

Charlie, mexican food is dear to my heart!

Here's my recipe for a small bowl of basic guacamole:
 3 haas avocados, skins and seeds gone
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tsp - 4 tsp hot pepper sauce (such as Tapatio, Tabasco, Marie Sharps, etc)
pinch of salt
 Mash it somewhat, but not too much - nice to have some chunks.

Since you'll be making a lot, you may want to add diced tomatoes, which would make it more economical, for the size.


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## CharlieD (Nov 20, 2007)

tahnk you everybody for replies. Now help me with quantities, please.


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## expatgirl (Nov 20, 2007)

I apologize ---I zipped read as usual and didn't see the kosher restrictions------anyway Charlie, I would multiply and plan accordingly.  Don't open ingredients until you need  them, save receipts, and then you can return them if necessary.  Better to have enough on hand than not.  Good luck as I know that all will turn out well.


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## CharlieD (Nov 20, 2007)

Tahnks expatgirl, how are you? Are you home now? 

Simple multiplying isn't going to work here. When you cook for so many people there is compleely diferent calculations. I do like the closed bag idea though. I might have to consider that, thank you for the tip.

Anybody else is willing to pitch in, please don't be shy. i really - really need help here.


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## jpmcgrew (Nov 20, 2007)

Brother I feel for you this is tuff as I said before if its self serve your screwed.My suggestion would be 3 tacos per person plus the rice and beans.If you can a least put the meat in the tacos and then let them dress them their selves.Now as for the guac you are gonna get wiped out on that.So next its about one pound meat per ten tacos.Which adds up to 450 (if you figure 3 per person)tacos divided by 10 = to 45 pounds of meat.Figure a 1/2 cup of beans and rice x 150 =75 cups divided by 16 =4.6 gallons each go ahead and make it 5 gallons each.So for onions I figure 1 TBL per person not every body will want onions so cut that in 1/2 so 75 TBL is 9.35 cups.Tomatoes figure about a Tbl spoon or more x 150=18.75 cups.Bell Peppers what are you doing sliced or chopped but know they are not the norm for tacos but are for fajitas are the raw or are they cooked?Guac your guess is as good as mine some people will just gobble it up so I would guess some where around 1/4 you can stretch it with some diced tomatoes.
This is the best I can figure but when its self serve its tough to figure.d I would rather you get a little more input as I dont want to steer you wrong,Jackie


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## Bilby (Nov 20, 2007)

> Soft and/or hard shell tacos depends on availability
> Ground meat
> Shredded lettuce
> Bell peppers (maybe, sliced or diced)
> ...




Charlie, I can see you aren't getting very far with the quantities aspect so I'll try to help here. People can perhaps offer you an alternate view of my suggestions then, but at least it gives you a starting point.

Now I would allow a tablespoon of meat per taco, and likewise of lettuce. Now as to the other toppings, it is highly unlikely in my (limited) experience that people are going to put more than three or four extra toppings on their taco at say a couple of teaspoons each.

As to the rice and beans, allow a couple of tablespoons per person.

Generally you would only cater enough of any one dish for 3/4 of the people.  If this is a main meal, you will need to allow 3 or 4 tacos per man, 2 per woman, and 1 per child, plus some extras.  These are guides only you understand and as Expatgirl said, have some extra bits on standby, unopened.

This isn't a perfect guide but as I said, others more experienced than I can now amend my guesses.  But at least it is a starting point.


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## Bilby (Nov 20, 2007)

Oh and I work on metric measurements where a tablespoon is 20mL.


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## jpmcgrew (Nov 20, 2007)

I base my calculations on a 2 taco serving including the beans and rice so I mutiply by  1 1/2 servings some people will take 1 taco some will take 4 or more it has always balanced out for me.The problem is the self serve for that big of a group as we all know some people will take more than they can eat.
So my idea is to give them chips and salsa before hand this little trick should slow em down a little.


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## CharlieD (Nov 20, 2007)

Thank you Jackie and Bilby. Now I have at least something to work with. 

Jackie how does gallons of rice translate into pounds?


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## Bilby (Nov 20, 2007)

1/4 cup dry rice = 1 cup made rice (1 cup = 250mL)


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## CharlieD (Nov 20, 2007)

You mean to say that it quadruples during cooking? Really? Wow.

Yeah, but I still want to know how much is 5 galons of rice is?


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## Bilby (Nov 20, 2007)

CharlieD said:


> You mean to say that it quadruples during cooking? Really? Wow


Whoops! No! I should have put 1/3 cup dry rice = 1 cup of wet rice 

Typo!


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## Bilby (Nov 20, 2007)

I would need to find a convertor to help you with gallons Charlie.  For me, 4 cups is equal to one litre. One pint is 625mL or thereabouts.

Imperial measures just aren't where my brain is!


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## CharlieD (Nov 20, 2007)

Ah, okay. What time is it by you? You must be in the middle of the night?


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## Bilby (Nov 20, 2007)

No the 10am news is just coming on.


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## CharlieD (Nov 20, 2007)

Bilby said:


> I would need to find a convertor to help you with gallons Charlie. For me, 4 cups is equal to one litre. One pint is 625mL or thereabouts.
> 
> Imperial measures just aren't where my brain is!


 
Tell me about, after almost 18 years I still cannot get used to all this cups, spoons, pounds. The 1 kilo is 1 kilo simple as that.

JAckie, honey, help me out with the 5 gallons thing.


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## CharlieD (Nov 20, 2007)

So you arew 3 hours ahead of standard central time?


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## Bilby (Nov 20, 2007)

> Ah, okay. What time is it by you? You must be in the middle of the night?


 


Bilby said:


> No the 10am news is just coming on.


Oh and it is Wednesday.


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## Bilby (Nov 20, 2007)

CharlieD said:


> So you arew 3 hours ahead of standard central time?


hmm, don't know what standard central time is. I guess if it is 7am Wednesday there, then yes! Otherwise no!!


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## CharlieD (Nov 20, 2007)

Yeap it is. I thought that Australia would be like 10 hours ahead or so.

Ok, lets get back to my nuimbers. People, pleeeeease help.


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## jpmcgrew (Nov 20, 2007)

Bilby said:


> I would need to find a convertor to help you with gallons Charlie. For me, 4 cups is equal to one litre. One pint is 625mL or thereabouts.
> 
> Imperial measures just aren't where my brain is!


4 cups is 1 quart  a litre is a bit bigger.


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## Bilby (Nov 20, 2007)

Not here it isn't.  One cup = 250mL; One litre is 1000mL; 4 cups = 1L  Maybe your cups are a different size to our metric ones?


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## jpmcgrew (Nov 20, 2007)

CharlieD said:


> Tell me about, after almost 18 years I still cannot get used to all this cups, spoons, pounds. The 1 kilo is 1 kilo simple as that.
> 
> JAckie, honey, help me out with the 5 gallons thing.


Hang on give me a bit of time ,Mean while check the rice package it will tell you how much cooked rice you get from the dry rice remember it will be more after you add the extras to make it into spanish rice.
Heres the break down 16 TBL makes 1 cup,4 cups make 1 quart,4 quarts make 1 gallon


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## jpmcgrew (Nov 20, 2007)

Correction on tomatoes Tomatoes figure about a Tbl spoon or more x 450=28.125 cups I was thinking 8 TBL per cup but its 16 Tbl per cup.16 cups equals 1 gallon.So you have 1 gallon plus 12 cups which works out to 1 and 3/4s gallons so I would make 2 gallons to be safe.Any one that can correct my fractions please do.


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## jpmcgrew (Nov 20, 2007)

Come on people I know we have have people that cater here, a taco bar at a wedding is not that that unusual so give it up.


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## CharlieD (Nov 20, 2007)

Thank you Jackie.


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## Bilby (Nov 20, 2007)

jpmcgrew said:


> Come on people I know we have have people that cater here, a taco bar at a wedding is not that that unusual so give it up.


Really?? Culture thing again. That's the thing about DC.  I've been finding out so much on the differences in US vs Aust culture, amongst others.


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## Hoot (Nov 21, 2007)

I have no clue how to proceed for cooking for a crowd. A quick google search turned up the following ( I am sure there are many more.)
The following is a website that may give you some insight on amounts.
Quantity Tex Mex and Fresh Salsa-- Ellen's Kitchen- Big Pots

The next one is about conversions.
Free Food Recipe Metric Conversion Tables and Measurements Charts

This one is about the  #10 size can.
Online Conversion - # 10 can

I hope this will get you started.  Good Luck!
I hope these links do not violate proper protocol here..
If so, I apologize.


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## CharlieD (Nov 21, 2007)

Thank you Hoot, I'll check into it right now.


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## CharlieD (Nov 21, 2007)

Interesting site. Thank you.


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## GotGarlic (Nov 21, 2007)

CharlieD said:


> So you arew 3 hours ahead of standard central time?



Hi, Charlie. There are some Australians and New Zealanders on a mailing list I'm on, so I put some clocks with various times on my PC desktop. Right now, it's 10:48 a.m. on the East Coast of the U.S., so it's 9:48 a.m. Central Time where you are; it's 2:48 a.m. Thursday morning in Sydney, Australia. They're 10 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time in London, which is 6 hours ahead of me (7 ahead of you), so Australia is 17 hours ahead of you. Weird, huh?


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## CharlieD (Nov 21, 2007)

It's not weird. What's weird was that she said that we were only 3 hours a part ...


But I still need sugestions on my menu, please.


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## jpmcgrew (Nov 21, 2007)

CharlieD said:


> Interesting site. Thank you.


You may want to rethink my 1# meat per 10 tacos.The Ellen site is talking 2# per 14 Tacos.Im not what she wants for you to do with the refried beans.


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## CharlieD (Nov 21, 2007)

What do you mean?


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## suziquzie (Nov 21, 2007)

Boy I hate to add to the confusion but how much meat you get out of a pound of raw hamburger is going to differ with what % fat your meat has. I use 90% lean so I don't lose much, and 7 tacos / pounds sounds about right. But if you go with a 75% lean you are going to lose more uhhhhh.... bulk?

Shutting up now.


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## Mylegsbig (Nov 21, 2007)

lol @ maybe some chile peppers


come on!


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## CharlieD (Nov 21, 2007)

Keep talking. I think I'm just going to order 60 lbs of meat. and maybe get everything else by box from comercial supplier


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## suziquzie (Nov 21, 2007)

There ya go. And if someone didn't get enough to eat, well they didn't need that 4th taco anyway, and can stop at Taco Bell on the way home!!!


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## jpmcgrew (Nov 21, 2007)

CharlieD said:


> Keep talking. I think I'm just going to order 60 lbs of meat. and maybe get everything else by box from comercial supplier


That sounds better.Better safe than sorry.If theres any meat left over take it home and freeze for tacos for later at home.


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## CharlieD (Nov 21, 2007)

I doubt they will let me. The event is put out by boys school, there are like 40 teenage boys living in the dorm, I would guess if there is anything left, providing it is good, they will have it for breakfast.


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## VeraBlue (Nov 21, 2007)

The easiest thing you can do is find a recipe for 10 people, and then increase it, exponentially.  Figure on two tacos per person.

There are brands of soy cheese and soy sour cream....


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## CharlieD (Nov 21, 2007)

Thanks Vera. As far as fake cheese stuff I hate it. It tastes yuky.


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## Bilby (Nov 22, 2007)

CharlieD said:


> It's not weird. What's weird was that she said that we were only 3 hours a part ...


Well when you asked me that's what the time was!  It is now 2pm on Thursday 22 Nov. (West Aust Daylight Savings Time)


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## CharlieD (Dec 11, 2007)

Thank you to everybody who helped. Event went great. I had plenty of help some good some not so good, but in the end everybody were very happy.

I made 40 lbs of ground meat, which I think 30 lbs would have been just enough, and 3 full pans of (my version) of Spanish rice. About 12 lbs of uncooked rice. Strangely nobody ate any beans, even though I thought they were great, even I liked them and normally I do not eat beans. I think people were not sure what it was. One thing, just like last time, I had a helper with guacamole, and it got ruined, everybody ate anyway. It is amazing how much people like guacamole.
We only had hard corn tacos and I wish the organizers listen to me and got at least some soft tacos. Some people skip the tacos and ate meat with rice and veggies.
Anyway thank you again.


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## auntdot (Dec 11, 2007)

Charlie just found this thread.

Recently went to a buffet taco bar with soft flour tortillas.  Iw was catered by a local Tex-Mex place.  Seems to me the soft tortillas worked better than the preformed hard corn ones.

I think people probably put less meat in them.  But there were large bowls of fillings.  And beans (don't folks in MN know about frijoles?) that many folks put on their tacos.  

They too had Spanish rice.  And then there were tortilla chips and plenty of dip, That had the way of filling up the troops without them going back for more meat, etc.

Glad it all went so well.  But I still do not understand no takers for the frijoles.

Take care.


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## *amy* (Dec 11, 2007)

CharlieD said:


> Last year I did this Mexican party. It went well, thanks to many who helped me with the recipes here.  The one thing I did not do and about to shoot my self, I did not write anything down.
> 
> I do have pretty good Idea about recipes, but not sure about quantities. So dear professionals please help me with the numbers.
> 
> ...


 
Charlie, I went back and did a search under "Mexican" threads & found your rice thread:

http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/f21/mexican-rice-19635.html

Do you recall if you started any threads around that time? Maybe you can find the quantities for the rest of the meal/menu. Just a thought.

Here's a link for recipes & quantities for cooking for a crowd:
50 Plus Cookbook -- Cooking for a Crowd

Check out the Mexican Lasagna, Spanish Rice, etc.


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## CharlieD (Dec 11, 2007)

There was no quantities there. That is why I'm writing everything down now. Thanks.


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